.....my qualifications from my CV (BSc, MSc, MSc, PGCert, PhD).....

And you're starting another qualification?! Probably time to move on me thinks.

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If someone said to me 'Pay 250 quid and I'll give you a Ph.D', I'd do it. Just saying.

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Hi

Can I just get this straight: you produced something that by your own admission was far from your best which was heavily criticised by a very experienced individual with knowledge of the field. Your primary supervisor, for whom you are his first (?) and only (?) student didn't intervene?

Just out of interest, why did you take it so personally about the criticisms to your work? Is it because you thought that the criticisms to your writing were true and justified or because you had had hoped that your supervisor's input would have protected you from such an onslaught?

I'm just interested in this situation and am trying to see the situation as objectively as possible. Without being negative or unfair to you, it seems that you got a perhaps overly harsh savaging, to which you reacted on a personal level instead of a professional one (i.e. take away the insults and make sure that future work was not vulnerable in the same ways by using them to improve). Furthermore, your new and junior supervisor was unable to defend you because if he is a newbee in the department he has no place in telling one of the old hands what is right and wrong. That is the way life is. A new PI doesn't get to tell a 20 year experienced professor how to do things. Remember, he is on a learning curve too.

With some time to think about things and having let the dust settle a little, does any of this apply to your situation, as observed from a totally external viewpoint based on your descriptions?

Move. From what I've heard it is an 'unwritten rule' that it's considered easier to stay on than move away. It shows your commitment if you move: willing to leave your comfort zone, friends etc because you want the PhD so much. Lots of people are offered PhDs at their own uni and it is generally a little easier to get one at home then go through independent interviews at another uni.

PhDs are not considered equal. How would a university which is ranked lower than another actually be on equal terms for post grad degrees? Especially as UG tables are constructed using things like equipment spend, facilities, international reputation (it's a new category) as factors by which to judge. They also apply to PG.

Institution is important for various reasons. For example, as stated, 'better' unis get more funding and thus get more cutting edge equipment, the likes of which poorer institutions can't afford therefore will not be able to publish on. Also, loads of people, even in the same field as your PhD, use uni names as a way of shifting through CVs.

Publications are very important and name is not the most important thing but let's not lie, it is near the top of the list.

I agree. I just get the impression that a lot of people seem to think that a PhD can be done in your own time which isn't true. Part of the process is keeping deadlines, the biggest of which is the one to be finished on time. I think you've got the right idea. 3 Months isn't that long in the scheme of things if it means you get what needs to be done finished.

Just interested really. I have noticed recently a lot of threads about people worrying about writing up. It ranges from people worrying about writing up in 3 months to a whole year. I'm curious, exactly how much time did people expect to get to write up? In my opinion, in a 3 year PhD (although it is often longer now) expecting more than a maximum of 6 months seems a bit pie-in-the-sky to me.

Do what they said. Re-write the report and tighten your experimental design.

Definitely DO NOT write your supervisor an email complaining about his behaviour CCing in you department head. That is a horrendous idea.

Talk to him first. Make a list of the things he says/demands/comments on over the next fortnight. Arrange a meeting with him and bring up the fact that he is very/too demanding and bordering on inappropriate. When he asks in what way you can recite a few things on the list you created over the previous weeks (don't have the list in front of you thought).

A tell-tell email to other members of the department won't help. If after your meeting things don't improve see your second supervisor/advisor/uniersity support staff for advice.

I applied to about 30-40 different supervisors. Can't remember the exact amount. I was advised to do that by my personal tutor at my university. Some of the best advice I was ever given.

That's pretty much the size of it I feel.

Why is it naive and misguided?

The fact that half the people here think that university reputation is important means that that is the case. If half of employers, your peers, academics etc. have that view then yes, university reputation is important. By this rationale, half of the people you meet will think so.

The idea here isn't to compare someone with 5 publications from a less prestigious place with someone with 0 publications from a well known uni. Facts are facts. Two people, with the same one/two publications which is usual for a PhD (often none in my field) will be separated by the uni they did their undergrad and PhD at.

What exactly does the CCTV show? Can you see anything on the screen, unlikely probably. If the screen isn't visible at all unless the deletion of the file can be linked to the time of the CCTV video the evidence isn't concrete. I mean, she could have been checking her emails because she couldn't be arsed to go to her PC. It's a tough one.

Sorry. Couldn't help it. Had to get my two pence worth.

My favourite part was the confident claim that "I won't take too much time off, the husband will'. Ha. the sprog just going to drop out is it and then you'll hop straight back into the lab?!?

Tickled me.