I just wanted to vent my feelings about my ex-supervisor but still a review panel member. I had to present a revised lit review but she continues to criticise and be so negative. She just picks on particular authors/articles that I have not included and keeps saying I should put more journal articles in. I have spent ages looking through all the relevant journals and have highlighted all the articles I think are useful for my research. So I don't know which other ones she is referring to. So I asked her and said I would appreciate it if she could point me in the direction of some of these authors she had mentioned and their work. She is obviously an expert in her field and may know more than me at this stage so I think asking her for help is justified. However she said I was not an undergraduate and she would not spoonfeed me! I thought that was particularly unhelpful and the way she said it was actually quite nasty.

I do not expect to be spoonfed, in fact I did my degree with the Open University while working full time and my masters mostly by directed reading so I have been working independently for most of my academic career so far. What does anyone else think of her attitude or is this normal.

This is undoubtedly nasty. It's unjustified for her not to point you in the right direction (you'd almost think she wants you to do badly).

I've seen fellow PhD student mess-up in their presentations, and staff are only to happy to nudge them in the right direction.

Try to look towards another academic for help, and explain what she said (very diplomatically, of course).

An awkward lecturer or supervisor is normally well-known by students and fellow colleagues for having a personality problem, and other members of faculty are only too happy to help.

The only justification for her response is if you genuinely have not read around your subject well enough, and there is a very obvious and unforgiveable gap in your research. After all, the point of doing a PhD is to train as an independent researcher.

Nevertheless, I find it is normally the academics who are insecure about their own abilities and research that tend to act like complete prats to students.

I don't know your situation, but if she's your ex-supervisor could she be displaying a hint of animosity? How much of a say does she have over your progress in your PhD? If it is little or none at all, then I'd say just ignore her and move on.

This supervisor sounds like the " I had a hard time when I was a grad student " so ill make sure you will too....

This mind sound a little bit harsh, but ive heard of far worse supervisor stories on this forum.

My supervisor advocated the distance learning approach to PhD education i.e don't come near me and I wont come near you. He didnt ask to review or see one word I had written in the first year of my PhD

I suffices to say I am no longer a PhD student.

If this perosn is not giving you appropriate feedback. do something about it!!! be proactive

But it's not her supervisor, it's her EX-supervisor. This changes things.

I would of thought there could potentially be a conflict of interest if this ex-supervisor is still on the review panel and I am basing this on the assumption that this person is an ex-supervisor due to some kind of break down in the working relationship?

The other type of supervisor that has been missed out is the highly intelligent, highly dedicated type, with slightly poor social skills type.

I have met some of these in my time and the problem is that they are usually right, they just could have been nicer about it.

Very typically they will ask very harsh questions, be extreemly critical and hammer on about points whether you get it or not.

You have to be careful because you can assume that they are right and end up going off and doing a whole load of unnecessary work based on what they said. so best just to take what they said and evaluated it.

To react to your question by suggesting that you were asking to be spoonfed is nasty, unpleasant, irresponsible and downright impolite. No matter how expert she is she does not have the necessary social skills to be pursuing a career in education. (I work as a teacher by the way.) It is not enough for supervisors to know their stuff - they should also have people skills. If someone spoke to me in that manner I would go over their head and report them.

your question is odd - unhelpful sup OR normal situation? shouldn't it be AND normal situation?

oops, hit enter too soon.

more seriously, i meant to say -
yes it does sound like a nasty ex-supervisor. but i am wondering why you are so concerned. she thinks you are not independent enough and haven't read enough. so what? does it matter? you know better, no? and so does your current supervisor?
(not to say... when someone once told me "well a PhD is about being independent, you know" i got terribly upset. especially if you have a history of high independence which has not quite been acknowledged, such remarks can really hurt!)

Thanks for all your replies. She is my ex-supervisor because she was standing in while my proper supervisor was on sabbatical. She does not have any postgrad qualifications but is an expert in her field so I detect maybe a hint of jealousy or something. I suppose I don't need to worry about her so much now. But I am just annoyed that any problems I am having now are due to her lack of supervision. It seems that she wants to embarrass me into looking as if I don't know what I am talking about by having not told me things at previous meetings and also saying my lit review was fine then delighting in criticising it and my lack of knowledge in some areas in front of other people. Oh well I wont have to have dealings with her until my next panel in August and my main supervisor is so much better so I will concentrate on working with her.

If she is still going to be involved in your progress, get it sorted out. Ask your now cuddly supervisor if he/she has any idea about the sources hinted at by this other person, as you feel you would like to look them up but your ex sup seems too busy to help you (add bits about realising that she has loads of work, you would like to look up the stuff yourself to aid your research skills, are in awe of this person- even if you ain't etc.) cuddly will then say it isn't necessary, or give you a hint in the right direction or, unfortunately might direct you back to this person, and if it is the last option, go back to the the ex sup and tell her your new sup has asked you to ask her for the refs. she will then have to give them to you - perhaps

my ex-supervisor is like yours, just worse.. it is a torture talking to him. so I found a new position. PhD is not about doing the right thing, but about finding the right thing. if someone can't tell the difference, he/she is not a real scientist. how can someone like this supervise a potential scientist?

I'd talk to your main supervisor.. say that this other woman is a cow and jealous and that you don't want her opinion if all she is going to do is criticise you without any help... constructive criticism is always welcome, but criticism for the sake of it is pointless.

When you do see her again, I would make damn sure you look her in the eye and say ' Thanks, I'll take it into consideration' and continue to say that phrase over.. and over.. and over again.

Hopefully after a while she'll realise that, that phrase = 'Sod off you silly moo and be a bitch elsewhere' You MUST be good if you did OU off your own back and have got this far... ignore her.