I've been contributing to this forum for sometime and I wanted tell my story to all PhD and MPhil students.

I'm completing an MPhil because it's my only available option after 5 years of part-time research. I have to work as a IT tester to supplement this so its been very difficult. My work was fine for 5 years i.e. I passed all the progress monitoring, got the data that I set out to get, my meetings 'seemed' to go ok, did seminars and the chapters I submitted to my supervisor had problems that I tried to fix.

I finally submitted the work in 2009. But there were problems with referencing highlighted by the external examiners that had to be fixed before even taking the viva exam. I would've thought that my 'supervisor' would've told me about this after the numerous revisions we went through. He either didn't read what I wrote or didn't know what to look for. I don't know which is worse.

My supervisor basically ignored me following this as did the entire department. Not even so much as a 'it'll be ok', 'how can we help you get through this?' - nothing. This hurt me a lot because I trusted these people and I thought that they 'wanted' me to succeed. I was wrong.

The academic committee brought me in and asked me to defend my work over the last 5-years so that they could make a decision on whether I should be 'allowed' to continue. This was 12 academics versus me, so the odds were significantly stacked in their favour. Their decision was that given the problems with the write up (not the data) I would be asked to complete at MPhil. I was very unhappy with this but, they have the final word. The experience was very unhelpful, uncomfortable, intimidating and smacked of 'closing ranks' on a student by the college to save face. I feel that my supervisor could have at least contacted me to ask me how I was doing, come into this meeting with me to support, ask me how he could help, but I heard nothing from him or my research group, the students within it or otherwise. As a team lead myself, I feel personally committed to my team's well-being and success in the company. I feel betrayed and stupid for trusting the university for the last 5 years not to mention all the money I earned and poured into that place.

My research group has subsequently been sacked by the college due to lack of publications so there's no one there to help re-write the work except a few of these so-called 'tenured' academics who have done little work in the field. It seems like I've been hung out to dry and I never saw it coming. What I've learned is that academics seem to be in universites to make themselves look good, not necessarily to help the students who want to be part of what they do.

Many threads on this forum speak a little disparagingly about the MPhil qualification. Is it a consolation prize? Or an advanced masters degree for those who don't want to the lable 'academic' but as highly trained as PhD? The workload seems the same to me?

Sorry to hear about everything you have gone through.

The MPhil is a advanced degree that requires many of the skills that a PhD does, however the PhD is a different and more advanced degree.

An MPhil does not have to be a consolation prize at all. It can be a degree taken in its own right. In my own field in the humanities many of the older more senior academics took MPhils in the 60s and 70s and were able to hold university seats with this degree. However, this would not be possible today.

A friend of mine in medical physics left her PhD halfway through due to departmental politics and was awarded a MPhil. She works in management now and her new employer in pharmaceuticals values her MPhil as evidence of her academic achievement.

So the MPhil does not need to be a consolation prize but for a career in academia a PhD is required.

Well, I can empathize with both your concern about the value of an MPhil, and your bad experience of university administration.

I chose from the outset to do an MPhil, as I had no option of funding anything else. I now wish I hadn't bothered. Firstly, a lot of work goes into writing the research thesis (50,000+ in my case), and at the end of it people either don't know what it is, or think you have failed a PhD. An MA would have been quicker and easier, and far better recognised by employers or universities around the world (MPhils are a dying degree).

I'm still writing up my thesis, but I feel incredibly negative about it, because I have also suffered at the hands of very poor university administration. I had 13 months without a supervisor, i've had to personally chase everything even vaguely administrative, and I may as well not exist to my department: i've not had a single email from them that I have not instigated first. Because of their delays, i've also had to work seasonal jobs, effectively making it a part-time degree. They recently gave me an extension to make up for their previous slackness, but too late to in any way make up for their treatment of a student who gave them over £3000 for what?

I'm hoping for both our sakes that an MPhil is something to be proud of, that will be acknowledged by employers and academic institutions in the future.

Hi AC1973, I understand how frustrated you must feel but just to let you know...from the perspective of many people outside of academia (and most of the working world lives and works outside of academia) an MPhil seems pretty good. But a lot of ordinary people would think it was some really high qualification that had a theoretical (aka the philosophy word) aspect and wouldn't really know much else about it but that it sounds quite hard and as if you are a smart person who seriously thinks a lot!

Honestly, I only learned about this particular qualification once I really started exploring my options for postgrad research and work people who have been introduced with one, have been thought quite learned by others. It is only when you are on the nitpicking pathway to academia only, that these qualifications start to really reveal their hierarchies, I would think. You have had a really tough break it seems, so I hope you continue and get that MPhil in spite of all the machinations going on.