The main piece of advice i would give you is: to save yourself the trouble of getting the same kind of supervisor you had before.

at any PhD interview: ask questions to make sure you understand what is expected of you over the three years and the kind of support the supervisor is willing to offer. if you ask straight questions like this i would say most people will give straight answers.

also get in touch with grad students from the group. they should be able to fill you in on the supervisor.

If I were you I would forget about him. By the sounds of it he is not going to give you a fair reference. You will find that academia in general is a harsh, dog eat dog environment. Supervisor reputations/politics come before students. You have to learn to deal with this kind of shite and learn to stand your ground when it comes to bullies like this.

I recently dropped out of a PhD after first year in Oxbridge. To say my supervisor was unsuportive would be an understatement!!!

I have never asked for any kind of a reference from him. He would probably tell me to F*%K off. I have applied for a number of masters courses in the UK and I used my advisor & college tutor from Oxbridge as well as my Undergraduate supervisor and another lecturer from my course. They were all very understanding of my situation and im sure gave me glowing references.

best of luck with your PhD applications.

I agree with smilodon. look at your family situation carefully. do you have young children or are they grown up? how does your spouse feel about this? can you afford it financially. Is it going to help you fulfil your career ambitions? could your family relocate to near your the university? in which case you wouldnt have to be apart

ive heard of research groups changing university and any students within would move as well. but ive never heard of an individual student doing it.

Have you talked to your supervisor or department about your situation yet?

first of all, your going to need to get a supervisor and department at another university to agree to take you on( thats a given )

I suppose the big issue would be getting your funding transfered. your new uni would probably ask you to start your PhD from scrach. sounds like it could be messy

sleepyhead. you are hot!!

Best of luck with that. It sounds like you have been through a lot. Much like yourself I have had an offer of another PhD since but due to shattered confidence I didnt jump on board.

There is nothing to say that I might not end up with the same kind of supervisor I had last time, which is the last thing I want. So I am going to be very careful when applying for future positions.

I agree that work experience in the big bad world can in many ways prepare people for the bid bad world of research. I think half the battle of a postgraduate student is knowing what rights you have and how to exercise them.

Just a quick question. most degrees in the UK seem to have the standard length of three years with the option of a year for award of a masters of some kind.

ive always found it quite amusing when i hear people talking about their undergraduate masters because where i come from, the standard lengh of a degree is four years and there is such thing as an undergraduate masters.

In fact most european countries, five years is standard for a batchelors degree in my feild.

do these undergraduate masters hold any weight in britain? just interested to know

I have good academic credentials and have been offered positions since then but I think the reason I haven’t jumped straight into another PhD program has been a combination of shattered confidence and confusion over exactly what research topic I want to research.

I’ve applied to two Msc courses in the field I am interested in, both of which start next October. I think going down this route is a good move given that I will have a number of months out of academia which will be a nice break. The course its self covers a broad range of topics delivered through lectures, course work and a project
and so I will be able to make an informed decision with regard to my research interests/career direction in this field.


My only real concern with this route is that Msc don’t come cheap and I could well be thirty by the time I get my PhD.

Any thoughts on this or similar stories would be much appreciated

Hey Guys and Girls,
Happy new year to all. I am really interested to hear about people who have dropped out of PhDs and have considered doing another PhD or have already done one. This is something that means a lot to me and so any comments are appreciated.

I started a PhD last October and dropped out after my first year review. To put it bluntly I hated my topic and my supervisor was almost 100% hands-off. The pressure to deliver was enormous and the postdoc I worked with was supposed to be in charge of the day to day running of the project we were working on. She had a completely different academic background to myself and hence had little understanding/interest in my PhD. In addition she had no experience managing a major research project or working with graduate students. As a result the level of support I got was very poor to say the least and to sum things up my PhD experience was nothing short of horrible.

I actually think these "help me" posts are quite amusing. I think a lot of people are a little bit naive when applying to PhDs. I was no different, but the kind of questions some people ask would easily lead people to believe that they are taking the piss. But it does seem to be the case that they are asking these questions genuinely.

examples: help me get a PhD in XXXX area/help me get money for...

I would imagine most people thinking along these lines would have problems getting called for an interview, let alone being offered a position

such people might as well say:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I want to do a PhD for no particular reason other than I would like to delay the onset of the big bad world and I hear your fine institution of education has a nice bar. I sleep in till late and usually play video games for the rest of day so i am only available for interview at the most inconvenient time,

regards, Joe Smartarse

if you have a prospective supervisor in mind it cant do any harm to contact them to see what they say, although im inclined to think the previous comments are correct.

if you have a prospective supervisor in mind it cant do any harm to contact them to see what they say, although im inclined to think the previous comments are correct.

if you have a prospective supervisor in mind it cant do any harm to contact them to see what they say, although im inclined to think the previous comments are correct.

4) if your supervisor doesnt agree to a reasonable program of supervison or does agree and doesnt adhere to it on a reasonable basis. complain complain complain!!! ( in a diplomatic sort of way ). hope this helps

good luck

Monster,


2) if you havent already done so. get this down on paper: a statement of objectives for your project. what exactly are you trying to achieve? what is the novelty in your work? what are the significant milestones and give some kind of timeline. email this to your sup and ask for feedback.get your review of the literature done asap if you havent already done so and again email this to him

3) In general send emails to your supervisor , stating your issues, asking questions and requesting meetings. if he is none responsive at least you have a paper trail which can work in your favour if you ever make a complaint. Ask someone senior in the department about guidlines for supervision. i.e what is considered to be a reasonable amount of support. you should be able to get a straight answer from someone.