I have had no supervision at all for two months and am submitting in a matter of days. Anyone else had experience of this? How did you manage?? :-(

I did and had very little supervision throughout. I did not see my supervisor when I submitted. I passed my viva 2 weeks ago and still no word from my supervisor who is on fieldwork. Has anyone checked your work? This is the real issue. You need to have faith - and to get as much other input and checking as you can.

well thats encouraging. Well done for getting through! my supervisor is simply on leave (summer vacation) so not even away with anything work related. I have a post doc friend who is helping me out; without them I would be in real trouble. It upsets me how students can be left in the lurch like this.

Hi Moomin, if your work has been up to PhD standard to date then I don't think you should worry too much. I know of a student who had appalling supervision all the way through her PhD, they rarely read her work before tutorials and were away a lot of the time. She ended up going back to her own country and worked with several friends who had done PhDs who helped her by reading drafts and commenting on the robustness of her arguments. She ended up with an unconditional pass (no corrections, not even a typo!). She got her PhD in spite of her supervisors, so there can be a happy outcome from some situations. Those sups haven't been used since...

Someone at your university (i.e. an academic) will be required to submit a form saying that, in their view, your thesis is worthy of consideration for viva examination. This is so that candidates do not simply submit any old tosh as a result of feeling sick of doing a PhD and want to move on. In theory, if the person completing the form has concerns about the thesis they ought to raise them and, if necessary, ask you to do further work on it before submission. Your supervisor really should have done this already and it is quite appalling that he/she has not.

RubyW - this sounds very much like my situation. Although I'm not too sure i would come out with an unconditional pass its encouraging to hear that people have done well when faced with this

It might be worth checking your postgrad student handbook or similar for the official procedures surrounding submission, viva, completion etc, as we have similar procedures in place that WJ Gibson mentioned. It might be that your supervisor is oblivious to what is supposed to happen and what she has to do about your submssion, which could hold things up for you. There is an awful lot of university admin related to completing a PhD - I've been stuck in it for months and am still not completed yet. I don't like criticising admin staff, but sometimes you have to point out bits in the regulations and query what they are actually doing in your own case. It's annoying, but the alternative is the university procedures being bodged up, creating extra stress for you and endless delays in totally finishing the thing and moving on. When you know what the procedures are for your uni, you're in a better position to make sure you're not completely forgotten and your PhD doesn't fall into some bureacratic black hole. It's not very exciting to read up on regulations and procedures, but it's really useful to know what's supposed to happen with your work.

Good luck with submitting btw!

Definitely check your regulations carefully. Usually there is some paperwork concerning submission and appointment of examiners required before you can officially submit. Over here, the student is responsible for that paperwork although the supervisor is required to sign it. I didn't entirely realise this and my examiners were appointed a bit late - and consequently I waited longer than expected for my viva (about 4 months). I have frequently had to chase paperwork through the system for signatures.

I think your supervisor should be contacted by you or your head of dept and told/reminded of your submission deadline.

Quite common with unis down under when they franchise their programs abroad. That is why they have a bad rap with Asian students in India, China and the rest of SE Asia:-(

Bug, having said that, I do quite like reading the odd rant, creative spam or slightly barmy post as it's light relief from proof reading one's own thesis. It's a funny old life, this PhD malarkey, though I wouldn't have it any other way!

Unfortunately there seems to be two schools of thought with supervisors. Some are looking over your shoulder, asking and demanding to death. Others believe they're there if you need them, but you should be responsible for almost everything on your own. It sounds like you have the second kind. My advice would be to try to email him with a clear list of what you need from him. Don't be demanding but just say

Hello ___,

I hope you're having a nice summer.

I am doing X right now and I was hoping that you could Y.

I also need a Z but am not sure about A and would like your opinion.

blah blah

Thank you for your help.

Moomin

Most supervisors that I have worked with seem to respond well to direction because they often are so busy that they easily forget what they should be doing. Unless he's totally lost his mind, your supervisor wants you do well because it's a reflection on him and his job. So any way that you can politely steer him towards helping you should be appreciated. If not, then find whomever it is that usually picks up his slack and helps his students graduate because there must be someone there behind the scenes doing it if he really doesn't care.

Good luck.

thank you for the advice. I totally agree with you but its just too close to submission for supervisor direction. My fingers are thoroughly crossed for my examiners to not think its a disaster!