Lovely to hear from you, and great question. The short answer is that plenty of people do exactly this, so you’re in good company.
A lot depends on how close the PhD is to your day job. One of the most common scenarios is a workplace PhD that aligns with what you’re already doing. Lots of people take research assistant jobs and do a PhD alongside, often on a related topic with the same team, and that allows for a fair bit of blurring and blending of time. The job feeds the PhD and the PhD feeds the job, and the line between the two gets usefully fuzzy. If your job is completely unrelated to the PhD, it’s still very doable, but the two stay separate and you need a lot more discipline, because the study happens in evenings, weekends and annual leave rather than woven into your working week.
Either way, most universities offer part-time registration (and assuming your job can also be part-time), usually over five to six years. If the PhD you’ve spotted is advertised as full-time, it’s worth asking the supervisor whether they’d consider a part-time student. Many will, and it costs nothing to ask. A supportive employer helps enormously too, so it’s worth finding out early what study leave or flexibility might be on offer.
The other route to look at, depending on your role, is a funded fellowship. NIHR Doctoral Fellowships (and similar schemes from charities like Alzheimer’s Society) pay your salary while you do the PhD, so rather than giving up work to study, the fellowship becomes your job. They can also be done part-time. If you’re in a clinical or practice role, this is often the best option of all.
Some things on our website that should help:
Our PhD Essentials podcast playlist, a collection of episodes for anyone starting out or weighing up a PhD:
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/phd-essentials-podcast-playlist/
A podcast on managing a clinical career and research side by side, with people who’ve done it:
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/managing-a-clinical-and-researcher-career/
A discussion on balancing research with family and life outside work, with lots of practical tips:
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/managing-family-life-and-research-career/
Our funding pages, where you can filter for PhD studentships and fellowships, including part-time friendly schemes:
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/funding/phd-studentship-dementia-research/
And our careers section, which includes stories from researchers who came to their PhD later or alongside other work:
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/phd-blogs
If you’d like to talk it through, or if you want a second opinion on the PhD you’ve spotted, just let me know. Happy to help, or introduce you to some of my colleagues.
Best wishes,
Adam
