Hey Mara!

Thanks for encouragement. But the problem is I feel so helpless. Even though my uni guidelines clearly states that the decision of submission is upto student, my supervisor, research director of the dept and some of the Graduate school personnels are advising me not to submit. Which puts me in a helpless stage. The advices I am getting particularly from Graduate school are so contradictory(even in the single meeting). I am afraid that I will fail as these all people have significant role to perform in the examination.

I am forced to take up leave for more than 6 months which I do not want. Even in the future I have to rely on my supervisor and dept to decide whether I should submit or not. This is ridiculous. I feel so controlled and there is no one who can hear me. They all make opinions on the basis of what my supervisor says.

I am feeling trapped!

Thank you so much marasp, charliebrown and Barramack. Your words mean so much to me. I am at the verge when only positive support can save me or I will die. Sorry for such a negative thought and feelings but I am under immense pressure. I havent been through such feelings ever in my life. I am trying my best but I need at least few days more. I am going to request the Graduate school to give me at least 2 weeks. Even though in this pressure I managed to come up with good work but my supervisor creates so many problems and does not support me at all. He took away his support all of a sudden. Well at the moment I do not need his support I will write on my own but his constant bullying is damaging me. I am so afraid of him. I already have faced enough humiliation from him that now the struggle is not only for the degree but also for dignity. There is no transparent system. It is like I am judged only on the basis of my supervisor's comments. Am not I an independent research student? Cant anyone care to review and decide what I have done so far rather than believing what he projects? I am exploring some big loopholes in the current system. Anyways but that is not the point of discussion at the moment.

@ charlibrown: I can totally understand your feelings. Good luck to you and I hope you will conquer the battle.

Thank you all.

The title says the true result of my PhD. I recently got too many unforeseen troubles academic as well as non academic. Having an extremely short period of notice I am forced to wind up whatever I have written and going to submit it. I know there are going to be major political games since my supervisor hates me and I will fail PhD or will get MPhil. It is not superficial feeling or just my perception.

Anyone has any idea about what to do with failed PhD? If I would take MPhil will I be able to get PhD on the same topic from the different uni? As long as I know the PhD thesis should constitute the original work. How one can get PhD by publications?

Is there any other way? I will be so grateful for your help.

Thank you so much Ian. It really helped.

I wish I wish I wish..... I get PhD :)

Hey Ian,

Thank you very much for your reply and explanation. I thought on the same line to present the debate from both point of views. But the 'trap' you explained sounds true. I too fall for it. Ha ha.

In the discussion chapter it sounds right but what about conclusion and further research? Should I still give my recommendations? To what extent it might affect their decision? I understand that you can not travel in the minds of examiners but have you ever witnessed anyone with contradictory views from their examiners and still got away? I am emphasising on the topic because I am interested in doing further research on the same line or at least encourage other researchers to throw light there.

Cheers

I am in a bit of confusion. I am writing my conclusion in which one of the area is conflicting. There is a recent debate emerged in my field. I oppose it and share more leftist point of view about it. But majority of the academics in my field supports it. They all seem to be in the race to research and support it. Cant blame them could be because of funding.

In this case what should I do? I really do not want to force myself and include others' point of view because it is ethically wrong but on the other hand I have to appear for Viva and all these academics seem to be fundamentally different. Which could create problem.

This is not my main area of research but it covers significant amount of discussion, conclusion and further research. Because of the country specific subject of my research there are very choices available to me in terms of examiners.

Your insight and opinion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Your department and supervisors are weird. There are number of PhD students who spend more than 6 years in full time PhD. They start PhD single and have babies of 3 years by the end of PhD. From what you have said your department is really inconsiderate. There are people in life whom you should listen and there are people whom you should straight out ignore. Your supervisor has registered her name in the second category. I can understand you being not ready to see them. It would be emotionally damaging. But do not let them win. It is good that you are taking help of the doctor. But eating healthy food is equally important. You have survived until now and a little bit of efforts could help you reach to the destination.

But please fully relax yourself first. Go out, take a break. Canada must be sunny these days.

Take care yourself and surround yourself with people who really care for you and avoid those who could upset you.

I really wish you get well soon! Hugs*

Oh dear I feel your pain.

I am in the same boat but in fact facing more problems. My supervisors are not supporting my extension and thus I am forced to submit too early. I am an international student too and thus it make it too difficult since we have tones of restrictions.

I am seriously thinking on the line that the issues faced by overseas students have been ignored or given less attention. I am especially talking about international PhD students since we have longer years of studies and that is on the macro topic. It is so normal to get depression because we are alone, we are surrounded by some genius students, we have family pressure. I know in some countries education is given so much preference and parental expectations touch the sky. It is so shameful not to get degree or discuss about problems we are facing in UK because they are too complicated and parents may not understand it. Moreover we do not want them to worry about us and thus we hide our feelings from them.

But believe me your situation is too normal. Depression is the synonym of PhD. Talk to your department and supervisor about it. I am sure they wont find it unusual because almost all PhD students pass through this stage. If you feel better then take a break and go home. Being in the same depressing state wont help and will just increase your time of study. Most importantly do not feel like you are the bad influence to your department. You have paid fees. You haven't done any crime. It is their best interest that you stay fit to produce good work.

