Studying part time: Balancing education and life

This episode is part one of two looking at the difference between studying full time and part time. This week I spoke to Lizzie who's studying for a PhD, part time. We discuss her journey so far, why coming back to education later in life played a part in why she chose part time, and how she balances her studies with her day to day responsibilities

Participants

In order of first appearance:

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ
• Lizzie Hughes - theatre practitioner, private tutor and part-time PhD researcher

Transcript

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome to Future You, the podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ. I'm your host, Emily Slade and this episode is part one of two looking at the difference between studying full time and part time.

This week I spoke to Lizzie who's studying for a PhD, part time. We discuss her journey so far, why coming back to education later in life played in a part in why she chose part time, and how she balances her studies with her day to day responsibilities.  

Lizzie Hughes: Hi, my name is Lizzie Hughes, sometimes known as Lizzie Conrad Hughes, I am many things I am a theatre practitioner. I am a private tutor. And I am also a part time PhD researcher. At the moment, my postgraduate journey has been a part time one, I'm currently in the sick of a total of eight possible years in my institution, because their idea of part time is that it's literally double, full time. And that full time is three to four years. So part time is six to eight. So that's me, I kind of got into it into research assets through the practice through theatre practice, because I started out as an actor, I've done a bit of everything in theatre, I've done writing, directing, teaching, producing. And I've always been, I've always been interested sort of attracted to Shakespeare, because I was in an English graduate and an English teacher before I was an actor. And I was working with a group of actors who also said, You should teach Shakespeare for actors to which I said, get out, no one's, you know, a what do I know and beat me up. But anyway, I did start doing that. And that made me want to do more research. And then I read a book that was all about performing the the modern technique of performing Shakespeare from cues only, and cue parts. And that almost literally made my head explode. I was like, this is brilliant, this is amazing. I want to do this. And so that became some sort of that became practice, it was an experimental practice. And that led to discoveries. And that led to more practice. And that led to more reading, and in the read, and so because there's not an awful lot has been written about the practice of performing Shakespeare and other Renaissance writers from Kings only. And I started reading, extremely learned and extremely, just really, really respect worthy books on this that had been written. But I was reading it and going, that doesn't happen, or will not in my experience, or no, actually, when that happens on stage, this happens, it's not that. And I was looking at these wonderfully authoritative books going, Oh, I disagree with stuff. And this is stuff that no one else is disagreeing with. And so I thought, well, when it got quite exciting, and a friend of mine suggested I do a doctorate. And it was quite difficult to find an institution that would take me because I'm too academic, for most drama departments. I'm going to draw Murray for most Shakespeare departments, I actually started out doing a doctorate at one institution, which didn't work out with that story there. But it did give me the confidence that I had something interesting that I wanted to pursue further. And that that led me to approach the institution I'm currently at.

Emily Slade: That's such a commitment, an eight year course, how on earth did you come to that decision? Was it a big decision? You know, if you're happy to talk about it, what's your sort of life like? And how did you decide how you were going to be able to fit this in for that length of time?

Lizzie Hughes: To be honest, that thinking about doing eight years, kind of freaked me out. So I then bit think about it, I am someone that tends to look at, well, what's the next thing I have to do? So it just becomes a journey of of steps, if you like, is like so first, I've got to do this. And then I've got to do that. And it's gradually gradually gradually working it up. It did kind of freak me out that my, my very first lead supervisor had only recently returned to work from having a baby. And I thought, well, by the time I finish this, this kid's gonna be like, eight, nine years old. And I was like, no, no, I can't imagine that. I think I just said to myself, well, if things happen in between times, we'll just deal with them as they come along. I mean, I've got 20/30 years of you know, running my own life, running various kinds of career and work and working in theater, and that was kind of my training. And that's what I brought into working on the doctorate my personal decision was that I was going to do an hour every day. except Sundays I gave myself Sundays apart, my dad works inevitably. And so doing an hour a day, it sort of gave me a sort of a drip feed if you like. And I can usually find an hour a day in between tutoring life stuff, you know, just just family commitments and and things to do with with running a Shakespeare company. There was there was usually a day I have a run my life on, like reminders on my phone, and PhD hour is one of my recurring reminders every every day. That's an, that's what I chose to do. And every day there was like, right, I'm going to finish reading that book, I'm going to write up those notes, I'm going to do more work sorting out this chapter plan, you know, I would, I would usually make sure I've finished each day with and the next thing to do is, so that the energy was easy to pick up the next day.

