======= Date Modified 03 Jun 2011 20:39:24 =======
To cut long story short am very unhappy with my Phd and feel it is going nowhere. I also research in another area and have publications and international contacts there. Feel that is where I should be going. Am funded for current project but doubting supervision and have also been hampered by disability. Have no money to fund so would have to reapply etc but want to turn this disaster into a positive. Any experience? Ideas?

Hi there. I was very unhappy about my PhD project. I had to talk to my adviser and pray to let me go. Luckily, my adviser is a very kind man. Though he told me that it could turned out very bad for me, like with some of his friends. I did go. I graduated with MS. I am currently looking to another position and start from the very beginning. Not sure it will work. People rarely understand when you leave one PhD project and look for another one. But I enjoied my life after I stopped to do my PhD project which I almost start to hate.

Are you funded by a research council? If so it is likely that if you reapply a second time your funding would be reduced to take into account the prior funding you have received.

I left a full-time EPSRC-funded computer science PhD in 1996. I left due to a progressive neurological disease developing.

I started a part-time history PhD in 2003, and won funding from AHRC from 2004 onwards. But I had to declare my prior research council funding on the form, and was expecting my funding to be reduced. Luckily it wasn't, but that might be because it was such a different field / different funding council.

You mentioned disability issues which have affected your PhD. Might those not be a problem at a second PhD too? If so you might be better to try to resolve the problems in your current PhD. You should get disability support from your university, including help to work flexibly if need be, and adjustments to be made. It is also possible - funding permitting - to change supervisor if that would help. I would definitely recommend trying to resolve your current problems.

You also have to bear in mind that if you apply for a second PhD you would have to overcome having left a first one, and persuade your new funders/supervisor that that wouldn't happen again.

Thanks so much for your replies. Bilbo I have had great suppport from our disability office and through that can overcome a lot of the problems. I think one of the main troubles has been the department's lack of recognition of all that has hapened althought that's a bit better now. But I am not happy with the supervision and the supervisor who would take on the new project is much more respected in academia. Will think it over a while longer but look forward to that feeling of relief! Maybe I could get a Masters in the current project? I guess I'd have to talk to the department but they have been so horrible I'm a bit afraid to do it. I know this sounds pathetic but my confidence is at an all-time low!