Hi Smilinghippo, who do can you go to (at your institution or faculty) who acts as an advisor or advocate for you (other than your supervisors).

It reads as if (to me) that you have a onsite supervisor and academic supervisors-and they are all unhelpful. (Is this how it is?). Can you find out who can assist (from the research faculty, perhaps you have an international student advisor, and your faculty should definitely have something like a graduate research advisor ) and either see them, email or phone, depending on your location to lay out your case and get advice/support.

I know you said your academic supervisors were not helpful but the fieldwork situation you have just described sounds bad. I can understand why you would want to cut your losses in the situation you have described but getting on to a PhD program and funding is difficult (as I am sure you are aware), which is why I usually hesitate before writing to support anyone's decision to quit on the forum.

What you have described sounds like they are really exploiting you in the field. This situation is not something I have experience with so my advice is very limited, but I didn't want you to think that we couldn't care less.

How long do you have to do this field work-is it just for a few weeks? Is it possible to tough it out a bit because it doesn't last long? You have obviously managed to deal really well with this so far (big credit to you), could you possibly last a bit longer if it is only a short period of time in the field?

Hi there Mchina, have you explained to your supervisor that you are trying to withdraw this but are not able to (at the moment). He might be annoyed but you have not committed a crime, just made a mistake and are now trying to fix this up. Perhaps your supervisor might be able to help you find a way to have this removed.

Once you have made a mistake, acknowledged this, apologised and fixed it up (or tried to if you can) that is all you can do. People do have to move on, although this can take time and you have to accept that you have lost some of their trust perhaps (for a little while anyway).

Hi Tudor Queen, thanks. I smiled when I read your comment. To clarify though, I have really nice supervisors who are very busy. The second supervisor who is the Head of School supervises many PhD students and I'm lucky when I do get to meet with her. I think they were arguing over some changes, and while I sat there, I guess I learned a couple of things.

Even highly educated and experienced supervisors who get on very well, will read and interpret your work quite differently and want you to write in different ways.

They were so engrossed in arguing the point about whatever it was I had written, that they forgot about me and were just intent on working through the issue. In retrospect, it is rather funny, although at the time I was a bit annoyed.

The second supervisor who I barely see and is always very busy has a 100 percent track record of getting her PHD students through so I am really keen to get her advice, and value the short periods of time I get to see her. It's excruciating to sit through sometimes but very useful.

Given you were admitted to hospital, there would be a staff member at the hospital (resident doctor) who saw you and can provide a certificate for your time in the hospital-at least to state that you were admitted from X o'clock, treated by Dr such and such and left the hospital at Y o'clock? Your general practitioner (regular doctor) should also be able to provide a certificate that states that you were advised to report to hospital. And the supervisor from the university should be able to back this up. This might be enough to convince the department, or provide evidence to support a formal claim or appeal?

Best wishes, sounds like it was a pretty awful experience to undergo. Hope things work out...

It sort of sounds like major corrections but perhaps not revise and resubmit. If your advisor thinks it can be done in a month, then perhaps it is just a case of a big final edit. It reads as though all of the material is in there but perhaps obscured by too much material and detail.

Some people love reading rich, highly textured and detailed texts, others prefer leaner, sparser material that shows the 'bones' in a more logical manner.

Not to put down survey monkey as a tool.

However, if you are considering different tools or other options, you might look at Qualtrics. This tool is a professional surveying and data producing instrument used by my faculty and university. I think it has free trial options as well if this helps. It really was excellent and very professional-had many different functions and options.

You might also see whether your faculty or university have an institutional membership to a specific tool or instrument that you could use.

Sorry about your name misspelling by the way, I've tried to correct this-but for some reason not working!

Hi Emery, do they keep hours available for student, and research student face to face advice? If so, email to ask whether you could make a time to catch up briefly and address questions in person might be a good way to proceed. A 20 minute conversation would be the equivalent of of several thousand words in an email. Sometimes making that personal connection helps if you are looking to establish an ongoing relationship. Good luck with your application.

Hi Bluesky, to be honest, this situation sounds like a really valid reason for seeking a new supervisor. I don't think the Facebook post and thread situation is acceptable in any workplace (from either supervisor, colleague, or any direct reports), even if it doesn't specify you personally.

Who can you raise this with at the university, because I think you would have grounds for a complaint or filing a grievance. Are you sure you can't request another supervisor or do you have a second supervisor or panel who would be of some assistance here. if this doesn't seem possible, there must be a HR, administrative support service or counselling service that might help with providing an official pathway forward that would be appropriate for your university. I'm sorry I can't be of more help. Your post, I would think, indicates that your supervisor really has a problem. Best of luck. I am sure that others might have more specific and pertinent advice they can give.

