PhD Extension

Here’s some advice from our Head of HR, Laura Weihl.

I don’t know of any structural solutions to this but from what I’ve seen I would recommend:

Asking your supervisor for additional funding directly (I mean it, directly!)
Figure out if you can take on more teaching tasks and get paid by the department directly
Try getting hired as a research assistant after the PhD employment runs out
Consider moving to part-time (e.g. 50%), then the deadline for thesis submission is postponed automatically, but that’s clearly also a matter of money, i.e. can you afford to get paid only half the salary? Here the question is also, is the focus on getting the PhD extended or on getting extra money?
It is possible (theoretically) to start a postdoc before handing in your PhD thesis if you can come up with a concrete plan to finish the thesis and defence within “reasonable” time. You might need a good recommendation from your PhD supervisor to get a position.
I think some people are still trying to apply for a “COVID extension”, i.e. if you can specifically demonstrate how COVID has impacted your work and delayed your progress, your department might have some mercy on you 😄 Don’t know how achievable this is the “further we get away” from that whole nightmare. You would have to give specific examples of how it delayed your progress. I had a PhD colleague in gaming, he literally couldn’t do his surveys because he needed to watch his survey participants play video games while sitting next to them which wasn’t according to health and safety at the time.
It’s bonus season 🙂 for extra-ordinary work or achievements you can apply for one-off bonuses, you should talk to your union representative.
Contact PhD support/ PhD school as soon as possible, and try to speak with them in person. They are usually super supportive and helpful. 🙂