Emily Slade: That's a really good system. That's, that's really good. So it's very much a sort of take each day as it comes. And you're literally just almost making it bite sized. Was there a reason you wanted part time over full time? You know, full time would have meant, what sort of four years? So still not quick, but quicker? And you sort of could have sped through it? Why did you specifically choose the part time route?

Lizzie Hughes: Okay, well, there's a few reasons. One, I had a life. And I have pupils, and you know, a commitment and I need to make a living. I'm also I mean, when I, when I started the doctorate, I think I actually started with either my 49th, or my 50th birthday, when I started this. So I'm pushing towards 56 at the moment, and I didn't feel the need to go into full-time student life, because I did that I did that in the 80s and 90s. So I didn't feel that I needed to go through that process in my life, again, and it and plus, if I'd have gone into full time, it would have meant, you know, moving to Stratford, because my my institution that I met is based in Stratford on Avon. And I wasn't in a place where that was what I wanted to do, you know, I've got a husband and elderly parents and stuff. And they're all in the south of England. Plus, I had, I had the Theatre Company, which was a sort of ongoing commitment. So, so for one thing, there was a lot of life that I couldn't just put down, there was a financial aspect, to, you know, making a living paying my bills, and then paying for the doctorate because it, it cost less to do part time study. I'm basically a distance learner. So it's sort of say, get off on that. But I mean, the other side of it was, I crashed back into, in what I call academia, I know they don't like that word. But I could have crashed back into into study after I mean, I left university for the last time in 1992. And I've been out in the world working and living and training and doing stuff. And I, I felt I needed part time, I've been really grateful for having the extra time actually, because I've been learning how to do this at the same time as doing it. I'm not gone straight. I think if you go straight from a first degree or a Masters into a Doctorate, then you're in the groove, you know what you're doing, you know how it's done, you know what to expect. And I came into it as a theater professional. Who was like, I know how to do that. I don't know how to do this. And I've had to, you know, like I said, Yeah, I've had to learn how to do that as I went along. And me personally, I've been thoroughly grateful for the extra time to kind of digest stuff, and and sort of learn from it as I've gone along. I didn't consider once or twice I did consider, you know, shall I just ditch the rest of my life for a year and invest in going full time? And I thought about it. And I thought, Well, for me, I don't think that's going to be a good choice. I feel like I would just get like mental indigestion. You know, I can't see me spending, you know, four or five hours a day on this. And it being any better than than it's going at the moment. In fact, for me, I felt like it would be worse because I needed I felt like I needed the digestion time. That was That was why so it's twofold, I suppose to my life.

Emily Slade: Yeah, no, that makes complete sense. You've talked a bit about how you sort of navigate this how you integrate it into your life, it's very much an hour a day you you you sort of take a bite sized pieces. What support do you have available around you? Does your institution offer you support as a part time learner? Do you feel especially as a distance part time learner? Do you feel supported? What support do you have access to?

