Ever since I started my theology degree in Bangor, in 2003, I've had the ambition to do a PhD. Now, with slightly more than a half year to go before I finish my master degree, it's time that I start looking for a PhD position.
Recently I started looking for a suitable topic where I can spend 4 years of research on. I e-mailed several professors in The Netherlands, Belgium and the UK with my idea. Most responded positively, saying that they would be interested in supervising such a topic. One professor invited me to meet him at his office to see if we could work out a research plan. Yesterday, I went to Amsterdam to meet the professor. That was when I realised that things aren't quite as I expected them to be.
The first question I was asked was: How do you intend to finance your PhD studies? That was a question I didn't expect. What I've heard, PhD students in The Netherlands are not students, but employees of the university. They are research assistants and receive a salary. It's a proper job. So to ask me how I was going to pay for it, seemed a bit pointless to me. I simply told them what I thought. I expected to be appointed as a research assistant and get a salary. And yes, that would often be the case. Most PhD students are in fact employed by the university and receive a salary. But the money has to come from somewhere. In this case, it comes from the NWO, The Dutch organisation for academic research. They decide where the money goes to, according to how useful it is. Medicine, science and economics are seen as very useful and therefore get loads of funding. Humanities are not so useful, so they get very little funding. There are other private funding resources, but they are very competitive and often only enough to cover the costs for travel or your parking space at university. Almost all PhD students in theology are external PhD candidates. They have a job and spend 2 or 3 days a week at university doing their research. And if I want to do a PhD, that's the way to do it.
The second question was what my future plans are, after completing the PhD. My answer was that I was hoping to continue with an academic career, as a post-doc or lecturer. The answer was another reality check. It's already hard to get a post-doc position after completing your PhD as an internal candidate with a network inside the university. To get a post-doc as an external candidate is almost impossible.
So, what it all comes down to is that doing a PhD will not gain me anything. Yes, I will have a shiny book with my name on it and I'm allowed to put Dr. in front my name. The university will receive a neat amount of money from the government for delivering another PhD. But apart from that, as a theologian there's nothing to gain apart from a sense of achievement.
With career prospects next to none, and a title nobody in the real world cares about, why do theologians spend at least 6 years doing a PhD research. The only reason I can think of is because they love it. They are passionate about their subject and their field of expertise. They love spending hours in the library, reading, analysing, understanding. They give up a significant part of their income by losing out on 2 days work a week, or 1 if you use the Saturday for research. In theology, you don't do a PhD to get a job. You do a PhD because you love it.
The question I need to ask myself now is: How much do I really want to do this? Am I really passionate about theology, or was a PhD just a way to get paid for doing something I enjoy? In terms of income, not much will change. I now work 3.5 days a week, because I have lectures. If I decide to go for it, I can even work 4 days a week, because the flexibility of an external PhD also allows to to work on my research on Saturdays. But I was planning on getting a proper job after my master degree. Anyways, I still have a couple of months to think about this. Maybe I should go to the US, where they do have full funding for theology PhDs. But of course, it's not easy to get in.
