Hi there,

I am having a dilemma.

I have created a proposal for a PhD topic with the help or a number of people within my department. This proposal has been submitted to the ESRCs Open Competition.

I have just started doing my MA dissertation on the same topic as my PhD proposal.

Now, however, I am seriously having cold feet about the topic.
It is something that I know very little about as I wasn't taught anything in this area at undergraduate level.
And it is something that I'm just not that excited about now- I don't know if I can spend the next 3 years doing this PhD. Moreoever, once I have finished the PhD, I will be looking for postdocs and I don't know if I want to work in this area for any of my longer term career.

I am worried about jumping ship.

Changing what I want to do would mean changing supervisors and I don't want my current supervisor (who is also my dissertation supervisor) to think that I am whimsical or have a bad impression of me- she keeps saying that she is really excited to be working with me etc. etc..

Also, changing projects would mean that I would still have to do the dissertation into the topic I am doing at the moment, so I won't have that 'foothold' going into my PhD.

This is, of course, assuming that I don't get the ESRC funding.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Thank you.

I dont know how strict ESRC is in terms of having to stick to the exact topic that you have proposed, but my experience is (from another research council) that once you get the PhD studentship funding, you can still change topics to some degree. Many people find that their original idea of what they would do for the three years of research changes and the research follows different avenues and paths as you go along. Surely the outcome from your Masters research will inform your PhD work, so my advice is to take it one step at a time. Do the Masters work first, find out whether you really do not want to work on that kind of topic/in that general field any more. And if you dont, (and you get the ESRC funding), speak to your supervisor about your changed perspective. If you still want work with her, suggest possible different angles, i.e. how you could revamp the current PhD proposal.
In the meantime I suppose it might be worth checking out how the research council views the funding for the PhD - do you get the money (i.e. you could go to another university and another supervisor) or is the studentship linked to your supervisor and specific proposal (in that case it's use it or lose it).
I hope it all works out.
Good luck...

Thanks for those comments.

The funding is linked to me, the university and the department so I couldn't just take the funding and run away to another topic (if I got it).

I have decided that I am going to press on with my dissertation. If I find that I am not enjoying it I am just going to be up front with my supervisor and tell her if I am having second thoughts about the PhD. She is really nice and very understanding.

Depending, then, on the outcome of my dissertation (i.e. whether I enjoy it or not and what results I get out of it) and the outcome of the funding application, I will decide whether or not I want to carry on with the topic to PhD.

Thanks again.

hi there! I don't know much about how strict some of the research councils will be on changing topic. Although my topic has remained the same, I have made many changes to my methodology since the start of my PhD last October, and the project is looking quite different to what was on my original proposal, but I am School/Scholarship funded, so this isn't so much of a big deal. Anyway, the main thing I wanted to say is that I love my PhD, but I honestly could not do it in something I wasn't really passionate and enthusiastic about. I know a couple of people in the department who are pretty ambivalent about their topic, and are really struggling to motivate themselves. Having said that, sometimes when you get stuck into something, it does become more fascinating that you originally thought. It might be that when you get stuck into the topic for your MA you get more into it as you go along. I would probably stick with it for a while and see how you get on with the topic before making any really big decisions....good luck! KB