Lizzie Hughes: Well, there's probably more support than I actually take. take use of I mean, I have a lead supervisor and a second supervisor. And I have an hours meeting online these days. With every two months, if I will full time it would be every month, but we do every two months called part time. And that keeps me on top I get it that keeps me ticking, if you know what I mean, there's always a focus of, and I've got to make sure that I've got this bit of writing done for them for that. And they get they give good feedback. It's not always what you want to hear, that's life. But I very much trust their input in their direction. As you know, they're the full time academics, they know this game, I don't, I'm still learning it. So when they say it needs to be done like this, not like that. I'm like, wow, but then I do it. If it basically. We are also given a mentor in inverted commas. And our mentor is the person that we talked to about, I suppose anything that's not to do with academics. So you talk to your supervisors about the academics stuff, the research, you talk to your mentor about anything else, that you, you talk to your mentor about your supervisors, if you need to, you talk about anything else that's going on, or if you're struggling, or if you need, you know, if you need help, sort of organising yourself or you're in trouble. So you go to your mentor about other things. That's really all that I've used now that the university does offer sort of wellness and support and counseling. And there's also the library offer things like this. And, you know, these are new books that we've got in we're having, you know, come and have coffee and listen to someone talk about, you know, how to use this research program. So that's on offer. Musta missed, I haven't used it. The Masters and the doctorate students are, there's a, there's a seminar every, every week, and somebody presents a paper, and everybody uses that gives feedback. And I must admit, I've kind of slipped out of that group now after six years. But that was a sort of group sort of feedback thing as well. And as part of that they run, they offer sort of skill sessions on like, how do you how to write your CV and how to do this, and how to get into conferences, and all these sorts of things that, you know, again, people want to know, trying to think Well, seeing diversity offers, but it's, I mean, I'm not officially a distant learner. They know that I am one, but that's not my classification. Okay. Which I know that sounds like I did, I did look into sort of, you know, actually becoming a distance learner, but I was advised against it. Because that makes life there's this sort of complex, there's complicated things about that, that which come into play. It's, it's through that through my institution, and it was just like, just just don't bother just keep just keep doing the way you the way things you are, you are and I'm like, okay, great, fine, I'll do that perfect. Because frankly, I locked locked down was when I really sort of went right this is when I'm, this is where I'm just gonna stay in I'm stay in London, and I'm working because I can't commute to, to Stratford for seminars or to use the library anymore. So it was reading online, and it was buying cheap copies of the books, rather than using the money to use it as a train fare to go up to, you know, distract with and actually suited me a lot better.

Emily Slade: Yeah, so a perfect, every time you mentioned it, it blows my mind. How, how are you personally, feeling. But when you say, you know, you've been on this journey for six years, you and you can look back at everything you've achieved everything you're working towards how I know you're very much taking it day by day. But do you ever look at the bigger picture? And how does that make you feel?

Lizzie Hughes: Or which bigger picture? We're looking back? Are we looking forward?

Emily Slade: I mean, I've ever done anything consistently for six years in my life, you know? It's crazy to me,

Lizzie Hughes: Actually, apart from this, I'm not entirely sure I have either. I think the thing is, I just, I wanted to do this. I mean, if you're thinking of taking on a Doctorate, if it's not something that really burns in your soul, don't do it. Because because it's it's one of the best bits of advice I got before I started was from my best friend who also she finished a creative writing part time Doctorate a few years after I started this one, and she said, you know, you're going it's the thing you're going to wake up thinking about every day until you finish it. So don't do it unless it's on that level. And basically, it is on that level. And I am I find it so interesting. And I found it so exciting. And there are times I find it's so frost. Like, it's, I'm trying to avoid using the word passion. Because this is something about which I am very passionate. And I wanted to find that with a practice basis. And I wanted to find a way to get it to a level where it could be more acknowledged, more respected. And to me, going, going through a doctorate was was the way to do that. Because if I'm really really lucky, cross your fingers and crossed the cross your toes, I I'm, I really hope that my Doctorate will become an actual book. And we'll go out into the world of research and the the world of practice and has a potential to, to change things to to bring new information to people that you know. And that is something which in my in my deep secret heart of hearts, I am so excited and so terrified of and really want to happen, and then what the hide under the table, think about it. So I think I think it's that it's just I mean, when I when I first did, you know my first bit of Q based Shakespeare performance, it was a complete mess and an absolute thrilled, and it just made me go, this is it. This is me, I am sticking my flag in this for not necessarily for the rest of my life. But this is this is the thing that I think it's got something no one else currently is interested in it. And I think that's a shame. So I'm going to pursue this. And I'm lucky because I'm an actor, and all my friends are actors, and they're all also God bless them mad. And they will they will, you know, a lot of them want to be part of it. And so it's yeah, it's I think it's that it it's a it's borderline and obsession, and in some respects, the doctorate is a good channel for it. Because it's it's making, it's really made me go through not just be the passionate obsessed practitioner, but also stand outside of it and look at the history and look at, you know, the rationale and how all of the things that that you know that it opens up windows on. And, and that's been interesting, because that has inevitably affected the practice, independent of the Doctorate and that again, and then the practice feeds back into the Doctorate. So it's the kind of mutually between each other. And, yeah, it's a bit like when I got into acting, I said to myself, I'm going to do this until or unless there is something that I want to do more. And I think I feel the same about this. It's like, I want to do this until or unless there is something that comes up that I want to do more than Yeah, and that that's it. For me. That's how it works for me. And I'm not, it may not I mean, I can only and will only ever speak for myself. This is my journey, my truth and my story, I suppose.

