PhD Discussion Forum

@random_6772 Congrats and well done on pulling through such a sh*tty situation. I'm going through a very similiar situation and totally relate to your experience.

I think you have to differentiate and one PhD student's experience at, let's say Harvard, does not necessarily represent that of another PhD student there. Blindly going for the higher ranked option is of course always short sighted. If your work does not reflect the high rank of the Uni, it is probably of no advantage on your CV either. Pretty sure that the PhD in Oxford won't impress anyone if you finished it with a single Plos One publication (speaking for the Life Sciences here)

I agree with helebon, big egos everywhere in academia. I wouldn't judge yourself too harshly got choosing big name uni...it's what most people would advise doing.

You sound a bit disheartened. .and understandably so.

But having said that you need to rethink the story about all this in your head and fight to pass..since your going to be doing the work anyway, you might as well.

It sounds from your post your being really harsh with
Yourself and blaming yourself u necessarily and feeling like a failure.

There are other ways of looking at it. I would see it as someone who is very smart and capable who had bad luck with supervision (unfortunately all too common) and who despite setbacks is still in with chance to get the award

Still wobbly - but better. 20 months of my work discarded; that hurt

Got new supervisory team, another change of direction and starting 12 months of nominal. Which is odd, as I've got no upgrade to nominal - and the new supervisor didn't like my old transfer report (which had passed under the old regime) so threw it out.

This puts me in limbo as far as the PGR route is concerned; I'm drifting off the map, seeing peers finish and get their doctorates. Anyhow, if there is a thesis handed in I will look to only accept a few changes; I'm not spending another year on top of 5 so far to rewrite the thing.

As far as content goes, good success with a simplified section yet need a month to write an analysis engine. Each hypothesis test generates c. 100 GB of data. That's 100 k Excel spreadsheets per hypothesis. So a results analyser is needed; it'll do high level results / summaries extraction.

That progress spurt (I'd fled home so to be free of old supervision) came to a stop under new supervision, who wants papers as if from scratch. The approach suggested is much better in terms of getting pertinent info (alternative literature search - learnt a lot) but it's eating time.

I'm not insanely stressed, and the University did (in extremis) flex, given no other option.

I'd NEVER go to a big-name, top-of-the-top Uni again. Too much obsession with appearance and success over doing useful work plus deaf "look-at-me" ego people who don't give anything for the students. Politics, ego and image - very important for my 1st supervision.

My old Uni (Newcastle) is a decent second tier place (with, looking back, better facilities). I should have gone there. On hearing I was looking at doctorates they made 2 offers (I applied once, got 3 offers).

But my ego pulled me in to a big name place. Oh well.

Overall, doing better :) but likely a fail.

sorry to hear such kind of problems where one is helpless and those who are supposed to help are careless to say the least . I just finished reading a kindle e-book entitled
"20 Signs of Problematic PhD Programs and Supervisions"
which opened my eyes to the broken system around... One has to be careful with whom to work these days and what kind of program to enter in..
pizza

As far as I know, there's no RCUK rule that you can't have an extension. Universities don't want to give you one because they have a target to get 80% of PhD students submit within 4 years or it affects some funding I think. I know plenty of students who have had 6-12 month extensions on top of their 4 year funding (unpaid usually). The university can give you an extension if they want to, and it's in their interest to do so if you are likely to fail without it. You might have to play the mental health card though...

Hi there bewildered and tru,

that's good advice you're giving; I'll put things in place to prep a complaint and take it to the SU. But they've already told me that even if I win a complaint the University is likely to have their hands tied by RCUK rules :( so still no room for extensions.

Which confirms the glum position of the head of the doctoral college.

Thanks for your suggestions; you've motivated me!

:)

You won't be able to go to another university and get them to award you a PhD for work done at another institution I'm afraid. It is a big no in quality assurance agency terms. So I think you need to burn some bridges and kick your complaint up a level at the university you are registered at.
You have a significant cause for a extension to be granted -poor supervision, which helpfully the head of the doctoral college has agreed is the case. Therefore, I would suggest looking up the formal complaint procedure for your institution and complain now about both your supervision and the head of the doctoral college's refusal to give you an extension. Follow the procedures meticulously. There is nothing high ranking administrators are more scared of than a student with a case, who is following procedures. Use evidence from whatever annual progress reviews you have had / upgrade reports etc to show how you were not discouraged from following this line on enquiry. If this is an RCUK-funded DTC, then threaten to complain to the research council too. Be unemotional and legalistic in the way you complain and evidence your claims. I suspect that pretty quickly they will find a mechanism to grant you that extension after all.
I know this means burning bridges with your supervisory team but you have probably done that already by complaining to the head of the doctoral college. And given the remedy you seek is fairly easy to supply, then I think the university would rather give you an extension now, than deal with you renewing the formal complaint after a failed viva.