Congratulations and well done.

Don't be put off by the threads here. A forum is a great way to get help in what can be quite a lonely path. It feels great to find that there are others having the same problems, and I've seen some really helpful suggestions. However that does not mean that all students have the same probems.

I am half-way through a 4-year funded PhD and it's been brilliant. There are a few PhD students with problems at my Uni, but I think the majority of us lead happy, intellectually stimulating, sociable lives and feed extremely well supported by our supervisors and other academics both within our faculty and outside of it.

There always will be hard times, and a forum such as this is a great way to let of steam or access the wider peer support network. But don't let it worry you. Just get stuck in and have fun.

One of our full-time students lives in Europe. He comes over several times a year but conducts most of his meetings via flashmeeting. I know it's not quite the same as having your main supervisor as an external as he is registered at this uni, but I thought the method of meeting was interesting. He says it really helps him as he is a non-native English speaker. He doesn't take notes, but listens to the Flashmeeting recordings afterwards and this provides a good record.

I guess it must really vary from uni to uni. We upgrade before the end of year1, sometime around the 10th month. We need to have done a 12000 word report (lit review, pilot studies and what we're planning next) and a detailed timeline for the remainder of the PhD. This document gets circulated to 2 academics selected in consultation with your supervisors, then you sit a mini-viva attended by the two readers, head of research and one of your supervisors to take notes and act as moral support. The head of research and 2 readers question you for about an hour or so then you leave while they deliberate and then get called back in for the result. A bit stressful, but overall worthwhile.

I guess there are pros and cons involved in many or few supervisors. I have three internal and one external. The three internal are all very pro-active whilst taking great care not to disagree or give conflicting advice. The external is one of the leading practitioners in my field and is invaluable. I think standards of supervision are generally good in my faculty, however fellow students with only two supervisors (the minimum here) can sometimes end up with none available if one is, say on study leave and the other on holiday.

Having said that, my external supervisor told me of one of his students who ditched him in the final year of his PhD. He felt it had been a great deal of work supporting this student and then he didn't get any credit at the end. So, it must be possible to sever the links with a supervisor.

I can see that you wouldn't want to acknowledge somebody who had been no help at all to you.