Be glad that your examiner informed you that she can't do the job. My friend just learned very recently that his examiner did not response to any email after 3 months wait on his thesis, so now they have to send his thesis to another examiner ie another 2-3 months' wait for feedback.

Hi, Jewel17,

You did not mention anything about recommendation. If you had teaching experience at your former uni where you did your PhD, would it be possible to keep in touch with your fellow tutoring group leader or lecturer to ask if they know of a position coming up? How about your colleagues where you were doing short term teaching? Do they know anything? Can your former PhD supervisor recommend you to his/her network?

Most positions are not advertised. It is up to you to initiate in making that connection. Start where you are. Ask people who have been teaching for a while at your uni out for coffee. And learn what they did right during the early stages of their career. You need a career mentor.

Hi, faded07,

I think that you do not recognise that this outcome is in your favour. Let me break it down to you.

I have expected an independent internal re-examination of your thesis. See my previous post. They can't just gift wrap it to you even if they recognise that there were deviations from normal procedures and an OK to pass from one of your previous examiners. They have to resolve the conflict between the two examiners and this is the best way forward. It is good that they did not insist on you working on your latest comments too.

Someone of significantly high position has to be one of your panel member to fend off problems with the external examiner. You do not want the external coming back and questioning the reexamination. Your Deputy VC fulfills this role, even if he is not in your field.

Your second panel examiner has to be chosen carefully, because this person should be someone who is closer to your field of study. This expert will be the one who gives comment on your content and whether your work is up to par. Together with the Deputy VC, you could not have asked for a better team to stop your pesky external from questioning and interfering, if they decide to pass you. So, no, there should not be another round of corrections after this. This should be the final decision from uni.

Your clock has finally moved again. Great. Perhaps you could consider making a table with columns highlighting all the examiner comments given, the corrections you did and location in your thesis. Make life as easy as you can for them so that they do not need to read the entire thesis again.You can submit this with your thesis.

Good luck to you, faded07. I am happy for this good outcome and respect the efforts from your chair. Imagine how difficult it must have been to convince the Deputy VC that they messed up (Whoops) and need his help to solve problems. Persevere on. You are nearly there.

Hi, Muchalnia,

I am not sure about UK scholarships for Australia study, but you could ask to be put forward for the next Australian scholarships round. Contact the Admissions and Scholarships department for more info. Start only after you have the outcome of the scholarship. Look at JASON database too for scholarship information. Unless you are wealthy, do not accept doing a PhD without living allowance.

Also, do consider that unlike UK, there are far less international conferences in Australia. You will not be able to hop on a train to another Uk city or take a short flight to Europe for conferences or lab visits. If you think that living scholarships in Australia are very competitive, think about the competition for travel grants to go abroad. You do need lots of exposure and networking during your PhD for a successful career later. Where do you most likely want to work after your PhD? The research job market in Australia is much smaller than UK and Europe too. The current NHMRC funding in Australia has a success rate of 13%. Not sure how the rate will be when you graduate and want to apply for fellowship or project grants. Do take all these into consideration in your decision.

Hi, CNMI,

I think that you already now in your heart which option is better. The job sounds like a good option, since it offers good pay and benefits. A bird in hand is worth two in a bush. Why wait till after your PhD? The work experience would also add to better career prospects and increased salary over the years. In addition, you are not exactly thrilled about your PhD either.

Please read https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young-scientists-in-7-charts/273339/ for some useful info about employment after obtaining PhD. Hopefully this will help you make up your mind.

Furthermore, you said "permanent and the bridge to this University and adviser will be burned". Yup, only for this adviser. You can do a PhD later on after gaining more work experiences. My friend finished a 4 year PhD at the age of 50. With her new degree and previous solid track record of working experiences, she could do so many things with her career. There is no time limit for a PhD.

Hi, a0042498,

I have been through your path before. Had to majorly change my PhD direction after 2 years. I only made progress in my fourth year, but I graduated. So, it can be done.

For the constant stress and fear, that is to be expected due to the many uncertainties. It will never go away until you finished. Please make full use of the uni's counselling services. Eating and sleeping well help a lot as do exercise. Moral support is exceptionally important. Do you have other friends or mentors you can turn to? Talk to them a lot to de-stress. Please manage yourself when your experiments do not work. Walk in the park. Shout it out. exercise until you are completely spent. then focus on your experiments again a different day. Take a step back and revisit the study again.

On the bigger picture of things, are you stuck with a bad supervisor or project? It is weird that your supervisor has not stepped in on project direction when you have not progressed as much as desired. Please talk to your postgraduate coordinator or PhD officer in your school. Get help ASAP in the form of a new co-supervisor or another experienced researcher as mentor. Do you have a thesis committee/reviewer who keeps check on your progress? Schedule a meeting with your supervisor and thesis committee to ask their advice to steer the project in the right direction.

However, since you are still considered early in your candidature (<2 years), you could potentially talk to your postgraduate coordinator about changing supervisor and project. A bad supervisor is unlikely to change for the better. Is there another good supervisor with projects that you like? Your postgraduate coordinator can talk to you on this. Don't worry, all is confidential.

Sometimes the stress and the fear are silent calls from inside you to take actions to change things. Do think about my suggestions and see if actions can improve your project state and your feelings about your PhD. Take care and DO NOT break.

Hi, faded07,

Any updates?

It is very likely that your chair will seek to find an internal independent person to have a look at your corrections. They should not move the goal post, so they should only assess how well you responded to previous comments and the corrections done. No new reading of the entire thesis should be required, and so no new comments should be added. Please download and have a look at the criteria for a PhD award in your university and demonstrate how you have ticked all the boxes.

