phd student vacation

The Savvy Scientist

Experiences of a London PhD student and beyond

Do PhD Students Get Holidays? Sharing How Much Annual Leave I Take

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 (School of Literature, Languages and Cultures) – 8 weeks (40 days)
• Imperial College London – 8 weeks (40 days)
• University of Oxford (MPLS division) – 30 days plus bank holidays
• UCL – 27 days plus bank holidays and days when the university is closed

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.

Thoroughly recommend a visit to the Dolomites. Amazing scenery and very easy to get around! @DolomitesUNESCO pic.twitter.com/5mlVNdTB3i — Jeff Clark (@savvy_scientist) September 17, 2018

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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Boston University Vacation Policy for Ph.D. Student

1. rationale.

The Graduate Council recommends the adoption of a Vacation Policy for Ph.D. students.  The Policy is informed by policies at peer institutions and is meant to acknowledge that all Ph.D. students at Boston University are entitled to vacation time.  This policy apprises enrolled Ph.D. students in good academic standing about their permitted amount of vacation time and provides guidance for scheduling of vacation time.

2.   Covered Parties

This policy covers all Ph.D. students receiving stipend support.

3.  University Policy: Bulletin Copy

For phd students.

The university’s policy is that all PhD students receiving stipended support are entitled to paid vacation time.

·       Students with a 12-month stipend are entitled to two weeks (10 working days) of paid vacation time per academic calendar year (September 1 through August 31 of the following year).

·       Students with shorter appointments are entitled to a pro-rated amount of paid vacation time per academic year, such as 6 days for 8 month appointments and 8 days for 10 month appointments.

This vacation time is in addition to the standard Boston University holidays / intersession days (Boston University holidays/intersession days do not include Spring or Summer recess periods). The guarantee of vacation time must be taken during a single academic year period, and may not be rolled over or accumulated across multiple years.

PhD students are expected to coordinate with their research advisor, training grant PI and/or their teaching supervisor in a timely way about their requested vacation time. Students who wish to take additional periods of time off, paid or unpaid, must receive the approval of their advisor, training grant PI and/or teaching supervisor and are subject to funding agency restrictions.  Students who are supported by teaching fellowships cannot take time off that interferes with teaching obligations, including class time and planning meetings, and must discuss time off in advance with their teaching supervisor. Unauthorized absences may result in a prorated withholding of a student’s stipend.

Questions or concerns related to this policy should be directed to the Office of the Associate Provost of Graduate Affairs.

4. Effective Date:

September 1, 2019.

The Proposed Policy was initially drafted and endorsed by the Graduate Council (which includes representatives from all graduate schools and colleges) on August 9, 2018.  The policy was discussed by GAPP on October 17 and November 28, 2018.  A consequently revised policy was returned to Graduate Council.

6. Additional Consultative Bodies

The proposed policy will be sent for feedback to the standard consultative bodies: Faculty Council, the Provost’s Cabinet, and the Council of Deans.

7. Responsible Parties

The members of the Graduate Council (including the Associate Deans of the Schools and Colleges) will be responsible for the implementation of the new policy.

8. Implementation procedures, timeline and guidelines

The Council of Deans and Graduate Council will be notified of the change shortly after its approval. The policy will be published immediately in the Bulletin Addendum and noted in the current Bulletin, clearly marked with its effective date.

Members of the Graduate Council will be responsible for making changes to college- or program-specific policies in the Bulletin to align them with the University-wide policy, and for identifying and changing all references to such obsolete policies on websites and printed materials.

Duke Graduate School Student Time-Off Policy

Revision Date: February 9, 2022 Effective Date: Summer Term, 2022

Purpose and Background

• Being able to take time off is an important aspect of ensuring the wellbeing and success of graduate students. To that end, this policy aims to establish clear, consistent expectations for all Ph.D. and master’s students in The Graduate School regarding time off from their responsibilities as research, teaching, or graduate assistants (RAs, TAs, or GAs).
• The amount of time off listed in this policy is the minimum for eligible students, and supervisors have the discretion to allow longer periods. Students who need or wish to take more time off than the minimum listed here should discuss those arrangements with their RA, TA, or GA supervisor. The Graduate School strongly encourages departments and faculty to be flexible to students’ needs in accommodating reasonable time-off requests, such as taking some additional time off during summer or winter breaks to visit families.
• This policy applies to all Ph.D. and master’s students in The Graduate School regardless of funding source. It builds on and replaces the previous Ph.D. Research Assistant Vacation Policy.
• If a student is supported via funding from an agency that has different time-off policies for assistantships, follow the policy that offers more time off.

1. At minimum , Ph.D. and master’s students holding appointments as RAs, TAs, or GAs can take the following amount of time off (with stipend) from their assistantship responsibilities:

The allotted time off must be used before the end of the term of the appointment. Unused days do not carry over to the next term, and no extra stipend would be given for unused days.

2. Students are expected to coordinate with their RA, TA, or GA supervisor about their requested time off as far in advance as possible.

3. Students’ time off should not interfere with their TA/RA/GA responsibilities. If necessary, the student must make sure those responsibilities are covered during their time off (departments and faculty should assist students with this). For example, if TAs are expected to be present on days when their class meets and they need to take one of those days off, they must ensure someone is covering the class.

