======= Date Modified 24 Sep 2011 08:50:56 =======
Hi All,

I was wondering whether anyone has emigrated to another country during the course of their PhD? If so, how far into your PhD were you? How did you manage your supervisions with your supervisor/s, etc...?

My partner and I are emigrating to Australia in Jan 2012 for an unknown duration, and would like to ask for some advice from those who have been through a similar situation.

Cheers!

======= Date Modified 24 Sep 2011 09:10:37 =======
Apologies as I cannot answer your question but could you please answer mine. How long from start to finish did it take you and your partner to pass all the red tape and paperwork in order to emigrate to Oz?

Could you also recommend any good websites, resources etc. Any help, advice or pointers would be appreciated.(up)

Hi Delta,

My partner and I are entering Oz on a working holiday visa, which allows us 12 months in the country. However my partner's area of work is on the 'most wanted' list so to speak, so we are hoping that during the 12 months my partner will secure a job and will become sponsored by an employer in his field (approx. 15 people he knows have entered Oz in the same field and have secured a job within 10 days). This sponsored visa will us both to work, etc. for up to 4 years in Oz. If we decide to stay in the country after this period we will have to apply for residency. But to answer your question - we heard back from the Australian immigration 1 day after applying for our working holiday visas!

On the UK side, my supervisors are happy for me to go to Oz for a year and continue with our monthly supervisions via Skype or video conferencing, which I think is based on the level of motivation and independent working I have demonstrated over the last 2 years. My thoughts are, if we do decide to stay longer, and they are happy with my progress, they will continue to support me after a year. But of course we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it, as I don't even know if we will be there for longer than a few months!

Let me know if you would like any further info :-)

I wouldn't be able to emigrate during my PhD because it has experiments, but it seems to me that even for another subject it would prove to be a very difficult thing to do especially where funding is involved and finding somebody willing to take on your project with you.

If your professor doesn't already have a partnership with a professor in Australia then forming a connection as soon as possible seems necessary. First discuss with your professor and head of school. Perhaps then have a look for possible relevant professors in Australia, email to see if such a thing would at all be feasable where funding is concerned (grant applications may need to be written) and if it is feasable set up a conference call with all three of you to discuss. The politics of it all would be difficult i think, having to clear everything with the heads of schools.

I'm not even sure if you can transfer your work from one university to another for a PhD, i imagine there would be ownership issues there, your current uiversity would have just invested in work for another university to gain a PhD student (to steal effectively), but it could possibly be done on a favour basis, as long as you are appealing. If your work is too crucial to the current university however the likelihood is they will not be happy for you to take the work away with you. There may also be differences in Australia to how they run PhDs.

Thanks Ender.

My plan was to continue being supported by my current university. Also there isn't any funding complications as the PhD is self-funded.

Over the past 2 years I have met with my supervisers on a monthly basis and was thinking that this level of contact would continue? However I have never completed a PhD before so not sure if the level of contact would change over the duration of the research!

P.S I'm doing qualitative research and have already collected all my field work, so will basically be writing up over the next 4 years!

I am currently doing a PhD at a British university but I live in Italy. We keep in contact via Skype. My department does have rules about how long you have to be physically at the university for in order to do this. I started off doing 5 months full-time at uni before moving back to Italy. I have also been back for my upgrade - but it is not so far for me! I would check this out with your supervisor but it is doable.

Many thanks for your very helpful response, RLD1984. All the very best for Australia, I hope it all works out.

Hi Mackem_Beefy - I am definitely going to continue with my current university for the next 12 months, which means by then I'll be going into my 4th year and am a little worried about starting afresh with a new supervisor. Has anybody had any experience of this so late into their PhD?

Hi Timefortea - do you mind me asking if you are studying f/t or p/t? How far into your studies are you? Are your supervisions via Skype monthly? However often they are, do you find supervisions via Skype adequate? Do you come back to the UK every so often for face to face meetings? Sorry for all the questions!

Anytime Delta :-)

If it's helpful I can tell you I could have completed my PhD without face-to-face supervision but I'm social sciences and close to submitting. I struggled to get feedback but when I eventually did it was via track changes and other face-to-face supervision was light and fluffy (pointless and a waste of time in reality). Just my opinion, but you would need to be clear how your supervisor/s like to give supervision because in my experience they give supervision in a way that suits them.

Thanks Delta that is really helpful.

I'm in social sciences too. The purpose of my supervisions to date is to provide an opportunity for me to discuss any work produced and to hear their views. But to be honest I think I would benefit more from the track changes approach as that would mean them going through what I have done in far greater detail than what we currently do.

Also congratulations on being so close to the end! 8-) looking at when you joined, are you studying full time?

Yes, I am full-time, as I was very fortunate to get funded. It really is very important that you come to an understanding with your supervisors about the type of supervision as I wanted face-to-face but struggled to get meetings and when I did they were completely useless. That is, I was happy in the meetings (my supervisors are very pleasant people to deal with face-to-face) but when they ended I realised nothing was achieved or learned and they had no real purpose. I am happy with the track changes they seem to like but was frustrated at first because I wasn't used to that form. As you pointed out, it is good from the point of view I can tell whether or not they've read through the material (I'm not always convinced they do) and I now much prefer this method.

If my supervisors couldn't do track changes but were great face-to-face long distance supervision would be difficult and I'm not sure it would work. My supervisors don't do Skype or phone calls... I've given a long winded response - sorry - but the point is over time I came to realise my supervisors would not supervise effectively in the way I originally wanted but provided supervision / feedback in the form that suited them and I had to get used to it.

I'd never really thought about supervision in that way before ; that makes me question how effective my meetings are. My expectations are what I described in my previous post, but am I supposed to be getting more from them? I suppose I've got nothing to compare them with so don't really know!

Thanks for raising awareness of this Delta. This is definitely something I will discuss with my supervisors before I leave for Oz.