Hi all,

I'm doing my PhD at the mo and read these boards fairly often and something I have noticed is that the majority (though far from all) of the problems with supervisors seem to stem from a lack of communication. I think many of these problems could be sorted by "nipping them in the bud" early on. Perhaps people aren't confident enough to talk to their supervisor about problems early on (supervisors can be intimidating at times) but I really think that if people get past this early on and go and talk to their supervisors when problems first begin to arise then they may be better off.

Also, many posts feature the line "I've emailed loads but no reply". If it is urgent, go to your supervisors office a few times every day until you can speak to them. Things are a lot easier to resolve in person and supervisors are generally a bit older and don't like email. Plus they get about 100 emails a day and can easily miss them. Again, I realise that some people have factors preventing them doing this (living miles away from the uni for instance).

I don't mean to sound preachy and I certainly hope people continue using this board when they have a problem, I just thought I'd put this post out for people to see so that if they are experiencing the beginning of a problem they sort it early by going and speaking to their supervisor early on.

What does everyone else think? Is communication the main problem in your opinion?

I agree that A LOT of problems stem from poor communication between supervisors and students.

My supervisor and I openly admit that we are fairly bad at communication, but this was only after 6 months of not being able to obtain data in my first year (electrophysiology frustrations). Unfortunately, my relative inexperience in the field (and as a PhD student overall) meant that I didn't know how to get myself out of the situation of endless supervisory meetings, in which all that I could report was ''it's just not working''.

I think that it's very important for PhD students to recognise when a situation isn't going to resolve itself on its own. Some supervisors are very busy and won't necessarily realise that something is wrong. Luckily for me, another PI came to my rescue with an alternative technique that yielded lots of useful data and I have resolved never to get stuck like this again.

[quote]Quote From screamingaddabs:



Also, many posts feature the line "I've emailed loads but no reply". If it is urgent, go to your supervisors office a few times every day until you can speak to them. Things are a lot easier to resolve in person and supervisors are generally a bit older and don't like email.


I think this is a very patronising comment and a gross generalisation! Whether a supervisor is 'older' or not (and what do you class as older?) the nature of their work entails that they use electronic forms of communication and e-mail is one of the basic means of this which is generally the quickest and most common way of communicating nowadays. More and more educational resources are online and I think if people aren't up to using e-mail then they will soon be left way behind.

Rant over!
Pam (an older person!)

I think another recurring theme is that PhD students don't realise how much the onus is on them, that the PhD is totally different from a taught course and involves a certain amount of "formation" (to borrow a phrase from another area) of an academic who can communicate effectively and work with colleagues.

Pam - You are right in that it is a generalisation - hence why I put "generally" before the statement. I don't think that ALL "older" people hate email and don't mean to suggest that all do, and by the same token it doesn't mean "younger" people are necessarily any better. However, I have found (OK sample size 1 - me!) that in general it is older academics and in fact older people in general who dislike email the most. That's not to say they necessarily can't use it, just that they don't like it. I actually happen to agree with them to an extent. I prefer a phone call or a visit in person.

Sorry if it caused offence - Just to restate - it is very much a generalisation!

The important thing I was trying to get across is that sending an email doesn't guarantee much. People easily forget about emails - they rarely forget about you when you are knocking on their door!