Treeoflife-I requested for extension from my supervisors but they were convinced it's okay to submit! I was not. I knew I needed three more months and Could have easily submitted in September . Local British students who started with me are still submitting as we speak, and I had to submit even if I knew it was not ready. It's discrimination in every possible way if looked from this point of view. The supervisors support their favorites and will go out of their way to remove people like us as we are competitive especially in the job market. My supervisors are dishonest with me. They just wanted my money through the fee route-and now I am of no use to them.

Thank you all ..I do feel a bit positive especially after what glowworm suggests to be very formal and professional. So far I have not antagonized my supervisor but my problem at this stage of my Phd is such that i need very serious conversation about my prospects of passing after R and R. And he is not anymore going to be able to help because none of his past students had this problem. And he lacks the experience and the confidence to deal with something like this and that really really frustrates me. Infact, in many ways, he got me into this because of the section on ethics! My supervisors did not alert me at all to anonymize my informants something that they were reading for the last two years since I was writing! If only they had warned me I would had a different outcome. Of course, I anonymized some bits like location of my research because I have like 40 informants in my thesis-it was impossible to anonymize all of them and I totally missed it while writing up but that it's why supervisors should do their jobs-pick up on less obvious things. Ahhh....drives me mad. The examiner made a big thing out of this. Thanking my stars that day I did not fail outright. In any case, I had submitted in a rush as well. No rest.....straight 18 months after fieldwork and submitted it!

Can you tell a bit more? Where is this research? Is it generally the problem? Also, so far, how far have you done your research and any preliminary thoughts/hunch/hypothesis? Give me some more so I can help you. Also, what is your discipline so I can advice on method.

I was wondering if anyone has faced communication breakdown with supervisors where you feel you want to honestly know if your supervisor is genuinely interested in seeing you through the Phd process. I know the that in the UK, the Phd pass percentage has decreased at least in my university although this dos not reflect the number of
PhDs being awarded after resubmission and revision which is my situation. But,I can already feel my supervisor is not looking forwarded to see me successful. I know he has his favorites (local UK students whose success will get him more professional accolades than helping an international student like me). Everytime I visit him, I get perfunctory and mild supportive statements like 'just because you are resubmitting, does not mean you will pass" or well....try your best'. I mean this makes me furious especially when he knows me for four years and knows how badly i need to finish Phd! Makes me want to ask him directly his intentions so I can probably just change the supervisor. How do I have this kind of conversation? At the end of the day, because I am on a visa, I need his support in every step of my Phd. Imagine I cannot even apply for a visa without his initial signatures!

I am planning to meet him on Tuesday unannounced so I can just be sarcastic and he is not ready with his prepared answers and ask him indirectly what conversation he was having with my internal examiner on the day of my viva as I had seen them chat in his office an hour earlier. I really want to find out if he was forewarned that I won't be pass the thesis and I'll get an R & R? Is that even allowed professionally where examiners and supervisors talk to each other before the student's viva? In that case, should I just give up right now and not bother so everybody (except me) is happy! I am quite miserable and even if I know I can definitely boost up my next submission, I still feel I cannot trust him anymore.

You are perfectly fine as you are. Don't let your supervisors dictate or shape your rhythm of writing. Instead, start getting published if you think you are hitting something more insightful, get that published before your Phd, that article is more important than your Phd. You are facing the same problem I faced- being dumbed down by the Phd supervision process and the hassle of arranging both supervisors to read your drafts and such. The major problem of doing Phd is to accept how litte there is any intellectual component. If anything, Phd only means they you can articulate in that particular language which for most of us is in English. You are not the next or Stephen
Hawkins. Or if in social science, Foucalt or Bourdieu. Unfortunately, this academic pace is what cripples intellectualism becaue some students are ahead of their supervisors like it happens for most international students like myself as we face immigration and visa problems making us more focussed and more ambitious than local students. It's not fair how we produce PhDs compared to them but once you are here, you are part of this archaic system And even if you tell yourself this is better than what you could have done back home, you are still being dumbed down and under appreciated. I have learnt that here, they are always going to give preference to their own kinds first unless, you are already published then it is beyond doubt that you deserve to finish wit that pace. So, divert intellectualism in to academic journals.

Dr. Butterfly congrats to you! I got R & R outcome in Septmeber 2014 and aiming to submit Mar 2015 but the uni has given me until Feb 2016, so really not sure if i need that long even if I procrastinate, I should be done by Feb really.hear your story does sound that this might be something to look forward to... Anyways, I am getting back to my writing...

I was wondering if anybody can tell me if it will help to do a HEA ? Does it help to get jobs both in primary/secondary school or even for higher education like universities and colleges? I am looking for full time academic position and less on teaching and so was not sure if this was worth doing now as I am totally focused on publishing my research and have very little time to fit in anything extra but if it helps, then I will consider it. At my University, I have seen nobody promoting this so don't know whom to ask.

Guard your feelings....this is already a unequal power relationship and you are vulnerable to being both emotionally and physically abused and he will still have a job and you might not even have a degree. Get your degree first. You didn't go to find love at the uni but to get some dignified and secured job later. Love will happen when it's supposed to happen. Anyways, there does not see to be any concrete evidence that he might have any special feelings for you. He might be intrigued by you and your interest in hi beyond the normal academic one-so you are already feeding his ego. He will never tell you his true feeling anyways.he probably thinks your intimate life is far better than his. It took me five years to tell me supervisor that i have a partner and that too I bothered to let him know only because I don't want him to think that I am lonely and have no life outside of uni! Supervisors have a weird notion about their students's personal lives... They are interested but they stick with the main bone of the relationship which is professional. Sometimes, they feel insecured if they know you are sexually active as well but by and large, if us tick with one partner, then your image is safe.
If I may ask and if you feel comfortable to reply, are you an international student? Usually, if you are from the local culture, you will by now know what his true feelings are and not speculate.

