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I followed the steps to PhD failure andcame out with a doctorateBreaking the rules didn’t stop Jessica Sage from completing her degree

September 1 2015

Times Higher Education’s recent “10 steps to PhD failure(https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/ten-steps-to-phd-failure?page=0%2C0)” article has, unsurprisingly, caused plenty of discussion. While it has been taken bysome as tongue-in-cheek, anyone who’s worked on class, gender or race knows that “ha ha, justkidding” is another way in which structural marginalisation is inscribed.

This post isn’t a detailed refutation of the rules raised (for a comprehensive response see MelonieFullick's Twitter account (https://twitter.com/qui_oui/status/637614892179169288)), andneither is it an attempt to address the classism and privilege that I think characterise some of thepoints raised. Rather, it’s a reflection on the ways that I’ve broken these supposed rules and the

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consequences of pretending, no matter how humorously, that a PhD can be gained or failed by apaint-by-numbers formula.

Having developed an approach to literature during my undergraduate degree (1999-2002) that wasabsolutely founded in the excellent teaching I received at the University of Reading, I was delightedto move back to the area a few years later to take a master’s in children’s literature. I developedprofessional relationships that made Reading my only choice for my terminal degree (number 1 onthe list of ways to fail is “stay at the same university”).

My certainty in my research approach and place of study was such that funding was not the decidingcondition for my pursuit of it (number 2 on the list is “do an unfunded PhD”). I studied part time,worked 20 hours a week, and had the privilege of a partner who cheered me on and papered thecracks between precarious academic contracts. It was a fabulous, infuriating, beneficial, difficult andexciting four and a half years and I would heartily recommend it to anyone.

Funding my own work meant that I could indulge my curiosity, resulting in a shift of topic in yeartwo that opened up a whole new area of study to me (breaking rules 7, “cover everything”, and4, “expect people to hold your hand”) when my supervisor suggested the change. Working alongsidemy degree gave me a track record of skills in student recruitment, disability mentoring, universityadministration, teaching, continuing education, and event management, all of which remain on myCV.

None of this is to say that I have found the magic formula for a PhD – in fact quite the opposite. Ifanyone makes the mistake of asking me for pre-doctoral advice I have plenty, but at no stage has itever occurred to me that I could prevent them from not completing their thesis.

In my experience, humanities doctoral researchers are more than aware of the concern of notcompleting, of supervisor problems and of the litany of obstacles that will face them post-viva butthese are issues that should also be the responsibility of graduate school management. Myoverriding sense is that what PhD researchers need to succeed in their doctoral work is the space,resources and encouragement to explore their thinking.

What I don’t need and have never needed is another construction of the “us and them” structurethat permits casualised labour (https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/were-worth-more-casual-teaching-staff-fight-back), GTA studentships and the post-PhD jobmarket.

Jessica Sage is the founder of We the Humanities(https://wethehumanities.wordpress.com/)and a PhD graduate of the University ofReading, where she has also worked as a sessional lecturer. Her next post is aresearch associateship at Seven Stories, (http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/)theNational Centre for Children’s Books, and Newcastle University.

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CHRISTOPHER SATTERLEY (/USERS/CSATTERLEY1) | 02 SEP 2015 15:03PM

I found the 10 steps to PhD failure article also a bit bemusing. For me it didn't start off well as No 1 proudly stated'stay at the same University' as a route to failure. Huge numbers of people stay at their original University andmanage to successfully complete a PhD, some even go on to successful academic careers.

In Science this is often par for the course and, as someone who did change University to do their PhD (in chemistry),I found that I was a) a little bit unusual in my area for having done it (especially as I wasn't 'trading up' to Oxbridge).Also, I think changing University presents its own issues, in that you need to spend the first few months getting toknow the new place and building new social networks (quite hard in an environment that is geared to largely cater forthe social needs of undergraduates only), this is especially difficult when you are trying to break into a departmentalsocial group that has built up from undergraduate days. This is not to say that the experience wasn't very rewarding(it was) but it is 'swings and roundabouts' really.

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Eminent sociologist has recycled 90,000 words ofmaterial across a dozen books, claims paper

Kevin Haggerty and Aaron Doyle offertips on making postgraduate study even tougher (whichstudents could also use to avoid pitfalls if they prefer)

10 steps to PhD failure (/features/ten-steps-to-phd-failure)