Hi Tudor,

I think Newlease36 post gives a really structure for this. At my university, annual reports/reviews are also completed via an online template that turns into a downloadable report.

I can't access these currently because I am under examination. However, headings included practical things like:

@ progress (data collected, conferences attended or poster or papers delivered; draft chapters, etc);
@ finances (what money had been used from any research funds provided);
@ milestones achieved (ethics report approval; data collection stage over; draft of thesis)
@ Problems or concerns (lack of data; interview concerns; number of participants; ethical issues if any)
@ Supervision (what meetings/communications had taken place; any concerns or changes to supervision)

Once you had completed your online reporting under the headings, you were also invited to upload a written report that you might have written. This could include the content above and additional items that you wished to mention in a summary or similar. I did try to access the specific headings (the ones above are from memory) but unfortunately I don't have access any more and any downloaded copies that I might have kept are buried in files, within files, within files on my laptop-if I did keep them that is. After the first couple of reports, I tended just to report briefly and factually using the templates, rather than writing lengthy documents.

Does your university provide any guidelines in the research or faculty information in their online resources sections?

Best of luck with it all , P.

Hi there thesislife,

I know we all get imposter syndrome at various times and I think most of us will have had the experience of extreme criticism of our work or presentation, or have been shredded at an interview panel or similar. Sometimes this is in academia, in the PhD program, through responses to articles or work, sometimes it happens at work or in job reviews or interviews. Quite often now it occurs in social media on a daily or local basis. (I deal with a lot of similar stuff occurring in secondary schools with teenagers and sometimes their parents using social media as a platform and it is a serious issue).

It is a horrible experience and depending on our circumstances at the time, can range from an upsetting experience, that we do recover from within a few days to a week or so ("with a bit of help from our friends"), to a gut wrenching experience that colours our interpretation of events for some months to follow.

My thoughts are, based on what you have written, that this experience for you was very upsetting and has now linked into any anxiety you may feeling, and the anxiety itself has now become the problem-not your PhD-which-based on my interpretation of what you have written, seems as if it is going really well.

Because your supervisor does appear so competent and experienced, it seems that you are worried about approaching them with your feelings about this (and they may not be the right person to help at the moment as while they need to be supportive, they also need to be critical in order to help you advance).

Do you have any other supportive people in your program who you can talk to? They may be a more experienced (and 'non-competitive' candidate or post doc), they may be a counsellor at the student centre, they may be a younger academic who you know through meetings and presentations who you click with? This person may help you through conversations in exploring your feelings about your academic work so they don't just build up inside you and become frightening.

I would also recommend seeing a GP (General Practitioner-local doctor) regarding your feelings of anxiety if they continue, as the GP will be able to assess whether you need some further support (for a little while at least) and/or can listen and offer an informed perspective. They will also be able to link you into any local services that might help.

Arthemesus, I am sorry to read that you are feeling so low and have had such an unfortunate experience with your Phd so far. I think you have been given some excellent advice and hope that this has been helpful to you.

You mentioned that you had been referred to student counselling but that this was not helpful. I would encourage you to persevere with the counselling for more than one visit, and if you continue to find this unhelpful, return to your GP to see if they can recommend another counsellor-perhaps one outside of the university.

My thoughts are that you will need some face to face support beyond supervisors and forumites as you sort through this final year, and it sounds as if your family are far away or perhaps not helpful in this situation (even if they do love you). Counselling is something that takes a little while to work. It is a bit like taking a course of medicine-improvement can sometimes take a while. However if you do engage with it regularly, it can be very supportive and the counsellor will work with you to help you find ways forward that right now you can't access as you are distressed.

If you continue to have dark thoughts please return to the GP and be very honest about your thoughts and feelings. Kind regards P

I have just submitted! So happy about this. My second supervisor raced through the final chapters in record time in the last couple of days once she had managed to work her way through some responsibilities and I made the corrections every time I received some feedback. Worked round the clock in the last day and evening and it has been uploaded and officially submitted.

Whew!! I will let people know of outcomes/corrections when it's marked. Most likely at least another 3 months or so before I even hear, but ah well. Best of luck to all on this thread-its a great feeling to be here at long long last. Just under 6 years to the day of starting the PhD as a part time student :) :) :).

Hi MissUCA, can you discuss your concerns with your second supervisor or someone from your panel or advisory team? This could be an informal conversation initially, but they may be able to provide useful advice as to what you can do or what the next step would be.

Hi Nige, when you say struggling to put together a proposal, do you have a topic in mind generally? What is your area of interest and what aspects of this area do you feel strongly about? You could spend some time in reading about this topic in order to see where there may be 'gaps' or thinly researched areas of interest that warrant further exploration. This might assist with the general topic or area. Usually on a proposal, you need to come up with between 1-3 general questions to address about your area and then the PhD becomes a process of exploring and refining these, through a proposed pattern of research or data collecting project.

EG: General topic in area of interest= How do collaborative learning teams help to inform teacher practice in the visual arts?

Specific areas to narrow down=visual arts in schools=visual arts in secondary schools=visual arts in stage 6 visual arts studies.
Groups of teachers=all teachers?....Senior school certificate teachers...
What do I mean by collaborative learning teams?----voluntary teams, school faculty teams??

How am I going to collect data? Survey, interviews, focus groups, reports?

What literature do I need to start reading around this? (Looking for key players in the area-who are they? What are they saying)?