4. Students wishing to take more time off than what is listed in Table 1—with or without stipend—must receive prior approval from their adviser. If stipend changes are necessary, the adviser will notify the department or program business office before the deadline for the affected period of any such arrangements. Approval for additional periods of time away with stipend support may be subject to funding-agency restrictions.

5. The following do not count against the allotted time off listed in Table 1: university-observed holidays (see next section), religious holidays, sick days, the accommodation period for the birth or adoption of a new child, and time away for professional activities (e.g., conferences, workshops, interviews). This is not an all-inclusive list. If there are questions about whether a situation counts as part of the allotted time off described in this policy, please contact [email protected] .

University Holidays

All Graduate School Ph.D. and master’s students serving as RAs, TAs, or GAs should be off from their assistantship duties on the days listed in the Holiday Schedule for University Staff , which include:

• New Year's Holiday
• Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Friday After Thanksgiving
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• New Year's Eve
• There may be certain situations where some graduate students have to perform assistantship duties on a university holiday, such as TA-ing classes or performing time-sensitive experiments that cannot be delayed. In those situations, those graduate students are entitled to take another day off in place of that holiday, and they should coordinate with their TA, RA, or GA supervisor on the timing.  
• University holidays do not count against the allotted time off listed in Table 1.  
• Fall break and spring break are not university holidays. They reflect time off from classes, but not from assistantship duties. Graduate students who wish to be away from their assistantship duties during those breaks should request time off, which would count against the allotted time listed in Table 1.

Religious Holidays

Graduate student TAs, RAs, and GAs can take time off from assistantship duties to observe religious holidays. They must inform their adviser in advance and plan to make up any missed assignments or training. Religious holidays do not count against the allotted time off listed in Table 1.

As an aid for planning, see this partial list of common religious holidays . NOTE: This list is neither all-inclusive nor a formal designation of religious holidays recognized by the university.

Coursework Responsibilities

Students’ time away from their TA/RA/GA responsibilities should not interfere with their coursework. Class schedules follow Duke’s academic calendar . Students must check with their course instructors on how absence from class might affect their academic progress and status.

Addressing Concerns about Taking Time Off

The Graduate School strongly supports graduate students using their allotted time off. Students who have concerns about their adviser, PI, or assistantship supervisor not being supportive in this matter should address the issue in the following sequence:

• First raise it with their program’s director of graduate studies (DGS).  
• Escalate to the department chair if the DGS cannot address the issue satisfactorily .  
• If the concern still remains after intervention by the department chair, discuss it with the person overseeing graduate education in the school in which the program is based, if there is such a position (e.g., the Graduate Dean for Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, the associate deans who oversee Ph.D. and master’s education in the Pratt School of Engineering, etc.).  
• If the steps above do not resolve the issue, contact The Graduate School’s senior associate dean for academic affairs and senior associate dean for finance and administration (see TGS’s staff directory ).

This process mirrors The Graduate School’s general student grievance procedure .

Take your holidays… the right way

As a PhD student, one sometimes gets the impression that holidays are something that happens only to other people, or that one does not deserve them (I’m so behind on so many things!). Yet, what does the research say about taking holidays, is it really good for you as a doctoral student? Are there better or worse ways of taking a vacation? As preparation for the blog’s own summer hiatus, this post goes over the benefits, pitfalls, and optimal dynamics of taking a longer break.

During my time as a PhD student, and later working in academic research in different labs and different countries, I have found a wide variety of conceptions of what holidays should be during the PhD… and a surprising uniformity in the guilt and unease that PhD students themselves feel when faced with the perspective of closing the laptop for a couple of weeks and heading out of the campus. Indeed, several recent university reports mention that doctoral students tend to not use all their allotted holidays, and encourage them to enjoy the full quantity of them.

In many labs, a yearly break from the PhD is recommended (or enforced) from above, but from the student’s perspective, it can mean anything from “I still work on my thesis, I just don’t tell anyone” to “I’ll just take it a bit easier, but work nevertheless”, to “full disconnection! the laptop stays in the lab”. To add to this confusion, each university has its own rules and regulations as to what the status of a PhD student is (worker? student? both?) and what it means in terms of yearly holidays (the bottom line being, take whatever holidays you can get!).

So, as a doctoral student, you probably are still wondering: Should I take a break at all? Shouldn’t I take advantage of the drop in emails and meetings to push forward and really advance in my dissertation? What is the “right way” of doing this holiday thing? Let’s take a look, not only at what this humble researcher (and many others) also at what the “science of holidays” says (yes, there is such a thing – just GScholar up “leisure research” ).

Should you take holidays? What the science says

For doctoral students . I have not found any empirical study specifically looking into the effect of holidays on the wellbeing (or progress) of doctoral students. There are, however, plenty of advice-type papers (i.e., not empirical) written by peers and more senior advisors, which clearly recommend doctoral students to take holidays 1 , 2 .

