Hello, I'm new here. This is my first post after just reading other people's posts and comments for a while. I've just met my supervisors today and although I'm far from hanging myself, today's supervision left me with a massive stone in my chest.

I'm at the end of my 3rd year PhD (full time) doing sociolinguistics and due to the problem I've been having with the changing of supervisors, research topics, and establishment of research questions and contributions, I had to extend my study into year 4, starting this month. I am supported by a university somewhere in Southeast Asia to come study in the UK.

Now, I'm not gonna lie to you, I know my research background is weak and my research skills have plenty of rooms for improvements. I'm very new to PhD, and unlike many of my friends whose research interests stemmed from their master's years or even earlier, I started from 0 when I came to the UK to start my course and build myself up from there (my masters was in educational studies). I did attend training courses provided by the university and have been trying to push myself to meet PhD standard. My sup. has been very helpful and patient with me all through these years, which I greatly appreciate, but she is also very strict just about everything. Her standard is so high even my 2nd sup. who's a big emeritus professor in applied linguistics said 'she's much more strict than me.' I have tried to up my game in order to meet her standard, but of course, it's still not there. Today in the meeting she told me that I should consider submitting what I've got so far (I've finished data collecting already and have already started analysing) as an Mphil instead of a PhD thesis.

This was not the first time she said it though. The first time she said to me 'I can't see this as a PhD thesis, only an Mphil' and things like 'it's not clear...I can't see what your contribution is...'. It disheartened me, of course, but I'm pushing further still - because I want to get it, and because I have no other choices. I just hope someone can understand my frustration here. I feel like I'm stuck in the middle, my sup. told me to give up, but I can't go back without the degree. I've got too much on my shoulder to do that, and to fail to obtain a PhD means I'll have to be fined silly amount of money which I cannot afford even if I sell one of my kidneys.

If someone could share their experience or suggest what I should do, I'd be so grateful. I don't reckon any of you would have similar problems of weak research skills though? I really don't know how I got accepted in the first place really! They must have mixed up my application with someone else's. Thanks so much for reading till the end.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

This is a really difficult situation because your supervisor is telling you that your research isn't PhD standard and unless you fully understand what is required to reach the standard by submission, it is possible that your external examiners will agree with your supervisor and will not award you a PhD. If her standards are really too high though, it's possible someone else might think you have sufficient work for a PhD. Can you ask another academic for their opinion? Have you been having annual assessments by an independent academic? Have they given you their thoughts on your progress?

Also, have you told your supervisor that you can't go home without the PhD? You really need to be honest with her.

You need to get detailed instructions of the requirements needed to obtain the PhD and a realistic deadline to achieve them. You need to ensure that your supervisor closely monitors your progress and provides enough feedback for you to stay on the right path.

You are determined to do it, and that is good, but your determination must be met with the required abilities as well, otherwise you are not going to be able to make it. Good luck.

Based on my limited experience, it is possible that a master thesis is of higher quality than a phd thesis.
It really depends on the university or thesis supervisor.

So, you may consider to request for a change of supervisor. :-)

Dear TreeofLife and MeaninginLife, thank you very much for your comments. They are very helpful and I do appreciate them a lot.

The supervision yesterday wasn't that bad though, at least in my opinion. They did display concerns about how my work is going so slowly that I might not get things done and submit my thesis within the bracket of time, which I fully agree. I have been focusing so much on one thing (establishing RQs and contribution) that I didn't pay enough attention to other issues. When I talked about my RQs yesterday there were glimpse of agreement - which means they didn't argue right away with questions like 'is it that important?' or 'don't you think it's too descriptive?' and sometimes even nodded slightly. I'd like to take those as good signs! However, this one paraphrased 'you should give up' comment from her just left me with painful thoughts.

Both my sups. agree that my work is not quite there and a lot more still need to be done, but my second sup's comments are given in a more suggestive way - not sugarcoated though. However, my 1st sup is very straightforward and strict. If she thinks something is a bad idea, her face says it before she actually says it out loud - so quite easy to read. Every single of her comment is helpful, it's just the way she delivers it that burns my positive energy. Also, I can't change a supervisor anymore as I'm already into my last year :(

My sup. does know that PhD is my only option, and when I explained that to her (again) yesterday she didn't say anything more. I think I should express myself to her that if at the end of the day, that is what gonna happen then fine, but for now I want to keep trying as hard as I can and aim for what I'm sent here to do, but I don't know if that'd be too aggressive?

Thanks again for your comments!

This is really a bad and difficult experience. I am sorry to hear that.

If you have a strong desire for obtaining your PhD, do whatever it takes to make it happen. Do not give up now! At least one of your supervisors is helpful and willing to help you and give you some constructive feedback. Don't take the negative words from another supervisor too seriously even though he/she wants to help you in my opinion. Be honest to them and tell them what you really want and show your determination and confidence.

I think you really need to focus on their direct comments and not base things on your perceptions of their comments. These things are often very different. You need to ask direct questions and tell them you want direct, explicit answers. You need to know: "If I do x, y, z in this time frame, is this enough for a PhD?". Until they give you a direct answer to this question it's all guess work. It's not too aggressive; it's being assertive.