I go to a regular meting with other PhDers in my subject area and some of the supervisors come along. Last meeting we had something to comment on written by another student, and I was amazed at the amount of advice given to them. I said as much to one of the supervisors there, who happens to be in charge of our wing of postgraduates, and as a result of the conversation he said he would contact my supervisors, diplomatically to see what was happening and to remind them of their duties. both these things have happened, but the resultant e-mail (i was cc'd in) suggests that my supervisors haven't even read the chapters I sent them over a month ago, are going to give them a quick once over in a week or so, and are then sorting out other bits that are needed by the uni, which should all have been done by the beginning of November. One is not at the uni now, and the other is rather 'laid back' about the whole process to put it politely and I'm not sure he has read anything I have sent, or at least not more than the first page or two. I am wondering if I should e-mail back to the supervisor in charge to ask what I should do. I don't need someone to hold my hand, but on the other hand, I sent a bit of work to another student, (a mutual arrangement)and the feedback was more use than anything else I have received which tends to suggest that it is all lovely. What to do????

I'd speak to the supervisor - then one who helped you out - rather than email, you probably don't want an email trail of you talking about it which he then forwards to your supervisors - I've seen this happen! (not to me thank god).

My sup can be the same, I sent her 50,000 words, I'd been working on them ALL last summer and she STILL hasn't looked at them. She said to me the other day "oh I found a load of writing in my email box - I'd forgotten you'd done that" but yet, still no comments or feedback!

trouble is, being part time, I can't get in during the day- I may have to leave it until the next PhD group meeting. I know they were thinking about getting me someone else at the uni, which would be OK but would be my third change of team members, so not ideal. You are right about e-mailing though, thats how I know what was said, although I may have been sent a copy to my uni email as i was told that would happen - I don't often use that e-mail mainly because it is so complicated I have to look it up if I want to use it!:$. The thing is they know about all these deadlines, and should be getting all the paperwork in place and necessary actions taken, because they control that area and I can't do it, but I'm the one who will be asked why it hasn't been sent in on time. :-(

I am a P/T student aswell and have a 4 hour drive to get to my uni (I relocated due to hubbys job for my maternity leave).  I have found Skype tutorial session with members of my supervisory team invaluable as we have a face-to-face conversation. Can this be arranged for you?  All universities must have video conferencing links etc so it is really easy to set up. My Skype tutorials are usually conducted in the evening when the babies are in bed (yes, three babies lol) so they are very accommodating for me.  They are arranged monthly ish and we go over Chapter comments, paperwork formalities etc.

As regards your supervisor it saddens me to hear people having poor feedback, guess I have been lucky with proactive ones!  Can you speak over the phone with the one that seems to be helping you to arrange an additional one to your team? Therefore you are not removing the one who is not helpful but are adding an extra dimension?