While PhD, the highest educational qualification, gives you all the right to call yourself a “doctor”, it also involves experiencing a journey that is not a cakewalk. Experiencing a doctoral journey is the most important phase in an individual’s life that helps in character as well as career building. It surely is a difficult journey but a journey worth all the hard work.

Unfortunately, in many cases, things don’t go smooth with a PhD student. Many PhDs experience doubts, setbacks, some even fail to the extent that they refrain from it. Previous studies on the experience of a doctoral candidate have suggested that the students face many difficulties during their studies which are sufficient to dishevel their doctoral research.

But what are those struggles or challenges that the PhD students face? A thorough research online leads us to summarize a few common struggles that every PhD student faces. Let us have a look at those challenges below and how IIIT Delhi as a university supports its PhD students to make their doctoral journey a pleasant one:-

  1. Time Management– Appropriate time management is one of the factors that play an important role in making a PhD student’s experience better. Many students feel that PhD is taking their entire time and disrupting their social life. But what the students need to do is prioritize the tasks and then focus on completing those tasks. This will help them to allot quality time to their research and thesis while maintaining a good work-life balance. At IIIT Delhi we ensure that our students are able to manage their time efficiently. Thus, preference is given to the PhD students for allocation of the hostels. IIIT-Delhi Also, our labs are open 24*7 making it convenient for the PhD students to work at any hour of the day.
  2. Stress/Feeling of Isolation– Getting a doctorate degree is a tedious task that can make you feel disconnected from your family and friends. Isolation is one of the most common problems faced by PhD students. PhD candidates work alone most of the time, while they see their friends working in teams at their offices, and having a better social life than them. This can make the PhD students feel lonelier. They start losing their motivation and ultimately become stressed or depressed. We, at IIIT Delhi, understand the dilemma that PhD students face. We have a Well- Being Cell on our campus that offers free and confidential psychological support to all the students and staff members of the university. The cell has a full-time counsellor and a visiting faculty. The students can consult anytime they feel stressed.
  3. Thesis Writing– Starting with thesis writing is extremely challenging for many PhD students. There are times when students are unclear on where to start or they get stuck in the middle. At IIIT Delhi, we don’t let this discourage our PhD students. We provide a ‘Research Methodology’ course once in an academic year as a part of a PhD student’s curriculum. The course covers various topics including how to present the research work
  4. Travel Grants/Funding– Many PhD students rely on external funding to support themselves while studying. This leaves a student in ambiguity making them extremely stressful. We, at IIIT- Delhi, offer our own fellowship to PhD students ranging from INR 31,000/- to INR 35,000/- per month along with an annual contingency amount of INR 10,000/-. For attending international conferences, we offer our PhD students travel support up to INR 2 Lakh. In addition to this, we also provide support of INR 50,000/- to our PhD students towards the purchase of laptop/ desktop
  5. Work-Life Balance– It is a very common notion that a PhD student is expected to study all the time. However, there are times when PhD students are not able to maintain a balance between their personal and work life. Here, at IIIT-Delhi, we make sure that our PhD students lead a healthy social life. Our well-being cell conducts sessions, specially curated for PhD students to help them in achieving a better work-life balance. Apart from this, we provide a separate accommodation facility to married PhDs to live with their family.
  6. Issues with Supervisor– A healthy relationship between a PhD student and his/her advisor is another eminent factor that contributes to a PhD student’s success. Many PhD candidates are perplexed if they feel that their advisor is either giving them bad advice, is unavailable most of the times or they are assigned more than one advisor who gives them contrary advice. At IIIT- Delhi, we have made proper guidelines to facilitate such issues.

Earning a doctoral degree requires hard work, vision and commitment. With the right resources, support and guidance IIIT-Delhi strives to make your experience better throughout the journey and help you thrive in your career.

Apply for PhD Programs at IIIT-Delhi.