Along with the question of how many hours a week a PhD student works, one of the questions I most frequently get asked is do PhD students get holidays?
Some people have visions of PhD students spending their lives in the lab, while others picture it as a three year holiday. So what is the reality?
May 2020 update: Now that I’ve finished my PhD I’ve updated the post to include all annual leave I took over the whole PhD.
Currently many researchers around the world are working from home, blurring the lines between work and home life. Do be sure to take some time off from your studies.
Do PhD students get summers off?
Firstly, to those progressing straight from an undergraduate degree you may be wondering if as a PhD student you’ll get to carry on having three months off over the summer.
I’m sorry to say that your days of having long summers off are over. PhD students do not work to the same calendar system as undergraduates.
One exception is students beginning their PhD with a combined masters at a Centre for Doctoral Training. They may enjoy these benefits for the first year while completing the masters. Beyond that it’s the same as for all other PhD students.
Do PhD students get holidays?
From what I’ve seen, most university departments in the UK suggest taking up to 40 days annual leave as a PhD student. This includes bank holidays and days when the university is closed (over Christmas and Easter).
This means you typically have around 25 days of vacation time to use as you please, and 15 days already allocated. You are fully entitled to take as much of this as you like, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of deadlines:
“Holidays should not be taken at times when they will impact on PhD milestones, and are not an acceptable reason for delaying the submission of reports, etc.”
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/research/phd/phdmatters/handbook.pdf
Compared to your friends who have gone in to employment at a company, taking holiday as a PhD student is usually pretty relaxed.
Employees have a rigid number of days off per year. They’ll submit holiday requests via online systems, keeping records against their annual allowance.
By comparison annual leave arrangements for PhD students are often far less structured. You should certainly speak to your supervisor beforehand, but this will generally be to ensure it fits with the timing of the project rather than to deny you from a break. In fact, my experience has been of supervisors encouraging students to take more holiday!
Example PhD holiday allowances from universities around the UK
Below are a selection of PhD annual leave allowances for universities in the UK. The allowances are broadly similar but they do vary by university, so make sure to check with your own as to what allowance will be applicable for you.
- Cardiff University – 8 weeks (40 days)
- The University of Edinburgh – 8 weeks (40 days)
- Imperial College London – 8 weeks (40 days)
- University of Oxford (MPLS division) – 30 days plus bank holidays
How much holiday I’ve taken as a PhD student
I did a bit of digging to work out how much holiday I’ve taken across the course of my PhD. Here is the breakdown and how it was split by year.
| First Year | Second Year | Third Year | Final Five Months | |
| Holiday | 25 | 20 | 16 | 10 |
| University closure | 7 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Public holiday | 8 | 8 | 7 | 3 |
| Total | 40 | 34 | 31 | 18 |
For anyone who is interested, here is how my annual leave was spread across each year of my PhD. You’ll spot large periods of time off in April and December which correlate to the Easter and Christmas closure periods for Imperial.
Generally, I’ve not felt like the number of holidays I’ve taken over the last few years has really suffered because of my PhD. Having reviewed it for this post though, maybe I should have taken more annual leave during my PhD.
And actually, a few of the days when the university has been closed I’ve had to go in for part of the day because of experiments. To be clear: no one ever put me under pressure to go in. I’ve generally been able to be pretty disciplined about not going in at weekends, and only really did this for the final few months of the PhD.
What I haven’t included though, are the times I’ve made the most of flexible working hours: taking a half day can be a nice mini break. There certainly is a theme of PhD students not taking all of their holiday and constantly feeling overworked. See the section further down this post for my thoughts on knowing when to take a holiday.
Conferences don’t count!
What I’ve not included are conferences, since they are work-related and to make them out to be a holiday would be deceiving! However, since your travel to conferences is already paid for, they can offer a great opportunity for a cheap holiday by taking off a bit of time before or after the conference.
I’ve done this a few times, though speaking from experience having a holiday before giving a presentation isn’t as relaxing as afterwards!
Knowing when to take annual leave as a PhD student
A PhD is a little like an extended assignment or project in an undergraduate degree. Yet unless you have the PhD very well defined, it can be difficult to get a sense of how well you’re progressing.
As a graduate student it is easy to feel behind schedule with an endless list of tasks to complete. This can cause problems with knowing when to stop work on a daily basis and may discourage you from taking annual leave. But you certainly shouldn’t avoid going on holiday for three years!
My advice is to speak to your supervisor often as they likely have a much better idea of how you’re progressing than you do. They’ll probably be very supportive of you taking a break. If they’re not, speak to other academics or support staff to get a sense of whether your supervisor is being fair.
You are entitled to take holiday as a PhD student and if you feel in need of a break it’s not going to do your productivity any good to keep on working.
PhDs are a great time to make the most of opportunities, and this includes taking breaks to go on holiday.
PhD Annual Leave Summary
- PhD students don’t get 3 months off in summer like undergraduate students
- University departments in the UK typically expect PhD students to take up to 40 days of annual leave (inclusive of bank holidays and days when the university is closed)
- PhD holiday arrangements are usually more relaxed than for those in formal employment
- Time spent at conferences shouldn’t come from your annual leave allowance
- Taking annual leave before or after a conference can be a great way to have a cheap holiday
So in answer to the question of do PhD students get holidays? The answer is a resounding yes we do! But working out an appropriate time to take holiday is best discussed with your supervisor.
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