To find empirical research on the benefits of a holiday, we have to go into more general organizational psychology, studying workers in different sectors. This is a line of research which is relatively new, yet it has found quite a few interesting things already:

Effects on physical health . Many people think of holidays as “rest for the mind”, but some of the correlates of holidays are with physical health. Some studies (and meta-analyses of existing research 3 ) show that a variety of health and wellbeing indicators (sleep quality, fatigue, tension, energy levels) improve during and shortly after 7-to-11-day holidays, although the effect sizes are not very large. Furthermore, those improved health and wellbeing levels revert to the pre-holiday baselines quite fast 4 . Similar studies for longer vacations (more than two weeks) and shorter ones (4-5 days) found similar results, with the increases in health and wellbeing peaking around the eighth day of holidays 5 , 6 . Yet, longer-term (five-year) studies found that taking holidays is correlated with lower all-cause mortality (at least, among middle-aged men at high risk of coronary heart disease 7 ). So, if you want to live longer and healthier, probably holidays are a good idea.

Effects on the mind . Most of you may be thinking of this when you think about taking a vacation… and most of what is said above about physical health also applies to mental health: psychological qualities like mood, life satisfaction, or emotional exhaustion, also improve somewhat during (and shortly after) holidays, but then quickly revert to the baseline 3 . There is even a study on whether the holidays increase workers’ creativity (i.e., their ability to come up with new, original ideas): while there was a small but significant increase in cognitive flexibility (the ability to break ordinary patterns of thought and conventional solutions, i.e., finding a wider range of ideas), the originality of ideas themselves after the holidays remained largely the same 8 .

Doing holidays… the right way

Now that we know that taking holidays is good (even if its effects are not long-lasting)… What is a good way to take them to reap the most benefits? Leisure research and doctoral advice literature also have a few things to say about that.

What to do before the holidays . Reaping the full benefit of a holiday starts, strangely, before the holidays themselves. I don’t know about you but, for me, the week before holidays tends to be a stressful nightmare of trying to finish all the tasks and fulfilling all deadlines (some of them falling into the holiday period, thus compressing into less time what you originally had planned to do). And that’s not even counting any tasks needed for the preparation of the holidays themselves (planning, booking, packing, cleaning…). It turns out the decrease in wellbeing from two to one week before vacation, is a well-known phenomenon, called “pre-holiday stress” 9 , and it is correlated with the workload (and “homeload”) on the weeks leading to the holiday. Thus, if you can, try to plan the week before the holidays as a “light load” week at work… because home stuff and unexpected work tasks will pop up, and that added stress could cancel out the net benefit of the holidays if we are not careful.

Indeed, from a physiological perspective, it seems that the strong contrast between the high pre-holiday levels of stress hormones and their almost complete absence in the holidays might be partly responsible for the classic sickness that some people often experience on the first days of holidays (which also has a name, “leisure sickness”). Typical symptoms of this leisure sickness are wide-ranging, from headaches, migraines or fatigue, to colds and other viral infections 10 . There are even certain reports that perfectionists with high workloads, strong commitment, and feelings of responsibility to their work (a quite common profile among PhD students) are especially at risk of this kind of sickness 11 . How to avoid this leisure sickness? the same authors suggest doing physical exercise on the last evening of work (to release the stress hormones and energy that may have been building up in that last week of work), adapting your sleep patterns progressively, and avoiding excessive caffeine and alcohol consumption during these transitions 10 .

What to do during the holidays . Several studies have tried to see what holiday activities seem to relate with most gains in wellbeing and longer-lasting effects 12 . Studies about short vacations (4-5 days) 5 highlight that activities involving relaxation, psychological detachment from work (more on that below), and having conversations with a partner, seem most correlated with health and wellbeing gains (aside from other obvious correlates like the pleasure derived from activities, or having less negative incidents). Studying the benefits of longer vacations (i.e., more than 2 weeks) 6 found that the overall duration of the holidays (e.g., going out for two vs. three weeks) does not seem to change much the benefits, and neither do most of the activities we do in them. Exceptions to this include more passive activities, relaxation, sleep, or those that involve savoring an experience. Also, having a sense of control over one’s time seems to be related to better outcomes from the vacation. So, next time you are faced with the choice between taking a slow vacation day relaxing and having a good meal or doing a whirlwind day tour to visit five different tourist attractions… what’s it gonna be?

Another whole related issue is what to abstain from doing during holidays – especially, whether one should do (or think ) anything work-related. “Psychological detachment from work” involves not doing nor thinking about work during off-job time, and has nothing to do with one’s engagement during work time. Empirical studies have shown that this kind of “switching off” from work during leisure has several critical benefits (especially in shorter vacations 13 ), including improved long-term wellbeing and life satisfaction (e.g., lower emotional exhaustion and burnout), being better able to handle stressful situations, and generally better task performance and proactive behavior at work 14 . Again, research shows that certain kinds of people, who react strongly to negative events or have high levels of job involvement (again, a red flag for many PhD students), may find it difficult to detach in this way, tending to ruminate or worry about job situations even during leisure. High workloads and time pressure at work are also known to make it hard to detach. How can we help ourselves detach better from work? Researchers recommend doing meaningful activities (e.g., volunteer work), engaging in activities or settings that fascinate us (i.e., that effortlessly capture our attention, like a beautiful natural environment) and, in general, having clear physical and mental boundaries between work and non-work (something that has become increasingly difficult in these times of coronavirus) 14 . Recent studies also point to mobile technologies making it hard to detach from work 15 , unless one is able to create boundaries around their use 16 .