Hi, phd_shally,

You stated that you are "having an equal worry about how my CV will look if I stay in this too long when it isn't actually what I want to do." Just as others have stated, I think that you need to really sit down and think if this PhD at this point in time is really something that you want. There is no way that you can survive 3-4 years of PhD if you have absolutely no interest or motivation.

Importantly, there is nothing wrong with withdrawing in the first year of candidature. You can always look for a job and revisit doing a PhD at a later stage in your life. My friend started her PhD in her late 40s and finished at 50. Because she had strong work experiences behind her in combination with her PhD, she could do many things with her degree. I am not asking you to wait that long, but just trying to tell you it is possible to postpone a PhD. If you are worried about the gap in your CV, it is now not completely unusual to look for a job for up to a year due to the current job market. You don't have to worry too much about your CV gap.

Do think deeply about what you want to do with your life. If you absolutely need a PhD for your career right now, please try to make it work. If not, you could think about working first and doing it later. There is no one right way of doing things. And do take care of your health. What point is a PhD if you destroyed yourself in the process.

Hi, parkerluck,

You can appeal your results. Please talk to your postgraduate coordinator/officer and the students union officer and legal advisor. Do this ASAP. Keep your trails of events properly. I think you have a good case of unfair/differential treatment of student. Good luck.

Hi, elaineckf,

I echo what Tudor_Queen has said. There appears to be a mismatch of expectations. You want someone hands on, they are very hands off. However, asking you to spend months alone is too much, even if they want to train you. Another thing to consider is, did they send you away "to find your own answer" because perhaps they did not know it themselves and wanted to look good? Are you the first student working on a new area of research in your group?

You stated: "maybe I could go to a different faculty and find another or other supervisors". I have worked with enough students with problems now to say "Please trust your gut feelings". These supervisors and this project just might not be the one for you. Importantly, you are still so early in your candidature and can change things. Please talk to your postgraduate coordinator or PHD department officer in confidence. They can give you advice on potential things that you could try to solve the situation. Generally, people (aka supervisors) never change, so you will have to change your behaviour and/or environment (project + group) to improve the situation. The decision is yours to make.

Besides that, I think your supervisors are potentially racist when they said you are "like Asian Student will only do what have been asked..." Why work with people like that? I will stop my comment at that.

Hi, inomchips,

You said "In response I sought advice from the Doctoral Student Life department at uni, who confirmed he was out of line in making me do his research, and that I would be advised to swap supervisors". This made my alarm bells ring.

Uni advising a student to swap supervisor is a very big deal. I am wondering if this supervisor has a bad record at supervising. Are you aware of previous students and their experiences under him? I strongly recommend that you find out.

You also said that "I am reluctant to swap as he is the best in his field - however I am only studying his field because he told me to in the beginning, I do not have a particular interest in it". It is very hard to work for X number of years on a project that you have no interest in. Have you thought about your future and what field you want to be in? Do think about it deeply. What's the point of working with the best person in Geology if you like and want to work in Neuroscience.

You also stated that "I was not going to be credited for the papers, this was made clear to me." Do you seriously want to work under someone who is unethical? If he can do this to you now, imagine what he will do if you do find something new and valuable in your research? Would he again not give you credit, owning the finding himself or giving credit to another valuable collaborator?

Finally, answering your question, changing supervisor is not a bad idea. You pointed out that your supervisor has plenty of issues. You yourself also do not like the field. Perhaps you could consider deeply what field you actually like, in line with your future plans, and change to a better project and supervisor. Talk to your Doctoral Student Life department at uni, since that is their advice anyway. Changing early is best to cut your loss and salvage your PhD. The decision however, is in your hands.

Hi, faded07,

Good to know that you still have some fight in you. If you have PASSED with minor corrections, you cannot FAIL after your corrections.

For the potential appeal (hopefully you will never have to do it), have you sorted out the documents properly? In other words, have you printed out and documented every email, conversation and actions related to your case in a systematic manner? Have you drafted a cover letter referrencing every single evidence you have? You might want to start doing that if you have not, so that you are ready whenever you need to use them. Have you also spoken to the Student Union's Education Advisor or Lawyer (Assuming you have these at your university)? You might want to show them your documents and ask if there is anything else you might need. They can also advice you on who to appeal to, processes etc.University staff generally close ranks very quickly and may not point out the best resources for your case, unlike Students Union.

Besides this, can you check the interest of your external? Is she having conflicts of interest and that is the reason for all these delays brought on by her?

However, I really hope that you need not go through appeals. Speaking from experience, an appeal against any university staff/unethical conduct requires a lot of time and effort, even if the evidences are all in your favour. But then again, your revisions will take a very long time as well with no guarantee of a positive outcome. So, honestly, you have nothing to lose. I still hope your chair will come back with favourable news.

Hi, Nesrine87,

I think it is more important to know of the person's reputation as an examiner, rather than a researcher. If the person is a first time examiner, there is a high likelihood that the person may be too harsh and critical, expecting many corrections. This is because they may be trying to proof that they are doing their work as an examiner.

On the other hand, I have also heard of people who are experienced who have had bad reputations as examiners such as extremely long time to examine thesis (~ 9 months), overly critical (demanding original figures in the entire thesis including literature review, more experiments to address a question that was already pointed out as a future direction, etc) and no communication/response (eg completely no email response despite graduate school trying to contact for many weeks).

So choose a good examiner with a good reputation as a fair person, and choose wisely because your future is in their hands. Good luck!

Hi, faded07,

Did you hear back from the chair? Were she and the senior officers able to help you?