Hi all,
First post!

I am wondering if anyone has any experience/knowledge relating to switching to a different University and taking an existing PhD with you. For context I am based in the UK.

The story is that my supervisor recently left the University and my new supervisor seems to have completely different idea of the direction it should take. I am more than half way through and had around 2/3rds of my first draft thesis already written and while I am prepared to compromise to some degree I am not prepared to be pulled off in a completely different direction. I suspect that this is more to do with epistemological/methodological differences in what is quite a subjective genre rather than anyone being right or wrong. While the situation is not necessarily beyond resolution at this point I am just thinking ahead about what my options might be should it come to the point of no return!

In a nutshell I am wondering whether it is possible to take what I have done already and for example sign up for the final year of a PhD programme in another University - (provided of course I could find a supervisor and I would be willing to pay the final year fees myself).

I guess that part of this comes down to who owns the work I have done already, whether it is the institution, the funder (which in this case is also the institution) or the PhD student?

I am working so I haven't received any stipend, its just my fees that have been covered by the funder.

Thanks for any advice!

Kaymo.

I transferred to another university after 2 years. The difference with my case was that I moved with my supervisor to the department he had moved to. I was able to take the work done so far and the new university awarded my PhD the following year. I was funded for fees and living costs at both universities.

So it's possible, but dependent on finding a university willing to take you and for your existing institution to agree to release you. It's more common than you might think.

Yes. You own the work you do- but not the tools it was done with or, necessarilly, the results it produces.

I looked into transferring to another university (Oxford actually) a few years ago when my supervisor moved there. I found that they, like a lot of other universities, have a rule about how much of a PhD must be done with them. I was halfway through my part-time PhD, but too far through to transfer. Made it an easy decision! I believe the minimum study time rule can sometimes be bent, especially if you are moving with an existing supervisor. But many universities do have such a rule. So don't assume you can move at this point. It may not be possible, at least to where you want to go to.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry for my own delay, I hadn't noticed the box to tick to get an email for replies and so presumed no one had!

My problem is that my supervisor left some time ago and I got transferred to a new supervisor internally but that relationship is not working out. My new supervisor is not supportive of the methodology that I was using prior to her involvement and because I am not keen to change that the relationship has been breaking down. It might be possible to transfer again internally but there doesn't appear to be anyone in the school who is a fit to my research which is why I am starting to look into other options. The fact that I am probably about 2/3rds of the way there, and that I probably couldn't afford more than about 1 years fees if I go somewhere elsewhere makes this tricky!

Thank you for the non-spam :)