Other practical tips that can be found in empirical and advice papers include:

• Take the freakin’ holidays! It can help you think about your dissertation ideas in a different way 2 .
• Plan your holidays in your calendar well in advance, and do not plan any major research, deadlines or tasks during those weeks (nor, preferably, the week before or after the holidays, to avoid the aforementioned pre-holiday stress and leisure sickness).
• Let supervisors and colleagues know you are going on holiday, and activate your out-of-office automated response emails 1 . Pro tip: add a day or two after you come back to the automated response email, to give you some time “under the radar” to gather yourself and plan/prioritize the tasks that have been accumulating in your absence.
• Try not to check your email during the holidays (it helps if the auto-response email already says clearly that you will not check your email) 1 .
• If you really want to do something work-related, do it whenever you feel like it, and on your own terms – not as a duty or obligation (remember, having a sense of control over your time is critical during holidays) 6 .
• Despite all of the above about detaching from work, ideas about your research or dissertation may pop up. That’s OK. Indeed, carry with you a notebook or recorder (or phone) so that you can record them 1 , which has the double advantage of letting the idea go off from your head quicker, and ensuring you will not forget this flash of insight once you get back to work after holidays.
• Use the peak-end rule (the fact that we remember experiences mostly based on what is the most emotionally intense part of them, and whatever happens in their final part 17 ) to your advantage when planning your holiday activities. Try to engage all your senses in what you do during the holidays, to mindfully savor them, and end the vacation on a high note (e.g., clean and pack beforehand, and do a really nice experience on the last day of holidays).
• Start slowly after the holiday trip ends: have a weekend at home to unpack and relax from the stresses of traveling 18 , and try to have a “slow week” after coming back to work, which may help preserve the beneficial effects of vacations for a longer time 19 .
• Keep alive the “afterglow” of the holidays, by reinforcing the good memories of your vacation reviewing photos or videos, reconnecting with the new friends you’ve made, or cooking up the latest exotic recipe you learned during your trip abroad.
• In general, if you have that flexibility, do more, shorter vacations (since their benefits tend to be short-lived). It seems that 7-11 days seem to be the optimal length 6 , so if you have 30 days you can spend at any time, better do three 10-day holidays over the year, rather than a single one-month period (especially, if that period is the peak-high season when every holiday destination is crowded). That said, if you have difficulties detaching from work (see the personality profiles mentioned above), you can make your vacations a bit longer than that, to account for the increased time it will take you to really disconnect from work.
• Many of the insights from leisure research mentioned above also apply in the day-to-day breaks we have during the working periods – every workday evening and every weekend. Thus, look at the advice above (detach from work, savor and relax, exercise to release stress after work, etc.), and make every day a successful “mini-holiday”.

Now that we’ve gone over all of this, I have a little confession to make: I have done this post for entirely selfish reasons. I wanted to know what did the research say about the best way to take a holiday… so that I can apply it to the summer break I’m starting right now. As it turns out, I already failed at some of the rules and recommendations above (my last week of work was way too busy, and I’m trying to fight off some mild leisure sickness with a lot of sleep). But, like everything in research and academia, this is a practice, and even the senior researchers fail and fall off the wagon. It is progress , not perfection, that should be our goal. We need to keep on trying – because this holiday thing definitely has benefits!

You can expect the blog to come back at the beginning of September. Until then, I will carry my trusty notebook in case blog-related ideas appear. If you want to help out with that, leave your ideas for new posts (or your “perfect holiday tips”) in the comments section below.

Have a great summer break!

Header image by Jakub Petrymusz from Pixabay .

Walton, H. (2019). Managing your PhD. A Guide for Psychology Postgraduates , 39–44. ↩︎

Morrison-Saunders, A., Moore, S., Newsome, D., & Newsome, J. (2005). Reflecting on the role of emotions in the PhD process. The Reflective Practitioner. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Teaching Learning Forum . http://lsn.curtin.edu.au/tlf/tlf2005/refereed/morrison-saunders.html ↩︎

de Bloom, J., Kompier, M., Geurts, S., de Weerth, C., Taris, T., & Sonnentag, S. (2009). Do We Recover from Vacation? Meta-analysis of Vacation Effects on Health and Well-being. Journal of Occupational Health , 51 (1), 13–25. ↩︎

De Bloom, J., Geurts, S. A., Taris, T. W., Sonnentag, S., de Weerth, C., & Kompier, M. A. (2010). Effects of vacation from work on health and well-being: Lots of fun, quickly gone. Work & Stress , 24 (2), 196–216. ↩︎

De Bloom, J., Geurts, S. A., & Kompier, M. A. (2012). Effects of short vacations, vacation activities and experiences on employee health and well-being. Stress and Health , 28 (4), 305–318. ↩︎

de Bloom, J., Geurts, S. A. E., & Kompier, M. A. J. (2013). Vacation (after-) effects on employee health and well-being, and the role of vacation activities, experiences and sleep. Journal of Happiness Studies , 14 (2), 613–633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-012-9345-3 ↩︎

