Hi Aliby - where are you based? UK? (Again, I use the caveat of only speakng for UK procedures)

I see you are in the hallowed group of having been passed without corrections - very well done! To be honest, I would have expected you to have received something in writing from your registry/research office by now comfirming this. Admittedly, if you passed without corrections, they don't have a list of them to type up, but you should still get writen confirmation of the outcome fairly promptly (1-2 weeks after viva)

If I were you I would contact yout internal examiner or research office to enquire what has happened. You may have been sent something, that may have gone astray given Xmas, etc.

cont'd...
3) Tricky one, this - depends on what your uni lets you do. Officially RAs are employees: even if their RA work forms the basis of a Phd thesis, they should only be registered as part time students alongside their RA job. However some places allow full time student status alongside the job, which gives all the added benefits/discounts for students. Not really fair as RAs are usually on more money that PhD students on stipends/self funders

I can answer from a UK perspective... not sure where you're based though.

1) "Stipends" apply to PhD studentships. Research Assistants (RAs) are contracted members of university staff and paid a salary, not a stipend. Their salaries are taxed and they pay national insurance.

2) This varies, but every RA I've known who's done a PhD simultaneously has completed more quickly. As an RA - a member of staff - you are more accountable to your seniors, who are official "bosses" rather than "supervisors". Deadlines are less flexible when part of an employment contract.

Hello to all new members

Hi Chris, I'm pretty sure there is an option in the endnote library (whatever version your'e using) tools menu that says "remove duplicates". However this will only work if the duplicates are EXACTLY the same (IE - no extra full stops, hyphens, etc). If they've appeared due the the reasons you suggest, there's no reason why they shouldn't be identical. Once you've selected that option, it will highlight all the duplicated records and give you an option to delete.

Not 100% sure, but Vancouver style springs to mind... I think that's a footnote style.

**Unless she`s going to Afghanistan, GMAIL works magnificently well everywhere.**

That's not the point though. A supervisor is not just in place for academic issues - they're meant (supposed) to asddress any other personal issues that a research student might have. And the bottom line is, no matter how good technology is at facilitating communication, a student should ALWAYS have someone to refer to in person, .

Krashty, how's this situation going? Are you still being passed from pillar to post? Don't give up - you are entitled to supervision at the point of study. Contact the registrar or the student union rep if ou have to.

If I were you, I would check your university regulations - contact the research student office. I am sure there are rules about supervisors going on sabbatical/study leave having to ensure that someone is in place, if only nominally to supervise you.

Picked their time well didn't they?! A few months before submission! Seriously though, chase this up with your research office/registrar if necessary. You are entitled to supervision for THE WHOLE OF YOUR REGISTRATION PERIOD with the university, and provisions shoydl be made if your supervisor is absent.

I've been reading the latest threads with interest. As someone who's completed the PhD, having had pretty good experiences in the system, I could still see A LOT wrong with it. I was a postgrad course rep, and some of the things people approached me with were unbelievable.

QT, I think it's great that you are so fired up. Obviously this is in reaction to your recent unfortunate events, so I would advise you to try to partially distance yourself from those (really hard I know) and wait to see what others have to say, but you certainly have my full admiration and support.

Whether focussing on bullying or not, there is something wrong with a postgrad system which has roughly a 50% drop out rate. If that was the case in our undergrad population there'd be a government inquiry. The Phd experience needs probing extensively to find out how much support (or lack thereof) students get.

When he asks for the interviews, does he mean transcripts or the recordings themselves? With recordings, it's normal to be asked for those - there are ethical guidelines about how long data is kept after finishing a project. If that's what evil soop requests, I wouldn't be too concerned as I think it's standard practice. (when I finished, I gave recordings to my soops and kept copies myself) If it's the transcripts he wants, simply say that you don't have them.

I ask this question a lot on here, but I'll ask again. Do you have a director of research(DoR)? By that, I don't mean the head of research/Dean/senior bod, I mean someome who is assigned as a 3rd party to manage you in case of problems with supervisor. At my place we a supervisor AND a DoR - a departmental staff member responsible for chairing our upgrade/review meetings and **for dealing with problems that arose with supervisors**.

If so, they should helping you to deal with this

Hi there, so sorry you've got ths hassle to deal with. As BB says, I think it is worth talking to the new uni - most unis offering PhD studentships only register PhD students as MPhils in the first year they're there, then they have to upgrade to PhD status at the end of the first year. Therefore is your existing MPhil an absolutely necessary pre-requisite?

contd...

in the case of the latter type of academic asking a question and taking all day about it, if I've been feeling brave I've sometimes laughed and shot back "I'm sorry, what was the question again?"! It often gets a titter from the audience and the person asking is then pressured to put it more plainly, and often are caught off guard - it's quite funny to see!

Another good response is:
"thank you for raising that, I feel I can't answer that right now, but I would be interested in talking to you about it afterwards"
OR
"that's a really interesting point, I will look into that"

Overall, DON'T WORRY you will be fine. AND DON'T QUIT BECAUSE OF THIS!

I think most of all that you ned to take a step back and congratulate yourself on successfully getting through your talk. You're being incredibly hard on yourself and continuing to beat yourself up over something like this will only deplete your confidence further. In time you WILL be able to answer questions and will not feel so lost. But these things take time. Don't hold this recent episode as a failure on your part to be a competent PhD student. You clearly are, or you wouldn't be being so hard on yourself!

As for academics asking questions, you'll also learn to realise that these fall into 2 camps. The ones who genuinely want to know something (and therefore ask succinct questions without expecting a full on debate), and those who like want to hear the sound of their own voice (usually the ones with years of expereince!) who ponitificate so much they don't actually ask a real question!

One of the things I (perhaps naively) hadn't anticipated was how anxious I'd feel. It's hard enough dealing with the loss and sadness, but I have felt incredibly stressed too. Things like dealing with the paperwork and trying to support my mum and Nana, whilst having the odd disagreement with my mum as well, have been so incredibly stressful. I feel so tired and wasted.

I am trying to get afew things done at work today, I may go home earlier though.

Thank you for your kind thoughts.x

Thank you for your reponses

Tricky, I managed to postpone the tutorial until today and have just done it - I think it went OK, but felt wobbly this morning as it was the first day I've been back. Grandad's funeral was on Tuesday and it really was a beautiful service. I felt fragile yesterday, but went to a lecture (I'm studying a part time course alongside my job) which took my mind off it slightly.

Shani, thank you, and I'm sorry to hear about your loss too. You are right about feeling better for having some structure in my life, but at the same time I feel "disrespectful" for continuing as normal. I feel so very empty. I totally get what you mean about not wanting to leave my family too, they are local, but it is literally only me, my mum, and my Nana.