Hi,

I have been hit with a bomb shell late last week.  It appears my main (only) PhD supervisor is being made redundant at the end of August. The university in question failed to appoint a second supervisor either which makes life even more difficult.  To finish this off, it is doubtful the new supervisor will have any contact with my current supervisor to 'hand over' the study given the tight time frames.

I am really now facing a dilemma - Do I stay at this university and hope they appoint a new supervisor who can understand my work as the data collection phase is completed or should I approach other supervisors at other institutions to see if I can find someone who will take a PhD student (Part-Time) with two years of registration left?

Any advice would be really great.

Hi


I haven't been in this sort of situation but I can sympathise with you as a close friend also had this problem 2 years ago. The university only informed her at the last moment about her supervisor (first sv) moving to another uni. She still stuck with this sv and went to sv's house for regular consultations. My friend did think about taking legal action against the uni but later decided not to do so. (She's still in the process of writing-up).

Another friend was all set to come here (Glasgow) to study when at the last minute her Sv told her he was moving to another uni down south (southampton). She's now made her decision that she's also moving to Southampton to follow her Sv.

At the moment,perhaps it is wise to stick to your current uni and ask if there are any other supervisors willing to take you in. At least your data collection is already complete. It is a difficult situation but I really hope you will remain positive. Good luck !

This has happened to 2 people I know. In both cases, the university shuffled a temp supervisor while the the powers that be worked with the student to find a suitable replacement. In both cases they found somebody - 1 was an amazing match, 1 has not been so good due to their different interests.

======= Date Modified 08 Aug 2012 09:36:47 =======
Is the supervisor moving to a new University?

Can you therefore retain their services say as a second supervisor? If the data collection is complete, can you transfer your registration to the new University (I would probably opt for the second if possible)?

If the supervisor is doing a good job, I think continuity is most important. A new supervisor with slightly different ideas and possibly different interests might push the PhD off course slightly (it might be the difference between minor and major corrections).


Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

My supervisor left to go 500 miles away. He suggested transferring to the new university (Oxford), but that wasn't feasible for various reasons, not least their rules on taking on existing students - I was too far through my part-time degree with the original university (just over halfway). He continued as a joint/second supervisor though, and another academic in my department took over. Initially he was encouraging me to shift direction a bit, but I stuck my ground, and my old supervisor advised the new supervisor that I was quite far through my PhD, and needed to be allowed to continue doing it my way.

Essentially I viewed the shift as a chance to take full control of my project, and I was the driving force from them onwards, with the two supervisors (the new primary one on the ground and the old one at a distance) advising me, and reading my written work as I came closer to submitting my PhD. Which I did, successfully.

Good luck!

Oh and when my first supervisor left I was like you and didn't have a secondary supervisor in place. So there was a bit of a problem. But I tried to be as positive about things as possible, and it worked out ok for me.