Gump, B. B., & Matthews, K. A. (2000). Are vacations good for your health? The 9-year mortality experience after the multiple risk factor intervention trial. Psychosomatic Medicine , 62 (5), 608–612. ↩︎

de Bloom, J., Ritter, S., Kühnel, J., Reinders, J., & Geurts, S. (2014). Vacation from work: A ‘ticket to creativity’?: The effects of recreational travel on cognitive flexibility and originality. Tourism Management , 44 , 164–171. ↩︎

Nawijn, J., De Bloom, J., & Geurts, S. (2013). Pre-vacation time: Blessing or burden? Leisure Sciences , 35 (1), 33–44. ↩︎

Van Heck, G. L., & Vingerhoets, A. J. (2007). Leisure sickness: A biopsychosocial perspective. Psihologijske Teme , 16 (2), 178–200. ↩︎

Vingerhoets, A. J., Van Huijgevoort, M., & Van Heck, G. L. (2002). Leisure sickness: A pilot study on its prevalence, phenomenology, and background. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics , 71 (6), 311–317. ↩︎

It’s worth noting that many of these studies in leisure research have been done in Central European countries like The Netherlands, and hence some of its results may not hold equally well in very different cultures and countries, where people value different things. Yet, it seems to be the best evidence we have, so their findings can be a good starting point. Try these and other things out, and keep track of the results: what holiday activities seem to work best for you once you do them? which ones leave you rested and energized once you come back to work? Keeping some kind of diary practice can help you start spotting these patterns over time… ↩︎

Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 36 (S1), S72–S103. ↩︎

Sonnentag, S. (2012). Psychological detachment from work during leisure time: The benefits of mentally disengaging from work. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 21 (2), 114–118. ↩︎

Richardson, K., & Thompson, C. (2012). High Tech Tethers and Work-family Conflict: A Conservation of Resources Approach. Engineering Management Research , 1 (1), p29. https://doi.org/10.5539/emr.v1n1p29 ↩︎

Barber, L. K., & Jenkins, J. S. (2014). Creating technological boundaries to protect bedtime: Examining work–home boundary management, psychological detachment and sleep. Stress and Health , 30 (3), 259–264. ↩︎

Fredrickson, B. L. (2000). Extracting meaning from past affective experiences: The importance of peaks, ends, and specific emotions. Cognition & Emotion , 14 (4), 577–606. ↩︎

Strauss-Blasche, G., Muhry, F., Lehofer, M., Moser, M., & Marktl, W. (2004). Time course of well-being after a three-week resort-based respite from occupational and domestic demands: Carry-over, contrast and situation effects. Journal of Leisure Research , 36 (3), 293–309. ↩︎

Kühnel, J., & Sonnentag, S. (2011). How long do you benefit from vacation? A closer look at the fade-out of vacation effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 32 (1), 125–143. ↩︎

• Productivity

Luis P. Prieto

Luis P. is a Ramón y Cajal research fellow at the University of Valladolid (Spain), investigating learning technologies, especially learning analytics. He is also an avid learner about doctoral education and supervision, and he's the main author at the A Happy PhD blog.

Google Scholar profile

Taking vacations as a Ph.D. student

Something that stressed me out as a Ph.D. student was figuring out how to navigate taking vacations and days off.  When I worked as a technician, I had a set amount of days that accumulated with every week that I worked, so it was clear how much time I could take and when I could take it. But as a PhD student it was ambiguous. There wasn’t a set amount that accumulated over time, so I never fully understood how to take days off.

I loved my work, and I wanted to do a good job, graduate in a reasonable amount of time, and make my PI happy. But I was also a person, like everyone else, and I wanted to take vacations sometimes. I couldn’t figure it out: Was I essentially asking for a favor whenever I asked for days off? Or, conversely, was I an idiot by not taking advantage of this unusually free time in my life because I didn’t take vacations all the time?

I tended to lean toward feeling guilty and awkward whenever I asked for time off. I often just thought maybe I didn’t deserve vacations if my work wasn’t flying along smoothly, and there were always people whose work was going much better than mine. I think many of my fellow students felt similarly. I even saw students who would plan a long-awaited vacation but feel so nervous about asking their PI for the days off that they would end up only telling their PI at the very last minute when they couldn’t escape the conversation anymore.

For this week’s column, I wanted to look into the details of taking vacations as a Ph.D. student. I asked five PIs I know about Ph.D. students taking time off for vacations during their studies. It is entirely a nonrandom selection of PIs: They’re all PIs who I knew and who were willing to answer my somewhat annoying questions (so perhaps I’m skewing the data toward friendly PIs); but regardless, Ph.D. students may be happy to hear that no PI I asked said Ph.D. students should not take vacations during their studies.

One thing that became immediately clear is that each PI’s policy and expectations are slightly different. Also, no one I spoke with had their expectations written down anywhere as an official policy, usually in order to be adaptable to any given situation and any student. I think the biggest takeaway from this is that it is essential for a student to get past the awkwardness and talk to their own PI about what their expectations are.  

