======= Date Modified 20 54 2010 04:54:10 =======
Hi, need some advice about my current situation.

I get the impression that my supervisor is not keen for me to leave the uni and he is making it very difficult for me to finish.

I have been writing full time for the past 7 months and very close to having my thesis in shape for submission. I had originally aimed to submit by August but my supervisor keeps adding things on to my list of things to do. Just recently he has decided that I should do another experiment/chapter to add to thesis. I'm not so keen on the chapter because its not directly related to my project and it involves using a machine which has been broken all year! All year I have had huge distractions as I have been expected to fill an RA role- teach new students and a new academic methods, locations of lab equipment ordering etc.

He suggestion today was that I also should publish one more chapter before I submit the thesis but I really don't think this is possible within a short timeframe. He is incredibly pedantic and difficult to write with, the last publication I wrote had to go through 40 drafts over 1 year, going back & forth before he was happy!! Not necessary just improvements but a lot of the changes were results/ literature he decided to put it, take out, put back in, reanalyse, do more labwork etc. I have 3 other supervisors who were happy with it after first draft.

I should mention that other post-docs and students have had the sameproblems. Some have had to work for months without pay, trying tofinish. Other students have quit, sick of the stress and difficulties.

I'm not sure what to do as my scholarship is about to run out. I have a mortage and its not fair to expect my partner to keep working overtime to cover my share. I just not sure I have the energy to tackle another chapter and another publication at the moment. I have told him many times the date I would like to submit but he just seems to ignore me. I realise that I am the main researcher on the project and it is difficult for him once I leave but I have had enough (emotionally & financially) and just want to finish!!!

Sorry for the rant :-)

Hi Martie_28,

This sounds like a stressful nightmare.

It sounds like you are in a different discipline to me, but in my discipline there is very much the sense that the thesis is YOUR thesis, rather then your supervisor's.  Indeed, when you have to defend the thesis in the Viva, it will be harder for you to demonstrate that the work is all yours, if your supervisor has had loads of input into it, so it may be in your interests to stop writing and submit a document in the form you want to.

If you have to do more writing/ experiments, this might put your submission date back for months. I think you can reasonably say that you are not prepared to be fund-less and phd-less just to do work that in your opinion has nothing to do with your focus -and maybe again you should steer clear of it in case in the Viva they ask you why you have an extra chapter about such an unrelated topic and ask you to take it out. I bet you would be furious if you had delayed submission just to have to take out the section that had caused the delay in the first place! It is actually very bad practice to make students do work for the supervisor which has nothing to do with their thesis, and if he forces you to do it, and it really is not related to the focus of your thesis, you might have grounds for complaint.

It sounds like your supervisor, not unlike mine, is really inconsistent and indecisive. I was writing funding bids for mine, and every other conversation was 'we should do A', 'we should scrap A and do B',' what happened to A and why is there this B rubbish?'. When I realised that this was his 'style' I decided to deploy some up-management tactics. which basically means you accept your supervisor is a nightmare and make decisions for your project on behalf of you both. and remain firm. put all your agreed points (including the ones you are going to do without his agreement) in writing in an email after your meetings so that he can come to terms with what you are doing and you can get on with it.

Your personal situation with your mortgage etc is an excellent reason to refuse to work longer for free and you are completely entitled to a life beyond the lab. You could just make your supervisor aware of the fact that you do not want to work without  funding, that you feel you have done enough and intend to submit.


If I were in your position I would do the following:

1. Tell my supervisor I am going to submit. If she/he is hostile, speak to the other supervisors, be satisfied that the thesis is in fact good enough to submit and explore how to do it without the nod from your main supervisor.

2. if that is no good, go to your post-graduate tutor, there must be a procedure in place when this happens

3. AND go to the student union welfare people. If this is a common experience of your peers, you ought to make sure the occurrence is recorded, even if it works out OK for you in the end.

You can always tell your supervisor that after submission you would be happy to work with him in a post-doc capacity on the experiments, if he has any funding (hoho!).

You mustn't give up though! And you might find that feeding back this experience to your supervisor might be helpful for him with his future supervisees.

I hope this helps..

That's a tricky situation.

But..... as far as I know, in most Uk institutions however, you do not need your sup's approval to submit. You need to check this with your graduate school/department though!!!!! Often you need to get your sup's signature when you notify that you're gonna submit, but they do not need to approve.

That said, I do agree with Queerface that you
1) make sure that your other sups think your work is ready for submission
2) find out the rules about what to in this situation and make sure that "official" people know what your problem is (so that you have "witnesses")
3) check whether you do need your sub to approve that you're submitting.

Hope that helps.

Martie - think this is just a case of who has the final say and who actually owns the work. I would reckon that you actually suss out what is the story with submissions in your college (who needs to sign off on it etc.,). Like the other posters, I can relate somebit to your situation, but am miles away from your point i.e.. you are so close to finishing, don't even think of giving in.

I suppose it really relates back to the point is how much fight you have left. I would maybe come to a compromise and call another meeting just to get the point across to Numb-N*ts that there are very real practical problems in relation to pro-longing the research. Maybe agree to the publication of a paper with this work within an agreed timeframe once you have submitted. Maybe get advice from your own college as to the submission procedure i.e. do you actually need his approval?

If you are so close to finishing, and are commited to doing so, I am sure that neither your college or your super would not want you abandoning ship now. In short, chin up, maybe spend a day or two looking for this information (surely there is a Post-Grad advisor at the Student Union). Know your facts going into such a meeting, remain diplomatic and be somebit flexible, but get across your point as to why EXACTLY this new chapter is needed and is it actually worth the time or just a personal thought. If it is a case of leaving it out and taking a chance on the viva, do so! You have published work and I am assuming the existing work has merit on its own.