Hi there,

I posted on here some time back to gather opinions on whether a PhD would be right for me (http://www.postgraduateforum.com/thread-47384/). Thanks again to those who helped me out.

I was formerly a member of university staff and had been encouraged to pursue a PhD for some time. Against my better judgement (and the consensus in the thread) I accepted, and am coming to the end of month four. Still early days but it’s not been too bad on the whole; I’m not enjoying having to jump through the hoops put in place by the PhD system and the project isn’t entirely up my street, but I seem to have the freedom to take it in a direction that could better suit my skills and interests. I’m worried I’m already losing touch with it by being distracted by the (more interesting) projects that I was involved with previously, but I knew what I was signing up for.

However, I have a shiny new dilemma – a PhD has come along that is much more interesting. While I eventually accepted my current PhD after a bit of persuasion and a lot of soul searching, had this one been on offer I would have accepted in a heartbeat. It’s a topic that plays to my strengths and, more importantly, I am passionate about. I’m not exaggerating when I say the passion has been lifelong – in fact, (and I’m not making this up) the project title is almost word for word what an eight year old me replied when asked what I wanted to do when I grow up!

Conveniently, the project has been proposed by my current supervisor. Rather less conveniently, there’s someone lined up for it. I know the only course of action is to talk things through with my supervisor, but the fact that he’s already earmarked someone makes it difficult to broach. Anyone been in a similar position or have any thoughts on how to approach it?

Thanks :-)

I'd just say I was really interested in that project, any chance I could get involved? And see what response you get. If favourable, then say it more seriously and say you would prefer to be working on that project.

Definitely speak to him about it face to face, or else you'll regret it.

At my university, if you transfer partway through a PhD, the "clock" isn't reset to zero, but continues from whenever you started at the university: anyone transferring to a new topic only has the remainder of their PhD registration (less than four years) to do a whole PhD.

You say you're in month 4. If you're allowed to transfer, could you do a whole PhD in 44 months instead of 48 (assuming your university treats transfers the same way as mine)?