PhD Discussion Forum

======= Date Modified 15 Jul 2011 10:21:20 =======

Im just wondering if there is any website or alternative method to get honest advise on a PhD supervisor. I say this because I am pretty sure that if I knew what I know now about my current supervisor, I would not have decided to accept the PhD that I did. Of course when I had my PhD interview I asked the other PhD students what my supervisor was like, but I am pretty sure from my experience with my supervisor and obviously from conversations with students after I joined the group, that they did not give honest answers, most likely afraid that the supervisor finds out they said anything bad about them ( I have found that the fear of upsetting the supervisor is common, as students do not want bad references the main reason).
Therefore is there anyway a prospective PhD student could get honest information about a supervisor.
If there are no websites that do this, it might be a good idea to setup one, something like "www.RateyourSupervisor.com".

But a lot of it is so subjective so I'm not sure that you'd really get an accurate idea anyway. OK there's clearly some nightmare supervisors - from this forum seemingly concentrated in lab-based sciences, but I think most supervisor relationship issues come down to personality clashes. I got on really well with my supervisor but someone else thought she was the most evil person on the planet. A lot of the time it's whether your personal styles of working mesh or not. My supervisor was admittedly fairly hands off but that suited me - I would have loathed to have to have weekly meetings and made to account for every minute of my time. But that was what the woman who hated her wanted - really to be told what to do every step of the way. So if we'd both posted on your putative website all you'd have got was two diametrically opposed views so no more helpful than what you got from the other students.

======= Date Modified 15 Jul 2011 22:33:38 =======
Precisely so! In my third year, an International PhD student arrived my department, joined my research group and was scheduled to be supervised by my primary and secondary supervisors. Because she arrived late due to visa issues orientation programmes were already over. In any case, as we shared the same office and I've been around in the university for a while, both supervisors asked me to assist whenever and wherever possible. This newly arrived repeatedly asked me about how I found mine and her supervisors. While, I've got absolutely nothing negative to say about our primary supervisor then and now, but have huge reservations about my secondary supervisor (despite the fact that we got on fine and avoid stepping on each other's toes), I refused to say anything negative. Conversely, however, another PhD student, who comes from the same country as our newly arrived PhD student was tongue lashing XYZ: "Dr Jo is a d***", Prof Blog is an a**. Months down the road, they fell out and you know what, Dr Jo and Prof Blog heard what was said about them. Needless to say this guy found himself in a very difficult position.

This said, your idea is sound. But, to ensure that KFC staff doesn't attempt rating their supervisors on the site 8-), I'll suggest www.RateyourPhDSupervisor.com (up)

Good. Let's have some transparency. Then perhaps some of them would be kinder to us.

I sent my Dept the stats from my Uni's thesis/reports/published data database this week, really pleased that my thesis is the highest accessed research paper in the Uni database this month by miles and miles, and thanked everyone concerned. I got an email from my ex-super to say that actually he didn't want to embarrass me by sending this to others BUT this database isn't ALL research done by Uni people, it's just that published by the Uni, and that journal papers are what matters. I emailed back to say yes, I understood that but no thesis from my dept had ever been top of stats lists, and by this huge margin.He replied that actually most postgrads don't bother to submit to the electronic database. I pointed out that since 2008 it was a statutory requirement. He replied by saying he thought we should end this discussion as it was getting us nowhere.

Nice one, mate.

What a downer I was on when I had to listen to that ego-driven rubbish day after day (unless of course he was relying on me to do his work for him as his Research Associate)! He HAD to put me down as a ritual male act.

Scary green-eyed monsters. Academia is full of them. They dish it out - they can't take it.

It's something you'd want to know, sure, but I'd never leave a review of my supervisors - there would be no anonymity, especially if your supervisor is at an early stage of their career and hasn't supervised many students yet. I imagine if everyone in my lab wrote even a short paragraph about my sup, I would quite easily be able to tell who wrote what - and so would my supervisor.

Even on this forum, I think a lot of people come dangerously close to compromising their anonymity. They don't state their names of course, but the information they provide about themselves make them easily identifiable to their supervisor, if they ever checked the site.

======= Date Modified 17 Jul 2011 20:44:19 =======
yES tHATS A vERY gOOD iDEA

I wOULD dEFINITLY rATE mY sUPERVISOR 0 oUT oF 10.
iF aNY oNE wANTS tO sUFFER uNDER aN aCADEMIC gANG. WELCOME TO WHRI. wHOM tHEY oNLY cARE aBOUT sTEELING pOOR iNTERNATIONAL sTUDENTS mONEY aND gIVE tHEM sUFFERING iN rETURN.

iF sOMEONE hONEST gAVE mE aDVICE i wOULDN'T gO tHERE aND wASTE mY tIME aND mONEY. pLUS sUFFERING!!

I think it's a good idea to have some way of regulating the supervisory process and curbing behaviour, but I also think this method would be open to abuse. Anyone could just go on the site anonymously and say anything, or allocate any rating as many times as they like. Say a jealous colleague, or a rubbish student who is angry - this happened to me this year with anonymous student feedback - I had 6 forms filled in by the same student. So feedback must also be monitered properly or it could become a tool for bullying supervisors.

In the absence of any organised monitering, I think it is good to check how your supervisor sees his or her students or ex-students, and what they have achieved. Mine lists their achievements on his profile page, he is obviously very proud of them and sees their work as, partly, the fruits of his own as an educator. I think this is possibly the best thing to look for. Plus you can ask other students, but be mindful that, perhaps faint praise will be the strongest damnation you'll find.