
Ask HN: Is it possible to get a PhD in computer science remotely - yangikan
I have a masters degree and lot of good publications in top conferences. But, I currently work at a research lab and can&#x27;t do a phd fulltime. Is it possible to do a part time PhD remotely? Few weeks of physically attending the university a year is okay. And since it is remote, any where in the world is okay as long it is a good university.
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muursh
The university of York in the UK supports distance learning Computer Science
PhDs. You're required to be onsite a few weeks a year but it's mainly remote.

[https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/postgraduate/research-
degrees/phd/](https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/postgraduate/research-degrees/phd/)

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yangikan
Thank you. UK seems to be a nice destination. English speaking, as well as low
fees.

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pxhb
(Note that my experience is with US PhD process)

I have not heard of someone doing a PhD remotely from day one. It is
definitely not unheard of to be mostly remote once you have mad some progress
with you PhD. This can occur for example once you are writing your thesis, or
due to an unexpected life event (such as your partner is starting a new job in
a different state). Much like everything else with grad school, your
experience will heavily depend on your advisor.

As for part-time, this is a little more murky. Most advisors will not want to
fund (tuition and stipend) someone doing PhD part time, due to the very likely
scenario of your PhD taking a much longer time to complete. It is not uncommon
to work part time while doing a PhD though (such as a few hours of
contracting/consulting).

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abcc8
While it is likely possible to do the work required for a PhD remotely, I am
unsure that an advisor would wish to mentor a remote PhD student. Finding an
advisor willing to work with you (as well as school willing to admit you
remotely) are likely to be the biggest barriers to such an endeavor.

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jamessb
Yes.

It is definitely possible to do a PhD part-time: many universities offer part-
time PhD programs, and I know people who have done this.

Doing it part-time _and remotely_ is harder: even if a university allows this,
an individual academic might (quite-understandably) not want to supervise a
student on this basis.

I do know of one person who successfully completed a PhD at London South Bank
University whilst living in Canada: he traveled to London a few times for
physical meetings with his supervisor, and had more frequent electronic
communications with them. He also had the advantage that the subject of this
thesis was related to what he was doing in his job.

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codedrome
Isn't teaching or mentoring others a requirement for a PhD? It has
traditionally been seen as a route into university employment at the
lecturer/researcher/professor level. It is a lot more than just the next
qualification up from a bachelors or masters degree.

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keiferski
Many PhD programs in Europe are thesis-only; i.e. you don't have any classes.
Typically this is because you need a master's to apply in the first place.

No classes means that you only need to be around to meet with your advisor
occasionally.

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p1esk
If you're working as a researcher already, and have published in top
conferences, why do you need a phd? Do you want to work as a professor?

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shoo
to flip it around: what's stopping you ditching the job and doing a phd
fulltime? is it money? if so, is it possible that your employer or another or
another org would be interested in sponsoring a phd on some topic they could
potentially apply?

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alt_f4
probably not, because the point of the PhD is to thoroughly exploit you for a
few years, for almost free, to generate content and do chores for your
professor and you can't really do that as well when the student isn't around.

~~~
shoo
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