As I mentioned I am going through the hardest stage and I do not have time to do anything else than to write. But I really wanted to tell you that you are not alone. You still have months to finish your thesis. Nothing is impossible.

Believe in yourself and seek help. Staying fit is the most imp for getting PHD. Take care.

@ Pineapple30: HI! I have read your previous threads before and I am your fan :) I admire how you tackled all the problems but I did not know that you went against the advice of your supervisor and that is not once but twice! You surely have some guts. Just like you I also want RR but I am too afraid of failing or getting lower degree because I simply cant afford not getting PhD. I am a self funded and thus it is quite difficult. I always consider education as an investment. But I am realising that I have made a huge mistake. However there is no turning back for me :( BTW did you get your supervisor's support during Viva, selecting appropriate examiners and during your RR stage?

@human: I sent you a PM.

Thanks

@ human: Thanks for the detailed reply. Your experience gave me some hope. I have a specific query, could I PM you?

@ Barramack: Yes I checked my uni's regulations. It says supervisor should suggest but ultimately it is a decision of the student to submit.

@ BilboBaggins: Thanks for explaining in detail but as I am an international student, I have no option of working full time or to switch to part time PhD.

@ MeaninginLife: Thanks for sharing. It really helped!

Hi!

Thanks to all of you to stop by and reply.

My situation is too complicated at the moment. Most of you are suggesting resubmission or major correction as a threat but I consider them as earning Distinction. My logic is this, even after spending 6 months there is no guarantee that I wont get RR or major corrections. I doubt the guidelines of my supervisors. Many times he contradicts with his comments. So it is better if I spend time on my thesis as the examiners' suggest. I feel so helpless when my supervisor has so much control over me.

To those who suggests part time job, I already am doing so. My loan instalments will start soon even though I will get PhD or not.

I know I sound hopeless or idiotic at the moment but there are so many issues going on in my life which I can not even list here. Thus I would like to know about the people who went against supervisor's opinion and what was the ultimate outcome.

@ human: Great that you went through all on your own. That was my point too, quality is ultimately imp and not quantity. I have read some of the best thesis which were so concise and to the point. I will try to get someone to read my thesis, that is a good idea. Did your supervisor or internal create any problem for you in the viva? I am so afraid about this like a chicken.

Thanks again.

Hi All!

So as the title suggests how risky would it be? My supervisor and I are on disagreement at this point. He wants me to take another year but I am determined to spend max 3 months on it. I have done 60 % work. The department guidelines says the PhD thesis should be max 80000 excluding appendix and when I said I aim to write min 70000 words my supervisor said that it should be at least 74000-75000 words or you will get an MA. However I am not agree with it. My supervisor is not even commenting on the work I send him. He knows very well that I am in the financial crunch. I need to pay loan and in no case I can spend more time on my thesis. The most importantly spending more time will only result in increase in time and not increase in quality of the manuscript, which I explained him but he is not agree. My dept guidelines says that it is strongly recommended that I submit with the approval of my supervisors but I can submit without their approval as well.

I would like to know what are the risks associated with it? Could they fail me since my supervisors and dept are against me? Has anybody submitted without supervisor's approval?

I would like to thank you all first for your insights and trying to help me out.

@incognito: My writing was slow but yes as you suggested I am certainly not the one with 1000-10000 words thesis. Although my none of the chapter is finished completely I have written more than 40000 words. My thesis is about a development issue. The participants are the people with whom I worked for years. I am very determined to try to change their situation and helping them to get justice. The only good point about my PhD is that I have never felt bored ever about my topic. In fact I am always afraid that I wont be able to truly justify the injustice of the participants in my thesis. My research is appreciated in all the conferences I presented, it is original. The passion for my research always reflected in my all presentations and also got me research poster prize. All I want to say is that I can finish my PhD and the topic is indeed new and less researched. So, I can show spark in the viva for sure. However I am also afraid if my department would give negative opinions about me to the internal and external, it would be very difficult for me. But the way I was treated there are all possibilities of negative outcomes. I wonder if my Viva could be independent away from my department in which both my examiners would be external.

My biggest fear is outright fail, resubmit for MPhil or MPhil degree. I couldn't afford either of these options in any case.

BTW I contacted the Graduate school and the person I met wondered why my department is not providing me at least 3 months. It is their best interest that the PhD students finish degree. So, as per her advise I made a case. Now the Graduate school will contact my department and supervisors(who certainly wont support me). I contacted the SU as well and he was not of any help. I should accept that my progress was a bit slow and that put me in this situation. I am doing everything I can and writting as well. Let us see what happens. I am keeping the options suggested by you in mind.

@AslingB: The research director didnt know me. He did not have any info about me. During the meeting the verdict he gave was all after hearing what my supervisor is saying. In fact when he said this is not a good piece of work after reading the first para of the draft.my supervisor was of a different opinion. He said the chapter is indeed interesting and there are good arguments in the chapter. All academics have different style and opinion. My two supervisors often disagree with each other regarding topic and writing style. Anyways that is a long topic of discussion. I have attended academic writing session before but I do not have time to attend them now. However thanks for your suggestion Aslin.

Thanks again!