Hi Sue

At my place there was a 3 month guideline limit - as in the MAXIMUM that a student should have to wait between submission and viva. This was not set in stone, it was just a guideline amount really to discourage supervisors from pinning their hopes on one person for the position of external, than finding that they're ill/indisposed and cannot come to conduct the viva for ages. My first choice was someone who wouldn't have been able to do it for 9 months, so the 3 month limit made my supervisors look for someone else suitable who could do it sooner. Mine was just over by a couple of weeks there was Xmas in between and the examiner was on hols, but most of my friends have been examined within 3 months.

Hi phdgirlie, bet you're glad the meeting's over. I think you are being victimised here and there may be the subject of a campaign to drive you out of the workspace. You are well within your rights to do something about it.

You should draft a letter to your head of department or director or research. You should say that you have been the recipient of unsubstantiated and unreasonsed accusations regarding that room, that you have done nothing to warrant them, that you are being harrassed to the point where you have had to seek advice and assistance from a union representative.

They simply cannot accuse people of things left right and centre and more importantly cannot expect anyone not to argue back if they haven't done anything wrong! Use the SU rep as much as you can - that's what they're for and sounds like you have a good one.

Ah, Juno, you've just reminded me of the pearls of wisdom (!) Viz had to offer!!

I was quite happy to take on married name, but for me I am estranged from my dad (whose surname I had before) and I wanted a new name, and I hadn't published anyhing in my maiden name either.

However if my circumstances were different I 'm sure i would have kept my maiden mane.

(sorry for any typos - have had some wine!!!1)

....what does it say on your degree certificate?
Sounds daft, but I never paid too much attention to mine when I received it at the grad ceremony, it got put away in it's envelope.

However, recently I had to supply a copy of it to someone ... I looked closely and am surpised that it just says "This is to certifiy that on {date), Kronk o'Dile was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy."

There's no indication of what subject it was in, what department I was in, etc, nothing. That's it. Are they all like this? I could say I've got a doctorate in anything if the certificate is taken at face value!

Brian May has been awarded his PhD

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6961171.stm

well sone to him, but...

48K words?!?!?!?!? he got off lightly! (perhaps he insisted on playing guitar solos in his viva and the examiner could no longer bear it !!)

This is a good link

http://www.reading.ac.uk/studyskills/study_resources/study_guides/vivacorrections.htm#After_your_viva:_how_to_manage_corrections_and_revisions

and in bold, it states what I've just said above...

**Remember: In years to come no one will ever ask you about your corrections. Many top academics had to make major changes to their theses and this has helped, not harmed, their careers. **

"My viva result is very rare"

FWIW, I think it's actually more common that most people think - it just doesn't get reported that much because Unis focus on the final FINAL outcome (if that makes sense?!) Their RAE stats for successful PhDs are down to the final corrected submission, not the post viva discussion result. Therefore you rarely see stats that detail who has major amendments, minor ones, whatever. And lets face it, when you write it on your CV, you don't put what correction basis you have.

The thing to focus on is that you WILL get your PhD eventually. It's unfortuanate that you've bad a horrid examiner. My suspicion is that she herself was given major corrections. Of everyone I know who received that outcome, their examiner said "oh well, this happened to me". They somehow feel that because they've gone through it, they have to influct it on other people!

PS; Juno is absolutely right, the examiner should not be making assertions about the longevity of a PhD period determining the outcome. That's completely insane. If that's the case why aren't all PhD studentships and registration periods automatically 4 years?

Are you being asked to amend substantial sections of writing, or does she want you to do more practical work/research? If it's the former, it's worth remembering that the actual work will not necessarily be commensurate with the length of time they give you. A year/18 months sounds alot, but they know that people are working, and have other committments by then so it's not in examiners' interests to give a more iminent deadline. If however, she wants more emprical work doing, this has to be properly justified, and not based on subjective whining (IE, "oooh, it took me 10 years to do my PhD, I ate nothing but gruel and everyone else should do the same!")

I'm so sorry you've had to endure this - PHDs and vivas are tough enough without you having to go through the disappointment of the outcome.

This bothers me:
"She told the internal examiner she was never going to be favourable to that genre of work."

You said that you're internal agreed with your supervisors who were confident that you'd have no major problems. Did your internal agree with the external's comments? If not, then you DO have the right to have the thesis reviewed by a third independent examiner. Examiners have to agree and if your internal thinks that minor amendments would be appropriate, he/she should voice this. A viva should not be a case of one examiner being coerced by the other - they BOTH have to agree on the outcome.

God, PhDgirlie, what a nightmare! I would suggest that (if you can) you write down a log of everything - when you have used the lab and what has been said to you, etc

The supervisor dounds like s/he is just disinterested in the arguments rather than not believing you - to them it's just playground squabbles. However it's affecting your ability to work and that's the issue you need to carry forward. A university has a duty to provide research students with the equipment they need to carry out their work. IF your department intends to revok your permit just based on someone else's story without hearing yours, I would write a carefully worded letter to your director of research, and perhaps notify the postgrad stufdent union.

Finally, you need to approach your supervisors with regard to taking time out. I don't think you should do this in an email, but try to see them personally if you can, you'll be able to talk more freely. Do you have a director of research ? Sometimes they are best people to see with regard to things like this as they are not as close to your actual work but are responsible for your welfare as you progress through the PhD. Perhaps it is worth seeing them?

Overall, and academic worth their salt will have seen these kind of difficulties before and would rather have a student who takes time out to return more prepared, rather than have them muddling through while distressed. Good luck, and remember you can always talk to us on the forum

With regard to therapy, it soudns like you didn't have a positive time of it before. I can firmly say that things have changed dramatically in the last 10 years (I work in mental health research), and approaches are much more patient centred than they were.I don't know if you could afford to go privately, but if so, this is a very useful website which lists counsellors and therapists by area ** http://www.bacp.co.uk/ ** you can filter them by speciality too.

With regard to your marriage, I think you answered that yourself in your post - that you've not been looking after each other. How far did you get when you talked? That is something that is easily remedied by chaning your way of thinking. It's so important to keep talking and I think you need each other more than ever in light of your recent bereavement.

Hi there - I'm so sorry you're going through such a bad time right now. PhDs are hard enough as it is, without the additional pressures you've had to handle. It sounds like you're trying to keep your suffering as separate as possible to your work, which is admirable, but there comes a point when you can only go so far and if you go beyond that point your work will suffer too. I think the GP is right to recommend time off, and when all said and done, supervisors are human too. In the long run, they need to get you through your PhD, and would much prefer you to write something good when you are more stable rather than plough through in crisis and risk failure/referral.

They are usually pass/merit/distinction, unless it's a "professional" masters that converts an existing degree into something else (like law or possibly psychology) - some of these may be graded 1st, 2.1 etc, but very rarely.

Hope it goes well for you and well done on getting your place!

Sorry, my grasp of the English language has gone to pot today also!!
Oh well, it's monday, I'm trying (and failing!) to write a paper..

the last sentence was meant to read "I doubt any 2nd husband would be too chuffed if his wife carried on using her 1st husband's name"

!