hi, i'm new here. i'm so glad i have found this site. i'm in my second year and i haven't started writing up yet and this is making me panic. i am getting no results and soon i'll be in my third year and expected to graduate. i'm scared that my department will evict me / fail me. because of my situation, i have recently been suffering from stress and shakes at the thought of failure. can a department force someone to leave the phd or i'm i just paranoid? please help.

Mmmm I'm just approaching end of first yera and have the upgrade due....I assumed once you pass the upgrade its virtually impossible to get rid of you. When we started we were told that basically not many people fail to complete the PhD and I cling onto that piece of information!!! I think though if its stressing you so much you need to take some pro active steps to get the fear under control and take control of your PhD once again (rather than it controling you) What are your Sups like? Can you chat openly and honestly about your results. Remember just because you don't get the results you expect it is not necessarily a failiure...its just a new set of possibilities!!!!