OK, I just want to vent and get other people's opinions on this.

Recently my dissertation supervisor developed a habit of standing me up. He has cancelled meetings on 3 seperate occasions- one time leaving a note on his door asking me to come back 2 hours later, and didn't turn up then either.
At 3 points during the year we have a compulsory meeting with our supervisor and a secondary advisor. This was arranged for last week but he emailed the day before (the only time he actually cancelled in advance was when there was another member of staff involved) saying he was ill. He asked me to leave a copy of the form that is supposed to be filled in during the meeting in uni for him, so that him and my advisor can go over it. I have heard nothing from him since about this and have a feeling that when I check in his pigeon hole where I left it, the form will still be there.

We arranged for me to send him a draft of my introduction last Monday, and I haven't heard anything back about it. We haven't arranged for me to send him anything else, or the dates I can expect work back from him, as this is usually done at the meeting with the advisor.

Anyway. He DEFINATELY, 100% certainly told me he was going on holiday on the 25th (I know it was the 25th as I had to arrange the meeting with my advisor). I sent him an email on Thursday asking if we can meet this week before he goes away. No reply. I emailed him again yesterday and got an automated message back telling me he is away and can't respond to email until the 18th August.

My dissertation is due in on 12th September, plus allowing 3 or 4 days for binding. This means that I'll have 2-2 1/2 weeks to rewrite my whole dissertation once he has gotten round to reading the draft after his holiday. I am doing a qualitative analysis which he knows I haven't done before, and now I can't get any feedback on what I am doing. I know as I'm at masters level I can't expect to be spoon fed, but still.

I don't feel like he is giving me the support I am PAYING for and I'm so angry that he ignored my email before going on holiday after cancelling our meeting. Of course people are going to go on holiday, but I expected him to tie up loose ends with me before leaving, rather than thinking "f*ck it, I'll deal with it when I'm back".

I have been trying to get hold of someone in academic advisory at my so that I can speak to someone outside of my department first but I haven't had any luck (everyone seems to be on holiday!). I think I'm going to have to arrange a meeting with my advior but feel weird about it because he isn't some anonymous person, we are supposed to have this relationship and he is marking my dissertation.

What do people think? Do I have a right to be mad or am I blowing it out of proportion? Maybe it's NORMAL for supervisors to be like this and I'm just expecting too much, I don't know.


....Wow, that was realy long. Thanks to anyone who made it all the way through!

You have the right to be mad. I wouldn't say this is normal but it does happen. It happened to me - my supervisor finally read through my thesis in front of me 4 days before submission. I did complain about lack of supervision but absolutely nothing happened.

Has he always been like this with all his students? Can you meet or get feedback from the other advisor in the meantime? Is there anyone you can go to to register your complaint (for future reference in case there are problems when you submit)?

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I went to see my second supervisor (who doesn't have anything to do with the project academically) in the end. She sent him an email which he replied to straight away, although he had been ignoring the emails I sent to him. He sent back an angry reply, which he copied me into. We exchanged a few emails and sorted things out and he has given me some feedback on the work I have already done.

I was a bit worried about complaining to someone but he really was out of order.

I'm just glad that I finish soon and I'm doing my PhD at another university!

Seems like everyone encounters similar problems!
Scheduled meetings were missed or waiting for reply/feedback from supervisors..
But we were told that each supervisor has different style and they DO go on holidays..I guess that's what we have to learn to deal with

Good luck!

My supervisor is also going on holiday, and my first thought was 'how can you do this!!! I need you here' lol lol, then figured the poor guy needs a break.
I'm very lucky in that he is brilliant, he always replies within 24 hours and has been so incredibly supportive to me, he will also be my supervisor next year for the Phd, great for me, probably not so good for him
I think you're right to be cross about this, we pay a fortune for their advice and they should provide it! I know some of my peers are having issues with their supervisors, so it seems a fairly common thing. Last year (so BA diss) one of my friends literally took a chair and sat outside their sups office for hours to nail him after he hadn't responded once in over 3 months NOT GOOD!

Don't worry, my supervisor is just the same, He never replies to emails, I have finally got him to look over a draft of almost finished dissertation work, but I've added to it (obviously!) since. He's supposed to be off up north for 3 weeks the 3 weeks before my dissertation is due (sept the 19th) I was like great! thankfully, he's infamous for it as it turns out and most of the other lecturers in the department are really sympathetic and offering to read it and help me out! and the lady in charge of admin in the department has said if i copy her in on all the emails I send to him she can officially chase him up, so maybe that's the only option we have, copy other lecturers or staff in so they know how annoying the supervisor involved is!