Hi Lula - I hear the passion in your voice about the topic and this is what PhD supervisors look for in the admissions process. My PhD is almost finished, and I recall that my research question aim and scope was fine-tuned numerous times over the years even though my original question is in the same area. Senior academics and other PhD graduates over the years told me this ongoing fine-tuning of the research question was normal. A supervisor is only keen to learn prior to admission that you they are qualified to study the general area e.g. Feminist criminology, prison reform and the Western literature. They will mostly go by issues such as what are your previous grades, publications, evidence of motivation and the supervisor/s best suited to that topic are currently available. Shop around as the universities are keen to attract PhD students as they receive funding for it. Hope that helps. Hannah :-) I love the sound of your topic. And yes, old supervisors are good contact as they know about your work ethic and nature.

Hi Econ - this sounds awful, sorry to hear this. I suggest that you contact human resources management and inform them. I strongly suspect the bullying is coming from your academic supervisor who is thinking only about themself and HR will not support them. The general rule in work contracts is that most companies always let a person go who wants to leave - it is only company to company contracts that are enforced via courts etc. A professor at a Graduate Seminar once told the seminar that "we should all try to get a postdoc after we graduate so we can have the privilege of collecting and analyzing data for tenured academics as post graduation experience". I don't think so. If any professor wants me to collect data and analyze it I might if (a) I get co author credit and (b) it is within the terms of my contract. The idea of a postdoc is that the university community is being generous to the best graduates and helping them along - that is the spirit of a post doc, I know as my husband had one and is now an Associate Professor. Post doc is not a slave role. :-) hope this helps

Hi

I have access to all Australian databases including Factiva.

Feel free to drop me a line anytime.

Hannah :-)

Hi

Agree there are lots of problems with the PHD writing and supervision. I recently discovered the 'How to write a winner PhD' series on YouTube

search by author name JAY JERICHO.

I wish my supervisors explained all this stuff to me as simply as this postdoc guy does.

I lost a year of my time with poor supervisors who can never remember what was said in prior meetings and cannot remember core details of my drafts.

I find these presentations cover stuff my supervisors have never once told me in 2 years and this stuff is core basics.

Hope this helps ... if anyone knows of any other good series out there can you let me know? I love how these presentations are available 24/7 whereas my supervisors only meets me once a month

Hannah :-)

PhD candidate UVictoria Socio-Legal studies