Tea tea tea....Lemmon, Ginger, honey

You are always expected to speak in a certain way -scholarly way. And even though you know you are more intellectual than others, just have to except sometime bullshit from people inferior to you. As I said a lot of academia is not intellectual! My problem has been this- I am bipolar so I run out patience quickly and need answer urgently than others. Unfortunately, the system does not really care for people with such personality disorders although there are some in my school with OCS. however, I got diagnosed very late. I found thePhd experience extremely draining. The pace didn't suit me. I was going at 60 miles an hour but the structure is not even half my speed! The system does not like intelligent and super speed students. I felt the uni as a kind do asylum. Many people even after getting a job there feel vulnerable. But if you get published before of during the Phd , then, you will feel very morally secured and superior and that feeling is definitely positive. There is one faculty our department recently hired as a professor and he is only 35! You can imagine his ego. Although, he is extremely overweight-so obviously something had to be sacrificed. There is no doubt you are extremely capable and scientific in your approach and diligent. Unfortunately, that is not enough. All in all, Phd is an unpredictable journey. Even if you have trustworthy supervisors, sometimes they might still fail your expectations. From my experience, people who keep on moving in their lives like get married and have kids are the only ones who seem to enjoy the experience the most and somehow the system is more fairer to them. Doing Phd is considered an elite pursuit, so if you can compensate that prejudice against academicians by showing your family or marital side, the experience is much more secured and safe.

Dear Solo

I think the structure in Phd is that there is no structure. It's amazing how much uncertainty is there. I know exactly what you feel.....you just want to know if your three years would be spent well and if there are roadblocks, where to turn to. You want to feel safe and secured. That is why choose a supervisor that you can talk to very honestly about your fears and insecurities. In my case,
one of my supervisor has left the university and the other one behaves like an advanced graduate student. I have never felt confident about anything that he says after meetings. Instead, I have found another professor with whom I can open up my deepest fears and sometimes even personal issues which my current supervisor is just not interested in knowing. Be prepared to be judged on a day to day basis. Although there is no one gossiping and open blasphemisation, people are constantly sizing you up. One day you will feel above the rest and the next day you crash like glass roof. Sometimes, it's best just to avoid socialization. That said,you might want to cling to someone just to know want is happening but there are insane amount of list-serves that will keep you updated and several workshops that will tell you a lot about Phd experience.
CONTINUING MY MESSGE IN A NEW POST

I am an advanced Phd student (post-viva) and got Revision and Resubmission outcome ( already half way through with my corrections, submitting early next year). But, it was for a good cause. I definitely did not get adequate support from my supervisors who said they could not supervise me anymore and I had no option but to submit the thesis when it clearly was not ready. It was my examiners who have been very generous and personally interested in my research. My experience says that first of all choose supervisors that you get along well with and can be there for you in all kinds of academic and non-academic crisis as you will be spending so much time with them. You should have excellent communication skills and you have to be professional in your approach. I have seen students who treat PhDs like a job often perform better and feel better than people like me who love to do Phd for doing only research and hang around in libraries. Don't chase big names unless you know your personal life is already in good shape, which is rare for most students as it means relocating in a different city and mostly sacrificing most of your likings in the pursuit of a Phd. Secondly, choose a University which is known for research more than teaching. In the later case, the faculty life will be awful which means the supervision too will be pathetic. In a research dominated university, students get a lot of input and fair assistance from every corner of the university. Thirdly, Just like any profession, be prepared to accept politics and power games. Don't loose heart when you will be faced with contradictions and hypocrisy. Yes, a lot of academic life involves non-academic aspects. You might be confused why you are not making progress in Phd despite doing all the readings and submissions of drafts. The academic profession is undergoing massive change, research standards are only getting tougher which only means more politics and more power games. On my academic journey, I have seen less academic activity and more public relations skills and strategies people use to stick around and carry on. Unless you already have a book or a peer-reviewed article somewhere, the day-to-day life as a Phd student is hard. You might be lucky if you don't have to be on campus and just come for supervision or workshop which will happen throughout the year.

You must be commended to attempt doing things which even normal l people struggle to do. Not that you should not push for a Phd, you should continue to see what help your institution can offer. Maybe use the appeal process. Sounds like should have pushed for a disability support or probably changed the university when they were clearly incompetent at dealing and understanding your special needs. Can you not sue the university?
This is exactly what had happened to another disabled girl in my department who was doing Phd coursework on a wheelchair. Our university does not have even lifts for disabled people so she could never go beyond the ground floor! Eventually, she finished her MS but moved to the US where she is completing her PhD. In the US, it's against the law to discriminate against disabled people.

Is both not a good thing? But academic is more another journals and less about proceedings because journals is easily available to everyone and everywhere and proceedings can take a while and usually not cited as journal articles tend to get cited and increase your visibility. Conference is normally associated with networking.

Dear pineapple

Can you please suggest what your strategy was to submit strong letters of refernces? Who wrote them for you and did you get any support from the examiners? How did you convince your referees to write one for you even though you were rewriting? My supervisors are supportive, infact, today I am submitting my first post doc application and my supervisor already submitted a reference for me. But, my university won't allow contact with the externa l so I cannot submit theirs. Does that matter?

My situation is a bit like yours only difference seems is that I am just starting to work on my R and R but also simultaneously applying for both postdocs and junior faculty positions. It's good to know that in the interviews, the R and R will not matter, although, I am going to be diplomatic and not necessarily try to be honest to my academic networks because news spreads quickly and you never know who will land up interviewing you.