I am on my 5th year in a part time phd program. My data collection is complete, but i still have problems with data analysis. My major problem is that i am virtually unsupervised.

My supervisor is so busy that he hardly has time for me, and i just can't apply for him to be changed. That will be disaster!. He has not read my work since 5 months i submitted it to him. My work is virtually unsupervised.
What do i do. I'm thinking of quiting the program but i have put in so much already (i have received no form of financial support from anybody). Can i take the work to another university?
I am thinking of an online university or external supervision. Is this lawful.

What can i do.

Some one help me!

Clinton

The University has a duty to ensure you get adequate supervision. I suggest you:

1) contact your supervisor (ideally on the telephone, harder to ignore a call than an e-mail) and explain that you really need his/her help and feedback and ask to arrange a meeting. Be firm but polite!

2) If you still don't get a satisfactory response then contact someone from your graduate school/research degrees office and explain that you do not feel you are getting adequate supervision and ask them to find you additional support ASAP (or to apply pressure to your supervisor so that he/she supports you!).

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

What Ann said. Isn't there at your department a PhD coordinator or something like that, that is, a lecturer who can give advice and listen to research students? I would talk to him in the second place, if you supervisor doesn't react to your e-mails/calls.

I don't think the idea of looking for external support is fair. But I don't mean is not fair for your University - it's not fair for you. I suppose you have paid your tuition fees (or somebody else is paying them for you) and that gives you the right to receive something in return - that is, adequate supervision.

I agree with both these replies. You need to get the message across to someone that you need supervising. Your supervisor should be your first port of call - phone him and ask for a meeting and state that you would like him to read some of your work beforehand so you can discuss it (give him a reasonable length of time - upto a week).

Failing that, I would be very suprised if there wasn't someone at your university who you could speak to about this. Someone who can act as a mediator just to get things rolling again, sometimes people just need a kick up the ar*e!

I don't feel very much left alone afterall. Thank you all for finding time to respond.i'm really considering taking my work elsewhere because talking to the department will start off a serious "power" tussle.

In a 3rd world setting like mine, the reality of being at the centre of a serious academic politics especially where the person involved is a heavy weight like my supervisor may not be palatable.

If it is legal and/or normal, i'll prefer to take my work elsewhere, where i can find peace of mind, good supervision and importantly motivation.

Hi Clinton

Please don't use all capital letters when you post - I have changed your last message to lower case.