Hello Angel,

It's good to see you back, I just wish things had worked out better for you. You might want to try speaking to the Students Union as I'm sure they would have someone who could help particularly because this seems to be more about academic politics than it does about your thesis. Another option would be to investigate the possibility of getting a different external examiner or an additional external- I don't know if it is possible at this stage but it's worth a try but you'd need to ask your graduate admin staff. It may also be worth speaking to the graduate admin staff because they will know the rules and regulations much better than the academics and probably could give you some advice. If I was in your position I would also try for extenuating circumstances given the health problems the PhD created for you.

I totally understand how you feel about the whole resubmit process. I had another viva last January and was given 6 months for minor corrections. I handed those in and one of the externals came back at the end of September with something else which he hadn't picked up until I handed the minor corrections in. I'm still sorting it out now because my full time job is so busy that I rarely get much time to work on it. I am sick and tired of my thesis and I hate it.

Looking on the bright side and with some luck we'll both have a PhD by the end of 2010 ;-)

Hi there,

I'm a full time lecturer too and completed my PhD part-time.  It took me 9 years all together although I did have a break of 12 months half way through. Other part timers at my institution who work full time take between 7 and 10 years to complete.  The reality is that it is very difficult to switch between PhD and your job even if your PhD is related to your work. I was given a day a week to work on my research but the problem for me was that my job tended to leak into that day and the weekend too. 

You need to be really tough with your priorities if you're part-time. I allowed my work to take over and I should have learnt to say 'no' sometimes.  In retrospect, it would have better to be full-time but I couldn't afford it.

Think seriously about going full-time if you can.
:-)

Speaking as someone who has been through the process, I agree with Tt and Bilbo. Don't be tempted to make extra work for yourself. I did exactly what you're suggesting and found a significant portion of one chapter that I thought made no sense whatsoever and consequently I didn't sleep properly for a week before my viva because I was panicking. The examiners made no comment on it at all but picked up on things that I didn't anticipate.

Sort the typos out but leave it at that. Good luck (up)

Try reading the introduction and conclusion first which gives you a sense of what the paper is about. If you then can't understand the main body of the paper, find other papers that cite the one that you're reading and try reading them instead to get a different view of the topic. In my experience mathematical and statistical techniques aren't explained well in research papers so it might help to find a couple of relevant text books to give you the technical background.

I do think that some academics like to dress up reletively simple concepts to make them sound smart and of course some are just not good at explaining things. I used to work for a prof whose standard response to any question was "Well, it's obvious isn't it!"

Good luck (up)

Hi Anonphd,

Definitely follow the regulations to the letter. Although this is related to employment rather than a PhD, a colleague of mine was told that his contract wasn't going to be renewed. However, the university didn't follow the correct procedure and the union managed to exploit this with the result that my colleague got his job back.

Get the student union involved and make sure that you follow all the procedures because it just might make the difference.

I can imagine how devasted you must be but keep trying and the best of luck.

(up)

Shamishanc, I totally agree with Bonzo. Stick it out if you can. From what you have said about your supervisor, she's probably anxious to make sure that you're a good student and that you'll be a success in order to make her look good. I understand how you must feel with someone constantly breathing down your neck because I wouldn't like it much either but the alternative is worse. I had non-existent supervision - only one of my supervisors looked at any of my thesis and this was a cursory glance 6 weeks before I submitted. It was no surprise when at my viva I was told that I had to resubmit, to be honest I thought I was going to fail.

Stick with your supervisor. Don't forget that your thesis isn't the only piece of research you'll ever do - it's only the start and when you have it you'll be able to move onto the research you really want to do.

:-)

Eska, a friend of mine used to swear by Jack Daniels to help with the marking. Apparently, everything looks much better after a glass of JD. Personally I find the Stair Method works well - find a nice big staircase, throw the essays down the stairs and the ones that go the furthest get the best marks. Feedback is also easy "Your essay was too light and not aerodynamic." Easy ;-)

Well done Dr Lara (up) Excellent news. Now you can have a good rest and enjoy being a clever clogs :-)

Brilliant news Smilodon, well done :-):-):-) You definitely deserve a break. Minor corrections are a pain but nothing like the pain of actually writing the damn thing.

I'm lucky because my examiners only needed an electronic copy for the minor corrections. The various copies of my thesis will have cost me about £400 by the time I'm done :p Serve me right for leaving everything to the last minute ;-)

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Like Smilodon, I haven't had much time to spend thinking etc because I work full time but if you asked me whether I regret doing the PhD the answer is definitely 'no'. I can't honestly say I've enjoyed it but it has given me a different perspective. I'd also agree that being called 'Dr' will make up for some of the pain ;-)

Smilodon, I hope it went well today (up)

Yep, I'm going with the examiner right or wrong. It's driving me nuts though. The examiner is also very fond of commas and Word is protesting, I have green lines everywhere :p

I'm working on the list of minor corrections and one of the examiners has corrected my punctuation and grammar. One of the corrections required that I change a 'who' to 'whom' but according to Word 2007 (I have all the grammar checking things switched on because I'm not a great writer) disagrees with the change. So what do I do? Go with the examiner I suppose. This doesn't fill me with confidence though :-(

Hi Smilodon, I received detailed feedback from my examiners about a month after my viva. I'm not sure if this is standard procedure but they told me what I needed to do. In certain areas it was a general 'you need to be more explicit' in others it was more specific 'create a flow chart describing...'. I think that in my case it didn't help that my undergrad degree is maths and my PhD is economics because I don't sound like an economist when I write and they don't like my style of writing. But hey ho, nearly there. :p

Thanks for the thumbs up Bilbo. It helps to have a moan ;-)

Another Twilight Zoner here ;-) I'm in the minor corrections slump at the moment. I completed the minor corrections and thought I was done. HA! My examiner sent them back with further corrections. Now the examiner is correcting my punctuation - adding commas and semi-colons - and I'm not sure I agree with all of the changes. It is seriously driving me nuts. I know I'm nearly there and I know I'm moaning but I'm losing the will to live :p

Don-Eng your supervisor sounds exactly like mine.  He used to bring in stacks of cash to the university and was indulged as a result so he was never challenged regardless of how badly he behaved. He is belligerent and will never even contemplate the possibility that he might be wrong.  I have seem him reduce undergrads to tears (unless they happen to be blond and pretty - seriously). When I challenged him over his lack of interest in my PhD, he actually told me that he thought I'd given up!  Fortunately he is now retiring.

I totally agree with you that the PhD process in the UK is as much about luck as anything else.  I ended up with poor supervisors but fortunately I chose good examiners who have been nothing but superb otherwise I would have failed. There really aren't the safeguards with PhD supervision that there with undergrad studies.  I'm also a lecturer and my teaching and assessing activities for undergrad and taught postgrad programmes are closely monitored both internally and externally. As far as I can tell there is no such process for PhDs. 

My PhD has been an exercise in endurance and I feel no better equipped for research than I did when I started. I am lucky that I have great colleagues who I collaborate with and working with them has taught me far more than my supervisor ever did.