Are you thinking about returning to university to do a research degree? Do you have concerns about balancing your career with your studies? How can you maximise your learning, and ultimately your career prospects, through the choices you make now and during your research degree? If these questions resonate with thoughts you are having, then this book can help. It is written to answer the specific needs and concerns of those who return to study at research degree level during their career and as a part of their own professional and personal development. The book provides practical guidance to help returning students to balance study, work, leisure and family life as well as suggesting strategies that will help them to enhance their skills, develop critical awareness and become more creative. This is a substantially rewritten and updated version of a previous book by Stuart Powell (Returning to Study, 1999) which now focuses entirely on study for research degrees and incorporates his many years of experience working with individual research degree students and managing research degree provision at institutional level. With examples from a wide variety of subject disciplines, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking grounded advice on the issues facing returning students.