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Hi everyone,

I'm in the third year of a PhD and my funding ends at the end of September.

Apart from ethics, I've had no substantive feedback and no hard copy feedback, just one line verbal feedback. I've all the data collected but very little written. To be honest, my supervisors proposed the topic which is not my cup of tea but I was unemployed, needed an income and so took the PhD for a regular income and with the hope that it would allow me to move on and into another area. To my credit, I've always tried working and have taken it seriously but their lack of feedback and interest means I've lost motivation (almost nothing has been done in 8 months!). I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that the PhD wouldn't get completed. Should I try talking to my supervisors yet again or should I go to the departmental head? To add, even when I ask questions by email these don't always get answered

Whether it's normal or not is hard to say. The forum here alone demonstrates that everybody appears to have a different experience.

Having said that, your PhD experience sounds eerily similar to my research masters experience where I had no supervisory meetings at all until I started to produce chapter drafts well into the second year. I wrote it up in just over three months and vowed NEVER again. Apart from checking the inside page to see that it was my thesis when I got it back from the printers, I never opened it again such are the rotten emotions I associate with it. I got an okay mark but am not proud of it and still shudder when I think about that two year period of my life.

If you are in your PhD 3rd year it seems a pity to drop out when you are well over half way. Your data collection is complete - do you feel ready/able to start writing it up? Maybe if you start handing your supvs draft chapters, it will spur them into action? It is possible to write up quite fast, possibly not by September, but I would think by the end of the year is achievable.

However, if you really can't stomach it anymore well maybe a graceful retreat would be better? True, a Google search would show that you were a PhD student at one time but you could stress the research experience, analytical skills etc you drew from that time of your life. Is writing it up as an MPhil an option?

Many old-style lecturers still hold onto the master-apprentice type model for PhDs. In effect, you are learning at their feet. Perhaps this is how your supvs see it? I know a few lecturers who completely poo-poo the idea of Graduate Education Modules and to quote one who said the following to a friend, "there's a big building over there called the library!" I think a mix of both is the key. I am part of a grad edu programme which got me writing from the start true enough but often on modules on which I had little interest and for me delayed the true writing up time.

I think you need to re-assess but again I think the fact that you have all your data collected is a real plus and means that a concentrated write up is doable. You could join the newly created thread here for people who are writing up at the moment? At the moment it seems like an all-female thread so we would welcome you with open arms, albeit virutal arms!! A few of us are on funding which is due to run out about the same time as yours. There is nothing that concentrates the mind like a lack of money to kick start a body into action.


Good luck (up)

A

Do you have any other sources of advice in your setting e.g. a PGR advisor? other students with the same supervisor? I would keep trying to get the PhD as you have got soooo far.

Thanks Ady and Cate.

Ady, WOW - you've been reading my mind. Even if I completed the PhD and it's certainly not my ability I doubt, it's not research I could be proud of or want to be known for. I actually think it's very badly designed and could fail for reasons beyond my control and even if it passed I still think it's a load of tripe. I tend not to make judgements but after accepting the PhD my supervisor gave me their published article to read and I winced at the two spelling mistakes on the first page :-( sadly, my impression never really improved. I just wish I'd had access to the article before accepting the PhD. I think I'll keep plugging away and see how I get on but you've raised some very good points which I'm going to consider.

Thank you both for responding.