While no PI said they would deny time off just because a student was stalled in their work, especially because time off can ideally be refreshing and recharging, Mimi Shirasu-Hiza at Columbia University pointed out that “inevitably, the periods right before and after vacation are less productive than optimal,” so she would encourage students to be aware of picking up their progress and work when they get back and to not take excessive vacations so that they’re left with no real productive time!

A few concepts came up frequently. Ph.D. students learning time management was one of them, as it's important to be able to balance your research progress and career goals with your personal life. The restorative effect of days off was another. 

Luke Berchowitz, a PI at Columbia described his take this way: “I want people to be happy and productive, so I let them handle their own schedules. Everyone knows how competitive science is, and they can be the judge of how hard (or not) they think it’s necessary to work to achieve their goals.”

Regarding how far in advance to ask your PI for time off, most wanted at least a week of notice.  However, most also acknowledged that each situation is different. Taking a long weekend is different from asking for a month.  They also acknowledged that sometimes things come up at the last minute and those opportunities can still be taken if labmates aren’t going to be over-burdened by your leaving. On the flip side, more notice and planning might be useful in cases where you’re having trouble scheduling experiments and need more guidance to make sure you will still be getting good work done.

When asked what could be annoying about a student taking time off or something students should avoid doing, many PIs brought up the importance of ongoing experiments and being considerate to your lab mates. Make sure cell lines or animals will be cared for in your absence without overly burdening other people. Check with your lab mates and make sure people don’t mind stepping in when needed. A few also mentioned taking into account the schedule of lab activities. If your lab is one in which getting papers or grants together is an all-hands-on-deck activity, for example, be aware of those schedules and don’t leave your lab mates high and dry at a peak work time.

The comments from all the PIs seemed to converge on the personal responsibility of each student to assess a reasonable amount of time to take off to relax and refresh, while still making progress on their work and being considerate to their lab mates.

I wish I’d done the research for this column while I was still a Ph.D. student, because I definitely would have wanted to talk to my boss more about her expectations, instead of assuming I knew what they were!

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Elizabeth Stivison is a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University studying inositol signaling and a careers columnist for ASBMB Today.

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Grad students: Get to know your program coordinator

They provide advice about interviews and admissions, curriculum, degree requirements, graduate program policies and information, campus services and more.

Vacation Policy for PhD Students 

Download the vacation policy for phd students  .

Ph.D. Program Information

This page contains additional graduate program information about Academic Advisors,  Assistantships ,  TA and RA assignments ,  Internships , Statue of  Limitations , Leave of  Absences and  Withdrawals .

Academic Advisor

All PhD students are assigned a faculty advisor. Many students will have a formal advisor who has agreed to advise the student through the end of a student's PhD program. For some students, a temporary advisor will be assigned until those students have found a formal advisor. 

A formal review process has been established to ensure both the student and advisor maintain excellent communication about academic and research progress. We encourage students to meet with their advisor at least once a semester to review the previous semester in terms of goals, problems, and progress; and to set new goals for the coming semester including any professional development suggested by the advisor. PhD students should seek assistance from the PhD Advisor/Graduate Programs Manager, Eileen Hamel, to discuss program requirements, academic progress or any faculty/lab issues.

At any point in your PhD program you may wish to explore other advisors within the college. We encourage transparency with your current advisor as well as the faculty advisor you are interested in working with. Similarly, your advisor might suggest that you should be assigned a different advisor. If you would like to talk about the process please connect with Eileen Hamel.

Assistantships

Unless you are self-supported as a graduate student, you will be funded on a fellowship, an assistantship, or a combination of the two. Assistantships are either Research Assistantships (RAs) or Teaching Assistantships (TAs).

Computer Science assistantships are guaranteed for the first year of your PhD program including the first summer. Following the first year CICS will provide either an RA or TA contract during the fall and spring semesters. Students are expected to make satisfactory academic progress during each semester. Otherwise, the offer of an assistantship may fall under review by the Graduate Program Director and a success plan may be put into place. 

Assistantship Contracts

The terms of an assistantship contract are governed by the graduate student union (Graduate Employee Organization, or GEO) and are therefore out of our control. The following represents our informal understanding of the current rules, combined with typical practices within the College. The GEO contract, however, is the final authority on these issues, not these pages. The contract is available from the  GEO web site . A full-time RA appointment consists of 20 hours during the academic year. The responsibilities of an RA are determined by the faculty member responsible for the research, but could include tasks such as programming, running experiments, carrying out literature surveys, and so on. For most students in our College, the distinction between being an RA and being a "graduate student doing your own research" is difficult to make, meaning that deciding whether you're working more than 20 hours is complex. If your RAship requires more than 20 hours on average and is detracting from a reasonable course load, you should talk with your research supervisor. If you are working fewer than 20 hours on average for your RAship, you should also talk with your advisor. A full-time TA is also expected to put in 20 hours per week on average. The responsibilities of a TA include preparing assignments, grading, running discussion sections, holding office hours, or delivering lectures. The actual responsibilities of a TA are directed by the faculty member teaching the assigned course. It is easier to separate a teaching assistantship from your own research or coursework, so you should know whether you are putting too much (or too little) time into a TA. Keep in mind that (1) TA work is not evenly distributed through the semester and (2) although the course itself meets for only about 14 weeks, the TAship runs a full 19 weeks.  The official rules for time off include vacation time, holidays, and personal time:

• The University honors 13 paid holidays a year.
• You officially earn 2 hours of vacation time per month, or roughly one day per semester.
• You get 24 hours of personal time per semester, or roughly another three days per semester.

