Just hang in there. Stay calm and continue ticking along. You are so near and things seem to be going in the right direction. Good luck

Thank you Tru! I'm trying my best to focus on work which has helped a lot. My thesis does seem to make an appearance in my dreams every night though...! I just hope the wait doesn't go on for months.

Will (hopefully) post an update soon!

Hope you get an answer soon - fingers crossed!

Good luck faded07. A long wait indeed-wishing you all the best for a quick resolution so you can celebrate and move on.

Faded - thinking of you. I am waiting to hear whether my admendments have been accepted and it is all I can do not to check my email every five minutes! I don't know how you must be feeling on tenterhooks all this time!

Hi timefortea, so sorry to hear you are experiencing the same anxiousness as me! It is truly awful checking your emails every hour and wondering whether 'this time the email will be there'. If it's any consolation, you'll probably get your result before I get mine!! My university have been so bad...I can't bear the thought of another 5 month wait, I just want it to be over.

Please do let me know when you get your result. Wishing you all the best - in the struggle together! :)

Have you had any news yet, faded? I'm handing in my resubmission at the end of the week. The thought of months of sleepless nights is killing me already!

Mus

Hi muspectrum,

Unfortunately I still don't have any news. It's been nearly a month since my university put this internal panel together and I'm still none the wiser.

I've been sending off job applications for lectureships this week and it's felt so demotivating to still have to put 'Miss' as my title instead of 'Dr'. My viva was 27 months ago and I've been through two revision periods...yet I'm still waiting for my PhD to be awarded. I have to endure being relegated to the back of the job application queue even though I've written nearly double what other people have in my field have written to gain their PhD. Most of my colleagues thesis' average at around 80,000-90,000 words. Mine is 163,000 and I still might have to write more if this internal panel agrees with my external that a third revision period should be permitted.

Anyway, rant over. There's nothing I can do but wait and I certainly can't chase it any more.

I'm sure your resubmission will be successful - my circumstances are incredibly rare so don't let my story demotivate you. Congrats on resubmitting and I wish you all the best - let me know how you get on! :)

That is truly awful! I've been keepingg an eye on your posts for a while now! My supervision team and I are also at the wits end with mine as whilst my internal has been helpful, they have kept moving the goalposts when we've tried to clarify things. Again, like you, I seem to be doing way more than the average PhD. I did have a small victory though... My external demanded another printed and bound copy, its neither the norm or expected here and on top of the 1600+ fee I've had to pay, I wasn't willing to fork out another 100+ for printing. Argued it out and the Grad school agreed I was correct :-) Same goes with handing back my old theses for comparison when they demanded everything re-written again. Minor victories eh ;-)

Keeping my fingers crossed for you!! Apologies for typos... quick break for me before I continue popping the submission together.
Mus xx

So sorry to hear that you are still waiting, faded. I hope you have plenty of emotional support from friends and family, and wish you best of luck with your job interviews. I think the fact that you have handled all this without giving up speaks volumes about how committed you are and how capable, and I hope you can soon move on to the next stage of the academic career you deserve.

Hi Faded. I got my corrections approved so I am officially done! I really hope you get a positive answer very soon too.

Normally, you can appeal against a "fail" or "MPhil" decision but only if there are irregularities in the examination process. This will only result in re-examination by new examiners rather than the original decision being overturned.

I think you may be at the point where might consider appealing against a third set of revisions, with the defence that you have already done everthing asked of you. However, that depends on how prepared you are to restart the examination process from scratch with new examiners.

Your situation is strange to me to say the least, with three sets of major revisions??? In the worst case you should face two sets of revisions, a major set with or without re-examination followed by at most minor corrections should the revised script be deemed acceptable PhD standard. Your extermal examiner has already exceeded this by asking for a second major set, let alone a third set (by special permission - I've never heard of this).

If further major revisions were deemed necessary then not meaning to sound harsh, by normal procedure the logical outcome should have been to downgrade to MPhil or fail. The fact this has not happened is irregular in itself and thus may give you grounds for appeal.

If your extermal examiner has these concerns, then it may have been kinder to fail you so at least you could start the appeals process rather than drag the process out as you describe.

I note from later posts that you've talked to the Chair and expressed your concerns. I hope you hear back within a reasonable period and that the long wait you're facing soon comes to an end. I know from other's posts on here that people have faced considerable waits. Academia is welll known for this, basically putting people's lves on hold and that in itself can be very unfair.

I seriously hope you manage to sort things out.

Ian

Amazing stuff! Many congratulations to you - I hope you are celebrating in style! As for my result, I am just about to post a response to the thread below...and I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!

Well everyone, it's been a long and tedious wait since my Viva in 2014, two correction periods, a lost viva report, incorrect results released to me, an insane external examiner, many tears, many breakdowns...and a lot of perseverance....and I am pleased to announce as of today that:

I HAVE MY PHD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The panel have determined that I be awarded my PhD with no further revisions and have stated that they I have done everything asked of me. They even wrote in their report that it was clear I was asked to adopt a very different ideological stance by my external and hinted that this was a bit out of place. Hallelujah!

I was sat eating my lunch in my office at the university where I work and casually opened up my email account without expecting anything. I'm so used to checking my emails 20 times a day and receiving nothing, so when I saw the subject title 'Outcome of panel - good news', my heart literally stopped beating. I had to get my colleague to read the email to ensure that I wasn't hallucinating!! I then had to go and teach a seminar shortly after and all my students clapped and cheered for me - it was so overwhelming and SO, SO, SO worth it.

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone on here who has taken the time to write to me with words of encouragement and advice. You don't understand how much it lifted me during the times I felt like I'd never see the end of my PhD. I'm sure these threads will help many PhD students in the future (although I sincerely hope nobody ever finds themselves in my situation!) so THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

I have dreamed of being able to write on this forum that I've got my PhD...and I've bloody well got it!!!

If you want something in life, never stop fighting for it. Even if it takes 8 years...! Finally, a happy ending! :)

Wonderful news! I've followed your story and hoped to see good news every time I see your name on here - so happy for you that it's finally happened :). Can't even imagine how relieved and glad you must be after all you've been through.

Thank you too for sharing your story here. So often in real life you only hear about the good, 'normal' outcomes, which is very isolating for those of us who have complications and difficulties with the process. And you persisted and got there in the end - it give me hope to keep going with my re-submission and not give up hope.

Congratulations!! I hope you're able to celebrate, relax and move on with your life, and finally put all this awfulness behind you.