Discouraged by advisor to take courses, is there a way to navigate through this situation?

Audit the courses that you like, i.e., take them without receiving a grade/credit for it. You might not even need to formally audit courses, most professors will let you informally audit them. But as mentioned by others, research takes priority.


You should talk to your advisor about why you want to take more courses, and discuss which one-or-two would contribute to your development as a PhD student.

Your advisor is correct in the sense that it is easy to spend too much time taking courses for interest, and you need to focus on your research. Also, to some extent you should be able to study the material without a teacher now.

On the other hand, your advisor may have a different idea from you about what you are aiming to achieve by doing a PhD. It is certainly possible that they do not think enough about being in a position to transition to industry.

Things that are not of some reasonable use to your studies you should do in your own time. On the other hand, at least in the UK it is recognised that some time (about 10 days per year) should reasonably be spent on career-building CPD.


Assuming you are getting a PhD: Your advisor is correct. Taking courses is not the purpose of a PhD. A PhD is a research degree, and PhD students should do research. If you want to take courses, you should be enrolled in a course-based degree.