Hi. I just wondered if anyone has been in the same kind of situation as me? For the past 2 years (Masters and 1st year of PhD) the supervisors I had were brilliant and I got on really well with them. I now have two new supervisors because they both decided to move universities.

What I have found (and one of my original supervisors did warn me about this) is that they are both trying to steer me in completely different directions with which literature I should be using, and the theoretical position I should be taking. There is also a complete lack of structure with one of them unwilling to comment on any written work and the other seems to be unable to respond to emails. I could go on forever but overall the whole experience has left me feeling miserable, alone and frustrated. I've put in so much work up until now and I'm scared now that the whole thing will be a disaster!
Does anyone have any advice?

not got any advice, but it sounds a horrible situation. I take it that your new supervisors are the 'best' available, so no chance of changing or getting anyone else involved? Did you ever think about moving with your original supervisor(s)? Depends on practicalities of course, but it sounds as though you had a really good set up. Otherwise, if it is any consolation, a lot of us have given up on any hope of supervisors actually being useful and are ust doing it ourselves.

I second that, my first supervisor is ok but a little unreliable and at the minute dont even know if I have a second! Last year it was supposed to be one guy, who I only ever saw twice and wasn't that helpful anyway. Now it turns out that due to some regulation that says both supervisors have to have a certain amount of experience he's not suitable...so it mght be this other guy, but no one knows and I was only told this on wednesday despite the fact that the three involved have apparently been wrangling about it for a while! Bottom line if your lucky you might get a great supervisor, but sadly (altho this is based largely on discussions with other postgrads in my own uni)this isn't always the case, mostly supervisors are somewhere in the middle but there are those out there who will leave you to your own devices.

Thanks for that feel a bit better I guess I was just lucky in the first place for having two decent supervisors. I'm self-funded so moving with them wasn't an option. Believe me I would if I could! I'll just have to plod through and hope for the best. This forum is really helpful though!