I'm a part-time student (working fulltime with a family) and the university I'm at can't cater for it. I'm in my 6th year, with a complete thesis. But I have an outstanding 'training course' I should have gone on in year 1. Have tried several times to defer it, have sent countless emails and forms into a void. I know when I submit this is going to come back to haunt me. My supervisor left last year and I have 2 new guys who keep pushing me towards changing my approach. I get no information from them on any of the admin requirements, the admission office is useless. I have no idea what requirements I have to fulfil. (I also have some outstanding fees - admittedly this is my fault).

I don't want to ditch everything at this stage but I'm thinking I'm just going to run into so much hassle come March/April, and may end up being told I can't submit. Is it an option for me to ditch the degree and then look to fast-track the same thesis somewhere else? If it hasn't been submitted and the title changes, does the university have any claim on intellectual property?

I don't really see the problem you have with your existing university. Surely, there must be some regulations which clearly outline the requirements to submit a PhD thesis; both with regard to format etc. but also with regard to training courses.

I strongly recommend to attend the remaining training course, to pay the outstanding course fees as soon as possible and to stop putting yourself into trouble.

Regarding your idea to "fasttrack" at another university, my simple advice is: forget it.

I'm sure there are guidelines but trying to get to them is impossible. Seems unbelievable, but true. Admissions only deal with undergrads, there is one postgrad administrator who is never there. I can't get to see anyone face to face during the day as I work 80 miles away from where I live, and can't get a straight answer over the phone or via email. The training course issue stems from the fact that the university is affiliated to another institution which requires you attend a 5 day course on research training which I can't do. After a lot of messing around I found out I could defer it following a simple form submission which I have tried 3 times now with no reply/confirmation etc.

Well, if you filled out and submission the form, then you simply won't need a reply or confirmation. oN the other hand, I don't see the problem in doing a 5-day training course, in the worst case you could take annual leave at your workplace to do it.

Also, every university has Postgrad regulations and forms and a PhD handbook. Yours as well, unless it's Belford University.

You mentioned that your supervisors want you to change your approach. Do you mean your approach to the studies in general or the approach in your thesis? If the latter, better listen to them.

The training course runs twice a year and I was informed on a Friday afternoon about one starting on Monday. Don't know how much experience you have of private sector industry but annual leave on that kind of notice doesn't cut it. There was the opportunity to do it 6 months later but by then I had been told I could defer and was already trying that approach.

Other students who have submitted deferrals have had confirmation. For some reason I have not. The uni I am at seems to know little about the requirements of the other institution to which it is affiliated and although I have a supervisor there also I can't seem to get in touch with him (have only met him once in 6 years).

New supervisors are advising changes in my thesis, not so much to the approach but a multitude of references dropped in here and there which detract. Lots of them were discussed with the original supervisor and dropped because they detract. So conflicting opinions.

Well, your problem appears to be specific to your institution, so I can't help you.

The only advice I can give is: don't submit without the approval of your supervisors.

Agreed. They are happy with the thesis overall, it's just a case of steering a fine line between being inclusive enough but not too diversive I guess.

Thanks for the advice though. Trying to switch institutions is a last resort really - but I appreciate that you think that might be even trickier than trying to wade through the confusion where I am. My other half is at the same place studying for a PGCE and has found the same lack of available information to be endemic even though she is a full time student. It's a shame really because the academic side has been good on the whole. But the admin side is pretty shambolic.

The most common thing that students have to face are differences of opinion between staff. You should be confident after 6 years to know what is appropriate for your work. A friend was in a similiar position, he was told his references were too broad, but he defended well, he passed as he could explain their relevance.
Pretty much all unis have an institution-wide Director of Grad studies. There MUST (legally) be a department that deals with research regulations (ie what needs to be fulfilled in order to acheive any piece of research) that standardises PhDs across the university in order that they meet HEFCE regulations. As for saying "you can't" do the training course, you shouldn't have started a PhD at an institution which has training course demands if you were not willing to fulfil them. If your job is the problem, then talk to your manager. The impression I get is that you are not willing enough to do what it takes to get your PhD - you are making facile excuses.

It's unfortunate, but I think you're just going to have to do the course in order to submit. You should check officially and start chasing people up. There must be someone who you can phone now or later who will give you notice about the course given your situation-maybe the actual person running the course. Try and bypass the admin people and find the directly relevent person, or tackle with your supervisor and get them to add weight to your arguement? Friday is not enough notice if you are working, and it is unlikely you can financially cope with losing your job just to go on a week's course.
It may be that you can still submit but just not graduate without the course. Even library fines can stop you graduating at a university....

BTW if they can't inform you of a course in advance, imagine the hassle for the admin staff of actually changing course/institution. I'm not sure it is possible and sounds like a more difficult option to take. You would have to justify why you had done that with future employers. I'm sure there would be IP issues too.

My uni has the same thing, a compulsory course. I thinkit is becoming standard now since PhDs were put on a stricter timeline for completion. I've spoken to the guy running our course and explained how difficult it will be to get a whole week off because of the nature of my job, and we are going to work through the seminars and see which ones I need to go to, and which ones I can miss (but that is only because I did my MA here and know all about the postgrad library/IT setup etc as I work there some Saturdays.) I think it discriminates against part time students, and those of us who work in education because no-one is supposed to take time off during term time, but if you have to do it, you have to do it. A day or so isn't much notice, but to defer means just that, it doesn't mean you can get out of doing it, it is a required element.