Thanks Corinne for your reply. It is true that there are great, nice and kind people to work with. Sometimes I lose faith in that fact. I know that I am the major problem in my contact with the supervisor. I haven't managed to feed his ego enough or kiss his .. . But I find it so difficult to keep my mouth sealed. I would want to shout in his face and tell him I think he's the most corrupt, insensitive, lying, egoistic, deceptive, and awful supervisor and human being I know (That would give relief). I would love it if he wasn't involved in my PhD but the problem is I need to see him every week. If I give any criticism (even the slightest) he will use his tool of being able to fire me. That's his way of communicating. This guy has only had one PhD student before. If I was a supervisor I would want feedback to know how things are going.  I'm finding it hard because I'm a human with emotions - but having them is not in my favor. I know I have to be quiet and look for opportunities to work with others -to take responsibility for my PhD. But my supervisor is having an extreme negative effect - not just no effect.

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As a naive PhD student I thought my work would mainly be about the subject matter and contents. It turns out to be more about egos, reputations, gangs, and corruption. I have never been good at work politics. My supervisor is only politics. He will change his mind mid-way a conversation if someone he thinks is important has the opposite view of him (without any argumentation given). He will gang up with colleagues he finds important and support gossip and destruction of the reputation of innocent and hard working people. This just to be part of the 'in-group'. Have I ended up with the most awful supervisor in the world? Someone unable to be neutral? Unable to think independently for himself? When I suggested a colleague of him also have joint supervision I was met with a fist- threatened to be fired. I was told that I needed to change... and that was that.
As time progresses I'm learning more and more to play the game. I'm going more and more 'around him'. I'm trying to find supervision and guidance from others. I'm trying to work with people in the field that he finds important -this forces my supervisor to go along with it, instead of blocking the subject.
But I'm still finding it all so hard. Is this part of the learning experience of being a PhD student?

Hi All,

I started my PhD more than six months ago. And I can only conclude that I don't know how to do research. I don't have the feeling that I'm getting anywhere at all. I know that some people who do a PhD write there own research proposals. In my case it was a job that I got and the topic was already fixed.

But the topics are so general, and my supervisor asks me to do things in which there are tons of articles already written about the topic- with solutions. There are no original research ideas from my supervisor. He says try to repeat was has been done and this will lead to research questions.

How do I decide what research to 'repeat'. Repeating some research could take a year just trying to get permission to do it from an ethical committee or require a lot of money for equipment. etc

I'm finding it all really frustrating. There are no clear research questions. I'm being told that simply by being busy in the topic- questions should come. After 6 months I still have no idea.

Does anybody else have this? How can I find my way in all of this? Find order in all the chaos?

Thanks

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PhD In London :-)

Hi All,

I'm applying for a PhD at the UCL and am wondering about the costs of living. I was told I would get 15500 pounds the first year

1. Do all PhD students also have to pay a fee every year?
2. What exactly are residence halls? What do you share with others? I'm not exactly a social type. Is it easy to have your own accomodation that you don't have to share?
3. I read most people try to avoid traveling because of the costs. The PhD I'll be doing will involve going there every work-day. What accomodation is the best?
4. How much does health insurance cost?
5. Do PhD students try to save for a pension?
6. What are the general work rules of a PhD? Can you easily be fired? Are you entitled to holidays? etc

Thanks for any info about doing a PhD in London.

Jackson