Emily Slade: Fantastic. So you briefly mentioned advice you would give to anyone currently considering this, you have to desk like you have to know that this will consume your life, you have to want it more than anything.

Lizzie Hughes: Yeah, this is the thing you're going to wake up because this is the advice I got, which I would pass on it, you're going to wake up thinking about it every day until you're done with it. So actually, one little bit of advice I got tagged on to that was so don't let them talk you into anything you're not interested in. Because that can that can happen is that somebody you could go into with with an idea about this as well. And then you could you could come up again, you could meet somebody goes, Yes, that's really fascinating. But what if it was like this, and you kind of go well, that's not really the thing. So stick to your guns. I think in that respect, yeah.

Emily Slade: Yeah. No, that's fantastic advice.

Lizzie Hughes: The other advice I would give to someone is don't be afraid to ask questions, ask questions, ask questions all the time. Especially if you're if you're like me, and you're coming in back into studying, there's a huge assumption culture that you just, you know, this, there's a bunch of stuff that you know, and I keep falling over things that I don't know. And I kind of wish that I'd asked more questions when I started. So ask question. One of the most valuable things that I've discovered is I was very lucky going into this because like I said, my best friend had just done a doctorate. So she gave me a she could sort of reflect on the process to me what was Coming. I have two very good friends who are also going through part time sort of distance learning doctorates at the moment. And it is really good to have someone else who's going through what you're going through. Because you can, you can share, like frustrations surprises, you can ask each other questions. And that's really good. It's just good to know that it's not just you, you know. So do make friends and talk to people, because it's really helpful.

Emily Slade: Perfect. And then yeah, if you'd like to plug away.

Lizzie Hughes: Okay, so, in my practice, in my theater practice life, I'm artistic director for shakes in Shakespeare. And we are currently the only UK based theatre company who perform and teach the performance of Shakespeare and contemporary writers run cues only. This means that our actors only receive their lines to speak or to act. And they get a very brief cue. It's approximately four syllables. They they aren't told anything else, only their part. And we do not rehearse together as a company before performing. The first time everybody hears all their lines is in first performance in front of the audience. This is a radical technique. It's a modern take on what was believed to be the original process of Shakespeare's own time. That's why we do it. You can find us all over social media. Look for Shakespeare and Shakespeare will turn up on most platforms. We are also performing we perform online every every four weeks we do a play either by Shakespeare or contemporary writer, live online. And it's always an adventure we always find out something new. If you happen to be in the north of England. We will be performing Shakespeare in North Playhouse in August. We're doing two plays as you like it and Antony Cleopatra for three days. And I've just forgotten the dates, but we're at Shakespeare North Playhouse. So yeah, come and find us there.

Emily Slade: Thank you so much for your time today.

Lizzie Hughes: It's been an absolute pleasure. And it's it's been really interesting for me to reflect on this journey and think about what I've done and why. So I thank you for the opportunity. And good luck everybody out there.

Emily Slade: Thanks to Lizzie for her time. Make sure you give us a follow wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're enjoying Future You, you can head to iTunes and leave us a review. If you want to get in touch you can email at podcast@prospects.ac.uk or find us on Instagram and TikTok, all the links are in the description. Thanks very much for listening and we'll see you next time.

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

Find out more

• Listen to Studying full time: strategies and success.
• Read about working while studying.
• Learn about PhD study.
• Take a look at Shake-Scene Shakespeare.