Vacation time and, when possible, personal time should be requested in advance and should preferably be taken in the January or Spring breaks. Alternate arrangements can be made with your advisor or TA supervisor if possible. For example, many RAs and their advisors are comfortable with a much less formal way of handling time off. If you feel that you are not getting sufficient vacation or personal time, you should talk with your advisor, supervisor, or the Graduate Program Director.

Changing Between TA and RA

The College is assigned a fixed number of TA positions by the University each semester. We attempt to provide a TAship for every student who needs one, either because there is no appropriate RA or to satisfy the PhD teaching requirement. TA assignments usually happen in August for the fall semester and January for the spring. If you accept a TA offer, you cannot withdraw and become an RA once the semester has started. In fact, you may not unilaterally withdraw from a TAship even before the semester starts. (Why not? Assigning TAs is a complex process of matching student abilities with teaching needs. Last minutes changes can create cascading changes and almost always result in an incredible amount of work by many people.) If you find that you want to switch out of your TAship into an RA offer, you should contact Eileen Hamel to determine if it is possible to accommodate your request. However, the closer to the start of the semester, the less likely it is that the request can be met. The official rules pertaining to TAs who want to switch to being RAs are: "After June 30 or December 30 of each year, students who have accepted a TA offer for the Fall or Spring semester, respectively, may not withdraw from the appointment without the permission of the Teaching Coordinator. After August 20 or January 15, permission will not be granted.'' In practice, there's always a little shuffling in the first week of the term.

Internships

Many students take an internship, usually in the summer but occasionally during the spring or fall semesters. An internship provides experience with a different group of researchers working on different problems. It can provide valuable networking as well as as practical training. Internship opportunities are advertised regularly by email and/or the sponsoring organization's web site. It is your responsibility to find possible internships if you are interested in one.

For US citizens and permanent residents of the US, the process of taking an internship is straightforward.

If you hold a student visa, you will need approval to undertake an internship. The internship is treated as Curricular Practical Training and must be approved by the International Programs Office. Your specific limitations and requirements will depend on your visa. Check with the IPO for more information.

Statue of Limitations

When you are admitted to the MS, MS/PhD, or PhD program, the Graduate School assigns you a statute of limitations date. This date reflects the amount of time the Graduate School believes you need to complete your degree. It is initially four years for MS-only, six for the MS/PhD track and PhD-track.  If you take an approved leave of absence, your statue of limitations is automatically extended by the length of the leave. If your progress toward your degree is taking longer than the Graduate School's initial estimate, it is possible to extend your statute of limitations. Please see Eileen Hamel who will submit a request on your behalf to the Graduate Program Director. 

If your statute of limitations expires, you are formally terminated from the program. It is possible to petition to be re-admitted though there are costs associated with doing so. Do not let your statute of limitations expire. The College of Information and Computer Sciences tracks your statue of limitations and works hard to ensure it does not expire accidentally, but the ultimate responsibility is yours.

Leave of Absence

Some students need to take a leave from the program for personal or professional reasons. If you wish or need to take a leave of absence, discuss the situation with your advisor who will ask the Graduate Program Director to request the leave from the Graduate School. The request will need a reason for the leave as well as its anticipated duration. Leaves of one semester or one full year are the most common. (If the reason for your leave cannot be comfortably discussed with your advisor, you should talk with the Graduate Program Director directly.) For MS/PhD and PhD students, the College discourages leaves of absence the semester that the portfolio is to be submitted. There are occasionally compelling reasons for a leave then, but a leave should not be used merely to delay the portfolio.

While you are on a leave of absence, you will be required to pay the University a continuous enrollment fee each semester to maintain your enrollment in your program  (In 2019 that fee was US $275 + $34.50 Graduate Senate Fee per semester.)

Withdrawing from the Program

Although we hope it does not happen, some students end up withdrawing from the program. The most common such situation is when a student in the MS/PhD track decides that PhD-style research is not a good match for his or her interests. However, some students end up withdrawing for other reasons and at other times. If you need to change your degree program or withdraw from the program entirely, please contact the Graduate Program Director to discuss your situation. Note that in some cases it may make more sense to take a leave of absence than to withdraw from the program.

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/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="phd student vacation"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Vacation time for assistantships.

Graduate students appointed on any combination of full assistantships or fellowships for spring, summer, and fall terms are entitled to two weeks (10 weekdays) of annual vacation each 12-month period (August 21 through August 20) in addition to Cornell University holidays (when the university is officially closed); vacation time will be prorated for students appointed for shorter periods of time (e.g., four days for a student appointed on an assistantship or fellowship for only one semester during the calendar period August 21-August 20). The policy also encourages flexibility between faculty and students to accommodate reasonable requests for personal time away (e.g., for religious observance, medical appointments, bereavement, etc.).

