Dear All,

My PhD supervisor has decided to resign over a trivial issue on the grounds that he`s had enough with me during my PhD. He`s been bullying me when I`ve expressed dissatisfaction with the supervision with threats which has culminated in this and I`m in an extension period with final submission due next May and mentioned he`d been in trouble for me going over the time. My department are now trying to find alternative supervisors.

Has anyone else had similar experiences and are supervisors allowed to resign as I understood they were obliged to do so?

From,
Chris

Hi there

A similar thing happened to me last month. I was on the run up to my transfer review when my second supervisor had a
fall out with the first and they both ended up resigning from my PhD. At the time I was a bit non plussed as neither of them bothered to tell me. Or to be fair, one of them told me when he bumped into me in the corridor on the way to the toilet. Anyway, it turned out for the best. I got two new supervisors from with in the department and they have both been great. Try not to take this bullying behaviour personally and don't worry what other people think. You will not be the first person that this bully has treated this way but you might well be the first person to refuse to stand for it. There will be more people on your side than you realise.

Hi!

My supervisor decided to move to different university so I was left alone and my department did not worry to help me. They offered me the chance to apply for a new PhD (one year into this one). I laughed them off and spent 3 months looking for a new supervisor and lab that would take me in. Finally I found one. I am not sure whether that was the best option, as my new supervisor all the time tells me that this is not her expertise so she can't help me much (though the fundamentals are the same to what she does in her research and I'm no expert either). However, that was the only person that agreed to help me so I'm grateful. Overall, I feel like it is the university fault to give permission to some people to supervise, who obviously don't care about students!

i completely agree with u radion. problem is, supervision is usually given based on expertise rather than sincerity.

i hope things will turn out okay for u chris. resolve to move forward and dont look back.