Off today for the 90 minute drive to enrol in the main public library for the region-different from my very little local one-it also requires a separate membership.

@Bewildered, I'll talk to my current uni library on my next trip interstate to see what they can do for me. I don't mind paying extra fees and I will chat to my supervisors in my (hopefully) final meeting before submission. While I have presented posters and at conferences and I am sure I will get some publications from this, (I can envisage at least 3), I don't think I will be illustrious enough to get anything special. I am sort of one of those 'good-reliable-solid' producers of knowledge-not what I would consider is a star in faculty terms. The supervisors seem to like my thesis though and are very encouraging-but it isn't what you would call 'sexy research' if there was such a thing! (lol).

If they don't offer much more than what appears on their website (limited journal access), I will research into an ongoing paid subscription into one of the major universities here-and I will check out all the online stuff. I'm a member of research gate already, which is great. Cheers and many thanks BC, Zao and Bewildered-P

Today I emailed off a copy of my full draft to both supervisors, who plan to read it over the next month and then let me know:

a. whether I can file my intention to submit in 8 weeks form with my faculty
b. what else really has to be done or altered

I still have to chase up on some references, write the acknowledgement, place in appendices, and my list of tables and figures and redraft and format 3 or 4 tables on pdfs that need to inserted on Word rather than as pdfs (bit hard to fit them in).

So I plan to do this over the next few weekends after work, and then will fly over for what I hope is the final big meeting.

It is a surreal feeling-still things to do but so close now. Fingers crossed any changes the supervisors suggest will be minor ones.

Charliebrown is A a senior with regard to his/her rank or just age and time spent in the department?

Can you ask your previous head the one with the stock reply 'I do not have those files' to spend around 30 minutes or so with you to nut out the basic outlines of each course or program. Or perhaps if you spend a weekend thinking, planning and drawing up some outlines, then meet with him to get his perspective on what you think would be okay and to comment on the programs-then go ahead and start the process of filing the programs and slowly fleshing them out. Can you delegate resourcing of outlines out to other part-timers-some of the more helpful ones perhaps?

Sounds to me like A is someone you are going to need to 'go around' but not in an antagonistic way-more of a just get on with it and then let him in on things on an 'as needs basis'. (This might be really annoying personally because A really does need to get his/her act together-however, it seems unlikely that this will happen anytime soon, so best to go to plan B in this case).

With regard to marks and assessment records-that's pretty serious mismanagement and this is surely not just down to you to fix up. Who helps or sorts out the admin side of things with this sort of stuff-they must be pretty frustrated with all of this as well (unless they are really lazy or inefficient)? They might be able to be an ally and help you introduce some basic processes for filing, recording and keeping central copies of programs. Do you have any supportive seniors? If it is really this bad, then they need to know just how lacking it really is...

(NB-My experience is in educational secondary ed 7-12 though not post secondary level. However I've inherited dodgy departments and practices in my different roles in secondary schools over the years- I hope this helps, even with some moral support if nothing else.)

Great advice and responses people-thank you!! Really appreciate the responses and will follow up on tips.

I'm not sure my title describes this accurately but what I am trying to ask is what options are people taking for journal and library access once they have completed their PhD and/or for those who are not going the post-doc or academic employment pathway?

My alumni benefits (once I have completed) offers only limited library benefits and no online journal access. I'm pretty sure others would have similar experiences. I know I will want access to knowledge and journals plus I now live at a distance, having recently moved to a small country town for a particular job (and will stay here for a couple of years before I move to a bigger centre again). What are other people doing?

I do pay for membership to professional associations in education but their journal access is pretty much limited to their in house journals.

Anyone currently in or about to go into this situation with ideas, plans or good advice they would like to share? Thanks :)

Hi Milo, I understand that you are concerned regarding formal deadlines and how having one might exacerbate anxiety or trigger some issues but have you considered that not having one might also increase your anxiety.

Right now the situation you describe has you in a sort of limbo-family living elsewhere to help out, no discernible deadline in sight. Do you think that it might help to work out some realistic deadlines with your supervisors, or your wife, support counsellors (whoever it is who you talk to who helps with this sort of stuff) even though you are worried about this?

(Without trying to minimise your feelings in any way), with some support and a bit of a plan you might be able to grit your teeth and work through the @11#y feelings for short periods of time. Acknowledge the feelings-not minimise or ignore them- but keep to some daily targets and rewards as Big Problems has suggested to help you get through them.

What I have found also is that once you have a realistic but definite deadline to work towards, momentum increases-not because you are enjoying it or intrinsically motivated but because you can see the endpoint (unless of course you are worried about completing...and that lies beyond your anxiety perhaps??).