I've posted before about my supervisor, who makes statements like "it's your project so you decide what to do" and then rubbishes what I say I want to do and essentially tells me I'm an idiot if I don't do as he says. Similarly, whenever I express concern about my project he treats me like an over anxious teenager, I spent the two months in the lead up to my First Year Review explaining that I was going to be ripped apart for my lack of methodology, and suggesting I work on it. He told me i was being stupid (I wasn't, I was ripped to pieces on it) proceeded to ask me whether I'd been working on my FYR presentation (six weeks in advance) I said no, he shouted at me and told me I had to do a piece of work by lunchtime the next day (which was completely impossible).
I recently found out he was leaving (uni and the country) but wants to supervise me remotely, he's put another person on board as joint second supervisor. The major issues are: (1) my supervision from him at the moment is entirely inadequate, what will it be like when he's 6 hours flight away, (2) my second supervisor has effectively no expertise in the area I'm looking at (3) my 1st supervisor keeps leading me towards 'soft' methodologies that I don't think have much 'go' because of his lack of training in the relevant area (4) my supervisor is only allowed to continue supervising me for two years. which would be fine if I submitted exactly on time, but otherwise will not be fine (highly likely given i'm planning a pregnancy!)
I've no idea what to do, I can't approach him because I fear he'll become very aggressive, the graduate tutor is away (who i've spoken to before) leaving the deputy graduate tutor to chat to. Since I found my supervisor was leaving there has been one email (no meetings) to discuss how things will proceed.

My supervisor left a few years ago part way through my part-time PhD. He was going to carry on supervising me long-distance. It worked well initially, we even continued to meet occasionally. But then meetings stopped, and has been correspondence supervision ever since, with often delayed response due to his new workload and probably also distance from me. The person I was supposed to talk to locally wasn't suitable because of his heavy workload. The problems with supervision came to a head at a thesis monitoring session, when a new joint supervisor was appointed locally, one who had the expertise to take things on, and the time to do a proper job. Things have worked much better since.

This story doesn't help with your immediate problem of how to fix things. Another option to avoid aggro from your supervisor is to let things run for a little bit after he leaves, see how things go, but speak up promptly then if it isn't working. The graduate tutor should be around then - or someone who can take on their responsibilities - and able to help you come to a better solution. Also I'd be very concerned if your local supervisor isn't a good option for a number of reasons, because you can't rely on your distant supervisor any more.

Of course our situations are slightly different situations. I was keen to hang on to my old supervisor because he was so good, and had helped steer me well throughout the PhD. You've had a more problematic relationship. But even though I wanted to hang on to the supervisor, and that was his plan too, long-distance supervising didn't work so well in practice.

Good luck!

Pamplemousse - simple solution. Get your head of department in on the act for a meeting ... one of our students had to change supervisor from a very obstinate guy and the head of dept. mediated. You are in a tricky situation but you do need these concerns dealt with (you'd swear at times that supervisors forget that we are intelligent and have outside lives!).

Even go to your HoD in confidence and request a meeting, but state that you wish to to make it seem as if it is at his/her request. Then, take detailed minutes of the meeting and relay these to everyone. This should include how things are going to be dealt with and a detailed scope of your project. Surely you can go to your HoD in confidence - if not him/her, there is surely someone else even to act as chairperson, so if Capt. A$$hole gets stroppy.

You are right to be concerned and if he ever gets aggressive, step back and remind him of the fact that you are not one of his kids to berate. Keep the cool and good luck with research and your future plans.

Hi Pamplemouse,

an aggressive supervisor seems to me an absolute "no". It cannot be that you are afraid of your supervisor and how he may react.

Perhaps this is an ideal opportunity to change and indeed as suggested by the others it would be good to get the university involved to negotiate for a solution. I would rather have a less knowlegable supervisor with whom one can work then one who is shouting at me, but obvously eventually you have to decide yourself how to continue.



:-)