[arethuza]

Slight nitpick: first degree courses in Scotland are 4 years. And knowing maybe a dozen people who did PhDs in the UK I don't think anyone did it in 3 years - even the people who were full time PhD students took at least 3.5 years (most of us were "Research Associates" on salaried contracts and the average among this group was more like 4.5 years).

Mind you this was in an engineering department in the late 80s and early 90s - things have no doubt changed :-)

[chrisseaton]

I believe that the EPSRC now heavily penalises universities if students are not submitted by the four year point, so the universities have responded by literally just failing you and sending you down if you go over four years. I submitted the day before my four year point.

As another extreme, I have a colleague who completed a PhD with very strong research results in Austria in just two years.