My PhD grant is due to run out soon (I'm in fourth year now, I was given an extension so my stipend is about to come to an end) and I've just found out there is some money left in the stipend pot for my grant, equating to about 2 months' stipend...the problem is that my supervisor has asked the finance department if he can use it for consumable money. So I'm wondering, can he do that? Or do I have a leg to stand on to speak to finance myself and ask whether it can be used as stipend for me? I don't know how this usually works and whether this is very cheeky of me, or whether it's cheeky of him to try to use stipend money for his own costs. Equally I don't want to annoy him, I need his help with reading drafts and organising my viva, and he can be quite a difficult person to deal with even when he's in a good mood!

However, he knows I have another six months of full time work to finish experiments and write up, so a bit of extra stipend money would be very useful for me. Sorry for the ramble, does anyone have any thoughts on this situation? Should I say something or just let it go?

Thanks,
Tulip

Hi Tulip, it depends from which pot the money come from. If your PhD is part of a bigger project for which your supervisor has applied and was awarded funding, and your stipend is paid using a portion of his grant, then I guess your supervisor can do that. In any case is always a good idea to check where the funding comes from before doing anything. Good luck!

But if you also have six extra months of experiments to do wouldn't that use up any left over funds on consumables and instrument time?

Hi guys, thank you for the replies.

DrCorinne - the grant is funded by a charity and was awarded to my supervisor, but as far as I'm aware the consumable and stipend pots are separate, which would mean we would need permission from the sponsor to use the money from either pot for a different reason. If that's the case I get the impression my supervisor wouldn't want to approach the sponsor, so I'm unsure what would happen. But also I didn't want to approach my supervisor about this incase it came across that I'm trying to get more money and that I'm not appreciative of the extension I already received.

kikothedog - I have some other consumable money left that will cover the costs of my remaining experiments and instrument use, and there is a lot more money in that pot than I will probably need to finish up, which is why I thought I'd ask about the stipend money. But I guess thinking about it, my supervisor applied for and was awarded the grant initially, so I guess ultimately it's up to him to decide how it's used. I thought I'd ask anyway!

Thanks for your replies!
Tulip