I was wondering how often you meet with your supervisor, particularly if you're in the humanities. I'm in year 3 of my PhD and have only one supervisor. He has always been quite aloof. In my first year I met with him about once/twice a term, and he would nearly always deflect any requests for guidance on the direction of my work. I was away for fieldwork for my entire second year so we hardly spoke then.

I have had a terrible start to my third year. Feeling very demotivated and low, I have done next to no work since October and feel adrift. I met with him towards the end of November and told him this, and he just said I should try harder and has not been in touch since. I know it's the responsibility of the student to maintain contact, and I usually do, but I have felt so low that I haven't been able to recently. I am trying to move past this and hope it's just a phase, but his lack of interest is a part of why I'm finding it difficult to get back on track.

It's not just the contact time that makes me feel neglected, but also basic things e.g. not passing on information about seminars or calls for papers that would be good for me as other supervisors do for their students. In the time that he does give me, he usually doesn't listen to what I have to say and interrupts to talk at me about his view of topics tangential to my thesis. I've had quite a few practical issues with my research and he just stares at me blankly and says he doesn't know when I call on his expertise to advise me.

I know we are supposed to be relatively independent, but I feel like my basic supervisory needs aren't being met. However, I wanted to check that I'm not overreacting by seeing what is considered 'normal' before I decide what to do.

This can really vary for me, depending on how busy my supervisors are. My PhD is in Biology.

Sometimes we meet every 2 weeks for 2 months, other times I have gone for 3 months without an official meeting (although they are around if I need to ask them a quick question).

I think your supervisor should take more of an interest and you are right to expect him to. It's a shame if supervisors don't engage as they should (the conference stuff you mentioned etc) but I don't think you are going to be able to change that too much. You should, however, be able to negotiate better supervision with more frequent meetings.

I think you are going to have to be more assertive with your supervisor and tell him what you want and that it's important for you to get it in order to be able to finish your PhD. Just be honest and tell him how you feel. If he doesn't know the answers, he should be able to point you in the direction of someone who does, or at least suggest some sort of resource.

Good luck and I hope the situation improves for you.

I meet mine about 3 times a term. I changed supervisor at the end of my 5th year as a part-time student and I am much happier with my new supervisor. There is probably a tutor who has responsibility for research students that you can talk to in confidence. I was told that it's not huge deal to change - students do it for all kinds of reasons. It was very stressful at the time but definitely worth it.

Hi Charlene,

My PhD is in literature. Contact time with the supervisor has varied quite a lot over the years: in my first year I probably saw her no more than once a month (sometimes less often) because she had a broken leg and couldn't travel to uni (we used to have supervisions in her living room!). The past couple of years, because I'm close to submitting, we've met around once a fortnight on average - sometimes more often in an informal capacity.

Although I have a great relationship with my supervisor, I would hesitate to say that this amount of contact time is how it's 'supposed' to be. My project was a scholarship (itself part of a big AHRC-funded project) and the basic conception of it was designed by my supervisor - although I think I ended up taking it in a different direction from what she originally intended - which means that she's naturally been very interested in my PhD, because the last significant piece of work on this topic was her own thesis. I also only had one supervisor until halfway through my third year due to an administrative screw-up at my uni (PhDs here are meant to have two supervisors) so for three years she was carrying out the role of two people.

All this said, however, I don't think you're overreacting. It does sound like your supervisor could (and frankly, should) take more of an interest, and be more supportive. Not having any contact at all with him for two months is shocking - while your research may be your responsibility, it is his to make sure that things are OK at your end and that you are on course.

I would definitely follow the advice of other posters and try to get this sorted out. If you have any colleagues who are current or former PhD students of his, have they had similar experiences with him?

Best of luck and I really hope things get better soon.

Hi there, as a part-time student, I meet regularly every two months with my main supervisor and sometimes the second supervisor. The second supervisor is really busy as she is Head of the Department, so she comes to my meetings only when it fits her schedule. (That's been twice in 18 months-for around 15 minutes or so). She did attend my confirmation of candidature and presentation seminars though, and when I do see her she always gives really good advice in those short periods of time.

If I were full time, the meetings with my main supervisor would be every month. Sometimes we see each other at common events and have a quick chat and we email when needed, but the two monthly meetings are more than enough for me-likewise I imagine the one month meeting if I were full time.

That being said, she has been appointed my supervisor, based on a very loose link in term's of subject matter, so she is good at helping with process but I have to find my own literature and I also follow up about seminars, etc, independently.

She has given some good advice on applying for money for an overseas conference-but it will be up to me to work on where that will be and what conference. I don't think I will be ready for presenting a paper at one though for about another 8-12 months so I'm not stressing about it just yet. She has also read and annotated my writing for draft chapters when needed.

I guess supervision really varies but the university I attend, has really strict rules for supporting research students and our meetings are tracked on a computerised system. We both get email reminders from the Research faculty, if our meeting date goes past the 19th of each second month!

Hi everyone, thanks for your responses, they have been very helpful. I am going to arrange a meeting with my supervisor, be more direct about what I need and then take things from there.

Good luck. I really hope you can sort something out.

I am lucky in that I have 2 supervisors. My primary supervisor is the director of a national research unit and as such she is a very busy lady! My other supervisor is probably the person that I have slightly more contact with.
Where possible we have supervision all together which is great. I will usually have monthly supervision but at other times (i.e the run-up to my upgrade yesterday) we had more frequent supervisions with one or the other, or both.
Now that upgrade is finally behind me we will go back to monthly supervisions.
However, something that my primary supervisor has said to me lately is that I need to 'manage' them and be more demanding about when, and how often we meet. Which feels odd to me, as they are the experts and have many other commitments. But apparently it is expected that PhD students be demanding. Good luck and I hope that it all works out for you.