What methodology do I think I will use-statistical data? Reports and policies? Qualitative data-interviews and observations??

Once you have some idea around these areas (note it is all still pretty sketchy and much of it is just questioning and rough ideas), you have an idea about what to read and you can begin to do some preliminary reading around the area and come up with a general proposal.

This is just one method or example. There would be many others and other ways as well. If you can, go to your nearest university library and find some literature on how to write a PhD. These books will have much material on formulating proposals that you can use to apply to different institutions. The institutions will often allocate a supervisor based on your proposal and area of interest. Good luck with it all.

Hi there, my experience with supervisors is that when they are 'sticking to their guns' about a matter, then that is what usually occurs. It is your PhD, although you mentioned a grant which was obtained by the supervisor. Your supervisor's perception might be that while it is his name and reputation at stake on the grant application, then he would prefer that his structures and sample sizes are adhered to.

Do you think that sample size might be important here for the findings? Or perhaps that is behind your supervisor's thinking? If this is the case, is there a problem with having two groups of 7-8 for delivery of the intervention? (It may be that people drop out as well or have an inconsistent attendance pattern, so perhaps this is why he is thinking of 16).

When you talk to him about this, what does he say about the research that you provide as evidence for your claim? Does he read it or acknowledge any of your arguments?

Sorry, it is a pain. I have a couple of very good supervisors and the second supervisor is stubborn, experienced and set in her ways, very thorough and very busy. It causes me some frustration as I have to wait for ages for feedback and I have to follow most of it as she won't sign me off unless I do. I haven't found a way to change this though and have had to just be patient. My Masters supervisor was exactly the same. In the end I wanted to complete and pass my theses and had to go along with their processes.

Hi Tudor,

My thesis is a 'bog standard' type of thesis, and I have written and presented a conference paper but not published journal papers from this yet. (I will shortly though). So my response refers to my thesis, which is pretty much finished (just waiting on some final corrections from second supervisor).

I ended up just having an 'Implications of the study' section in my Chapter 8 Conclusion. There were both implications for practice, and some that questioned theory and policy but I didn't separate them out into separate sections, as in this final chapter I was trying to reduce the number of sections overall.

I indicated within the text and the section clearly whether the implication impacted on practice or theory but did not give these their own subheadings but synthesised it all together into the one section, which consisted of several paragraphs. (They did get their own paragraph though).

I don't know if this is helpful or not, just passing on what I have done. The heading 'theoretical implications' seems fine to me. I imagine your supervisors might comment if they didn't like it (mine certainly have over the process). Thinking as I write, if your implication is criticising a specific theoretical stance that is widely adhered to in practice, it might need more than a short comment however and a fairly rigorous analysis?

Hi Iamlost86,

Can you go and see a Medical doctor (on or off campus) and request some support through a counselling referral and a general wellbeing check. The doctor may be able to write a letter that helps you appeal your university's opinion that you 'MUST' submit in a month.

They may also be able to help with referrals to places that might provide some support with living arrangements, and they may also prescribe some medication that might assist you manage these difficult feelings you have described (temporarily at least). At the very least, they will check out your stress levels and listen to you in person, and that in itself can be supportive and help with clarifying issues for you.

There may be some scope for an extension for the submission, provided you are not asking for financial support in any way. Many people submit their PhD's over the stated time frame (both full and part timers). Usually the need for meeting an absolute submission date is tied to funding grants. (You would need to check this though with an academic advisor or student counsellor).

Even taking this one step towards self care, either contacting a counsellor, as has been suggested, or seeing a doctor can help you with making the next step, and then the one that follows that...just one small positive step at a time...just one...you are worth it, with or without the PhD.

It's great to learn of the range of perspectives about completing and how it affects individuals differently. I think it is important to acknowledge that it can affect people in various ways. There is no one size fits all with the PhD.

Some people are delighted it is over and can move on quickly. Others I have known, particularly very scholarly people who, for one reason or another, are not going to go into academia, finishing can be tricky, as although having the torment over is great, having spent that time on an activity that has become a part of their identity, which is now over, can lead one to wondering "well what is it that I do now? I love research but it isn't going to be my main occupation perhaps, and now it is up to me".

And generating a new project, that includes the love of research can take a while to develop. In my experience, friends and colleagues have made this transition successfully eventually. It hasn't always happened quickly though for all and the feelings are real and mixed-delight and loss, pain and relief. You can feel all of this at once. I think taking care of oneself during this time is important. (Personally, until my second supervisor returns the rest of my document and she has one day left, I won't really know how it is...but I'm open to the range of emotions). Wishing you all the best PhDCharlie for the next few weeks while you wait, after submission.

Not quite PhDstudent Charlie, I am still waiting for my second supervisor to complete her final reading! She completed 3 chapters 3 weeks ago (and the changes took just a weekend) and has asked me for the rest of the month for the final chapters. I'm in the situation where I literally can't do anything more until I get the remaining chapters. From my perspective it is finished and I am feeling pretty stressed by having to wait before submission, although given her promise, I expect the final corrections or suggestions to be ready by the end of this week.

When I got to the point where you are-very close but feeling a bit over it, I made a list and a plan. Once I actually forced myself to start on the plan I couldn't stop as being so close to submission brought a momentum of its own.

Finishing does bring a sense of loss. These last few weeks, I have found I really miss working on it. Best wishes during this time.