Cornell University holidays (when the university is officially closed) generally include 13 days: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the following day, and Winter Break (generally six working days from December 25 through January 1).

Summer appointments: The policy affirms that summer assistantship appointments must conform to Policy 1.3. Academic expectations for students appointed to partial summer assistantships are to be adjusted proportionally.

If a graduate student and special committee chair and/or supervisor of the funded position are unable to reach agreement on appropriate scheduling of requested vacation time, use of university holidays, or requests for additional time away for personal reasons, the director of graduate studies should be consulted to help mediate a resolution. The Graduate School associate dean for administration may be consulted as well.

Funded graduate students do not automatically receive vacation time for breaks in the academic calendar (fall or spring break, February break, January prior to the start of classes, etc). During these periods, students are expected to continue their own degree-related activities as well as perform normal assistantship duties.

• Graduate Student Assistantships, Policy 1.3
• Interim Policy 6.9, Time Away from Work: Sick Leave (New York State) (within  University Policy 6.9 Time Away From Work )
• University Holidays

Jason Kahabka Associate Dean for Administration [email protected]

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Trainee Handbook

Vacation and holiday policy for full-time phd students.

The School of Medicine and Dentistry recognizes that time away from school is important to the individual. Vacations should be taken at times that do not interfere with students' course work and their research responsibilities in the lab/office and within the department. Students will abide by the following vacation policies:

• PhD students are permitted to take two weeks of vacation time (10 business days) each calendar year (January 1 through December 31). Vacation time does not automatically accrue and can be rolled over from year to year only with written permission of the advisor and program director.
• Vacation time must be approved well in advance by the appropriate advisor/program director. First year biomedical science students are required to receive written permission of the program director to ensure that the vacation period does not interfere with course work and laboratory rotations.
• Semester breaks are not automatic holidays. PhD students are expected to be in their labs or offices during breaks between semesters and during periods when no classes are held. See the SMD Graduate School  Academic Calendar  for exact dates.
• Vacations must not interfere with teaching assistant duties, including meetings prior to the start of classes.
• International students who plan to travel outside the United States must submit a  Short Term Absence Notice.  The information provided on this form will allow the School to assist the student in the event he/she is subject to an extensive security clearance prior to receiving the necessary clearance and documentation required for re‐entry into the United States.
• Unauthorized absences may result in a prorated withholding of a student’s stipend.

University Holidays

PhD students are entitled to paid time off for official University holidays:

• New Year’s Day
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Thanksgiving Day and the Friday following Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

Observance of Religious Holidays

As provided in New York Education Law Section 224‐a, students who choose not to register for classes, attend classes or take exams on certain days because of their religious beliefs will be given an equivalent opportunity to register for classes or to make up the work requirements or exams they miss, without penalties or additional fees.

• Soch with Coach
• Straight Up

FIVE points you absolutely MUST KNOW before starting your PhD journey

Keep your checklists ready! Here are some of the things that one should not miss before applying for PhD

1. Background check of supervisor and research group. How to do it?

To ensure that your interest aligns with the potential supervisors you have shortlisted, look into their previous works and other contributions to the field. Look into the lab/group they are heading and their current projects. Ensure that you are working in a productive and supportive environment.

2. Gained admission into a reputed institution but forgot to look into your supervisor? This might not be a wise move

Well, relying solely on your institution's reputation would lead you nowhere. Examine your supervisor's Google Scholar profile, research articles and their publications. Understand the relevance of their project with yours and their ability to provide fruitful guidance.

3. Do not forget to ask for help. But how does one go about seeking help from former and current PhD students?

To make a more informed decision, do not hesitate to pose questions to alumni and current students about the lab facilities, the work culture, and the collective approach towards the research projects. Gain a deeper insight into their journey so far and make notes to give your journey a headstart.

4. You think finances don't matter while pursuing PhD? You are wrong.

Ensuring financial stability throughout your time is crucial as you will be dedicating a duration of your time solely to research. Look for fellowships available before starting your PhD, and other TA (training assistant) programmes offered by your institution. If your PhD programme exceeds five years, inquire about the additional support available.

5. Why hesitate while choosing the best for yourself?

Landed at a good university? Great. Helpful supervisor? Even better. What about other facilities aiding your research such as advanced equipment, the best library facilities and other adequate resources? Look out for them. Check if your institute has collaborations with other universities, and if there are opportunities for you to present at international conferences, and publish in prestigious journals.

For more information look into a recent post by The All-India Research Scholars Association ( AIRSA ) here

Before joining any institute for a PhD program, it's crucial to remember several points many students overlook. @AIRSAIndia advises prospective @PMOIndia @dpradhanbjp @DrJitendraSingh @AjaySoodIISc @PrinSciAdvGoI @TimesNow @timesofindia @the_hindu @TheLallantop @ThePrintIndia … pic.twitter.com/L3n9YjCEtg — All India Research Scholars Association (@AIRSAIndia) May 30, 2024