Hi, as some might know from my writing on this forum, I have a supervision which is not ideal, yet yesterday I presented at the annual upgrade workshop and (unexpectedly for me) my work was received with success and minor amendments from the panel (including the head of Phd).

Yet, going back to my supervisor's office he told me he doesnt see anything in my work and is tired of going in circles, called me lazy and admitted he might be biased and perhaps someone else can see something in it.....

NOW, I need to submit the written part of the upgrade end of june, and he is supposed to support it.....he knows if he wants me to leave he has to upgrade me or we'll just keep postpoining but i'm scared he might influence the head of phd.

how would you approach this? All i can do is follow his advice and improve the paper.........but i dont have high hopes fom him unless he himself gets influenced.

same applies for my 2nd, she destroyed another guy's presentation on the same day.......

Well this does seem very negative, and not really what I would expect of a supervisor, and neither should you. If you have always had an off relationship with them, then it is in neither of your interests for this to continue. When I was doing my masters diss I has a similar problem, except my supervisor told me that he didn't want to do it (it wasn't really in his field but it was the nearest they had, so they, in his words, 'twisted his arm' ) result was I saw him twice, once at the beginning and once when I had done it all and it was ready to be handed in, and I sent about 5 e-mails, his repiles contradicted each other and he took ages to reply. It was a bad situation and one I wouldn't want to repeat. Unless you realy, really need him on board, just ask him why he is being so negative, and suggest that if he knows someone who would be more helpful, could he approach them. you are paying for his services as a supervisor one way or another, so you are entitled to receive better treatment. Also go and see whoever oversees post grad stuff at your place and ask them what to do. It won't be the first time this has happened, and there should be a policy on what to do in these circumstances.

thanks! i have already seen the head of phd and in fact he was part of this panel....he said i should present and we will see. I did, and now he said it was ok so just give the written part and we can assess it, but he doesnt know my supervisor is still so negative.

He said i should look for another one but he said it's my job.....

I suspect he realises that if he doesnt upgrade me he cant get rid of me so he will, that is why he keeps telling me what to change as if we have a common goal, regardless of the fact that he says its a mess...

am i being too optimistic?

If he says it was OK, then I don't really see why the other person is making so many waves. However if the object is to get through the upgrade, do the necessary and then decide what you want to do about the future. If you can then get someone who is enthusiastic about what you are doing then you can put all this behind you and put it down to experience, - and when you get to supervise someone, you will know exactly how to behave to help your student. :-)