Dear Chinnu

I am really sad to read what you have been through.

Threatening and intimidating behaviour is really unbearable. I have been nonproductive for months. It is very difficult to concentrate on my work. I have faced serious depression condition. I could say I don't enjoy any part of my life with my mind being very busy with my situation.

I am really afraid to seem a weak person who could not bear difficulties. It seems really complicated.

Dear Walter_Opera

Thank you very much for your response.

Yes I agree all these tasks can be beneficial for me and building my CV. However, the way a task is assigned to you is very important. My supervisor always uses intimidating language and threatening sentences. He does not respect me for asking my opinion on anything.

My main problem has been the insulting environment I am working in.

Hi tru,

Thank you very much for your consideration to reply my enquiry.

I have two published conference papers that have been indexed already. I have one other conference and a survey paper under review as well. I am the first author of all the published works.

I prefer not to stay in the same department and change my supervisor. This will lead to biased behaviour through me. I prefer not to be judged.

I maybe ask my supervisor for recommendations, I also have another professor whom I hold his TA sessions. He is very satisfied with my performance.

Hi all,

I am a second year PhD student passing 18 months of doctorate. I am an international and funded student in the UK.

From the very beginning stages of my PhD I had challenges with my supervisor. The environment was more like a boss-employee relationship rather than student supervisor one. I assume this is due to the funding I receive for this programme. He also included his wife in my projects and they both had very impolite biased behaviour through me.

During this period he obligated me to do several tasks that were not exactly part of my PhD responsibilities like assigning me review journal papers that he is an editor of. Also, when I had just started my programme he forced me to supervise a master's student. I later realised I wasn't even eligible to do so because I hadn't passed my PhD confirmation yet. However, the most frustrating part of my story is being threatened several times for termination. This is while I have had an acceptable performance since now with publishing two conference papers. However, he understates my achievements and calls my conferences cheap ones.

I am really sick of this, I feel numb and demotivated. I want to quit my programme. I feel mentally affected by this experience. However, I need a graduation degree from the university to be able to apply for the graduate route visa. Do you think I could negotiate this with the university? How do you think I could get an MPhill degree and quit PhD ASAP.

Please consider I have already passed my confirmation exam and have a survey paper under review.

Hi all

I am currently a first-year PhD student, and my confirmation exam is due soon. I already published a workshop paper and my confirmation report is being ready soon.
However, during last year I realised, I am not really an academic interested person and research is not appealing to me.
My question is that if I request to withdraw from this PhD after my confirmation can I end up with an MPhil degree or I will be switched to a master program to complete? Considering the regular MPill time duration is 20 months.
Thank you in advance for your responses.