Writing acknowledgements is a very personal thing. I agree with everyone else - whom to be include is a very personal decision. I named 20 to 25 people and thanked a generic 'and the faculty of xxx' but probably only 4 named persons would end up reading it. I took a dig at an ex-supervisor with a double entendre. This supervisor will probably never see it, but it was meant to show the other supervisors that I had nothing against that person. I don't think anyone reading it would know what I really meant; only my close friends would. I had great fun with it, even shed a few tears thinking about people that I genuinely wanted to thank. All in all, it was a great way to close up this chapter of my life, and round up both the good and bad.

I agree with previous posts, check with the uni. There are usually some rules related to approval for submission by supervisors. At my uni, there is a process to submit without supervisory approval, in which case there will be two adjudicators (usually head of school and someone from grad school) who step in. I don't know if they're expected to read the thesis in place of the supervisor or just mediate. But this burns bridges and isn't helpful in the longer run e.g. when it is time to review corrections. I know it can be frustrating when we're so tired and sick of the thesis and just want to submit (or have reached the maximum stipulated time allowed like me), but supervisors usually do know best because they have been in the shoes of examiners. Assuming your supervisor has your best interests at heart (and isn't just giving you a hard time), the more he/she reads it, the better your chances are with your examiners. This saves future grief e.g. fewer corrections or a shorter route to passing.

I faced a similar situation when both my supervisors retired and I had to look for a new supervisor in my 6 mths before submission. My third supervisor was in a different country altogether. if you need the scholarship, you will not be able to change universities. The only advantage of changing universities, aside from moving with your first supervisor, would be if you are moving to a 'brand name' university. The third year is really quite crucial but if you have been quite independent and are on track, it may be worth staying on. It also depends on your relationship with your second supervisor. Will you be able to get another main supervisor, perhaps giving the reason that you need someone who is working more closely in your area than your second supervisor?

My PhD was a qualitative thematic analysis piece too and I worked part-time as a research assistant during data collection and transcription. I don't think my themes were fixed right up to the last few months before submission, so I wouldn't be overly worried. As you begin to write up, many things will change. I must have changed and rewritten my themes and structure of analysis chapters at least 40 to 50 times before submission.

However, what is important is to know your research questions and to be quite specific. And this can only occur from your lit review. Again, your research questions (and lit review) can change once you get to know your data. It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation - without a research question(s), you can't analyse your data, but without knowing your data, you can't have good research questions. If it helps, I used NVivo the first few times I coded. I coded my entire data set twice - once with NVivo just to get a feel of coding and my data, and then the second time just using Word and coloured text. You really must know your data inside out, I cannot emphasise this enough. I could practically recite what someone said and who said it after a while. Good luck and enjoy the process.