Dear friends,

I am at the last stage of my M.Phil. I have to submit my thesis in one month, and at this stage my supervisor is not happy with the chapters and asking superficial things to do in one month and make the thesis looks stronger. Supervisory panel was happy with the thesis contents when i showed my thesis outline with all the result and showed a green signal to start writing my thesis. I am thinking of quitting at this stage as I feel I wont be able to do what he is asking me. Pls help me. I have already crossed my 2 years in my M.PHil due to the nature of my project and dont want to go this upto 3 years to get an M.Phil. :-(

If he's asking for superficial changes would they really be that hard to do? Sorry if this seems harsh, but it sounds like the sort of thing you could easily do in the time available. The supervisory panel feedback is irrelevant because they hadn't seen your written thesis, only a plan for it.

Do you want the MPhil? If you do, go for it.

Good luck.

Honey_bee, when you say 'wont be able to do what he is asking', what do you mean? Do you mean that one month isn't enough time to complete the changes?

It would not be unusual to go over the stated timeframe in any research thesis. So to go into your third year, even if it is an MPhil, is not that unusual nor is it the end of the world. Many people do this in order to complete and pass their thesis, whether it be at Research Master's, MPHIL or PhD or Doctorate, and as Bilbo said, if you want this, then you need to make the changes. Bilbo is also absolutely right when she says that the supervisory panel's approval is not the same as your supervisor's. Your supervisor is trying to help you pass-whereas the panel were basically approving your plan and acknowledging that your results seemed sound.

But the thesis is not just the research or the results- a huge part of it is the writing, thinking and shaping of your work into a text-the thesis. So some of these steps that seem so hard and just unreasonable are actually important parts of the process that everyone goes through to some extent.

Can you have another chat with the supervisor, look at what needs to be done and then if it takes a bit longer than a month, negotiate an extension that is reasonable from both of your perspectives?

Thanks for the replies Bilbo and pjlu