Hello everyone, I need your advice!

This October I started doing my Ph.D. in Psychology at University of Warsaw (Poland). Basically, these studies consist of the individual cooperation with the supervisor, there r no scheduled courses (only 4 days of courses a year in total); moreover, as a first year student I am not required to work at the university either.

My supervisor told me that the only way to contact her is to visit her office once a month on a certain date. I flew all the way to Poland (I live in Germany) only for this purpose and it turned out that these were not individual consultations - as I expected, but a group seminar. There were people from 2nd,3rd and even 4th year and our dissertations' topics had nothing in common. As a result of all that mess, I could only talk with my supervisor about my paper for only 3minutes! When I asked her for the additional contact via email, because I am going back to Germany, she said that only during those seminars she is available for me. Later she wrote me an email saying ' I assume there was some misunderstanding, I don't have time to supervise you individually, maybe you should consider finding a different supervisor'.

I live in Germany and I would even prefer to have the supervisor from here (Nordrhein - Westfalen) or the online consultations. Not only because it would be more convenient for me but also because I am writing a cross-cultural paper that compares three different nations (inter alia Germany).

My question is, do you think it is actually possible that some professor from a different university would agree for supervising me even though I am enrolled at the university in a foreign country?

Any advice is appreciated!!
Thanks for your time!

Hi,
From what you post, it sounds like you'd be better just to break off your enrolment in Warsaw and find a suitable university closer to home. I'm assuming because you don't mention it, that there's no funding attached to Warsaw. I don't think a German professor would agree to supervise you for a degree in a different country and university - I also doubt that their university would allow them. The only way to arrange that sort of thing is through a dual doctorate arrangement (sometimes known as co-tutelle), but for that you'd need a proper supervisor in Warsaw too, as there needs to be formal agreement between the two universities. I know that German supervisors also use group seminars (Kolloquium) but I'm sure my friends who did PhDs there, also got some individual meetings even if they were not that often (every few months from what I remember).

Dear Sylvie37,

I am in the final year of a PhD in political science. I am enrolled at an Australian university, live in Asia, and have two co-supervisors - one in Australia and one here.

As bewildered said, 'there needs to be formal agreement between the two universities.' I have this and it has been great. Both supervisors are experts in their field.

All the Best.

thank you so much for your replies! seems like it would be the best to change the university or eventually have some fruitful talk with the supervisor...