I am at the verge of breaking down. Actually I think i have done that already, this morning to be precise. After reading an email from supervisor, resigning from supervising me, a month before the submission date. I feel like dying. I do not what to do, let alone what I am going to do. See the thing is, she is complaining that I haven't met deadlines, and my progress is not satisfactory. She also alluded to the fact that a Masters thesis has to be 50 000 and I only have 30 000. What should I do?Please help

Hi Kgali

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Are you based in the UK? I would suggest you try to arrange a meeting urgently with your personal tutor or the course tutor. It is not appropriate for a supervisor to resign from supervising a student without making alternative provisions. Did the supervisor give any previous warnings that this action might be taken?

A month is still a long time and if you already have 30,000 words you're in a good position. If the word limit is 50,000 words (which sounds quite long for a Masters) that doesn't mean it has to be exactly that long. If the work is good, it can be shorter. So don't panic - you're already making good progress, and there is still scope for you to complete your dissertation in time.

kgail, I support Hazy Jane's advice. Not all Master's thesis are 50,000 words so you need to check with your faculty and read the fine print regarding what they specify exactly for their Masters degrees (the type of Masters you are doing specifically) It will be written down and documented and should be accessible online, so you can down load it and go through it really carefully.

You also are a month away from completion AND (have not mentioned requesting any extensions yet) can probably put in for a small extension without too much of an issue.

Even without an extension as Hazy Jane mentions, you have not finished your time allocation yet and still may complete to deadline.

Your supervisor's actions are really unfortunate and sound quite unprofessional. Once you have had a few hours to get over the shock, put your mental armour on and go into bat for yourself. Your supervisor needs to outline clearly what your alternatives are at present and she needs to outline what provisions she has made to help you complete. If she really can't help you (for whatever reasons), then someone else may be able to.

The only thing I can think of that might contradict this is, for example, if you had 30 000 words of a lit review and had not yet collected any data and your thesis was one that relied on data rather than being a critical exegesis or something similar. In this case one month to collect and interpret data might be unrealistic.

However, even in this case and when funding has run out, people have been known to self-fund, get work, take an extension and submit at a later date. They have still been awarded their degrees. Once the horrible emotions have died down-look at it coolly and rationally and brainstorm your best options- support through the uni counselling services, family and/or friends might also assist with this.

Wow. Thank you all so much for your words of encouragement. Hazy Jane, I am based in South Africa. And i managed to talk things through with my supervisor and HOD, and promised that I will submit the complete draft by the 4th of March.

Although my supervisor was a bit reluctant to change her mind, she eventually agreed to give me another chance. So, as I write this now, I am motivated more than ever to meet the deadline, I have close to 40 000 words thus far and I agree with you both that at the end of the day what matters is the quality of my work and not the quantity.

Gosh, Pjlu and Hazy Jane, you two came through for me when I was at the lowest of the low. I am eternally grateful for your comments. You restored my faith in my research and my goal to successfully meet the deadline. Thank you so much!

No worries. There are plenty of people here who have had all sorts of experiences with postgrad study and research, so usually someone can say something useful! :-) Particularly if you carry on and do a PhD afterwards!