Dear Anggha,
A supervisor should perform his/her guidance to students. It is good to see the supervisor is busy with conferences, applying funding, or visiting other research facility for potential collaborations. Because these activities imply he/she is being deeply involved in the cutting edge research of this area. So we could say he/she will provide more future chances for your academical research/career path, I mean if you'd like pursuit your Prof. position at university after you earned your degree. However, the research is not an easy processing (I believe you already see many threads here) which requires you have someone who can offer you his/her rich experiences to ensure you are not wasting your time. More importantly, many PhD candidates often "lost" the research direction in the middle of their PhD studies, in the that case, if your supervisor is not happy about the quality/results/method of your research, you are in trouble.

A regular meeting schedule with supervisor is a must-be even if he is "very busy". This meeting is for exchange of ideas, for reporting a progress and for discussion of what difficulties/problems your currently dealing with. If you hear any such "very-busy" excuse from a supervisor to not have meeting/contact with his/her student, we almost could claim that one is disqualified as "good supervisor". Think about what-if you lost in research (very possible) a whole year (even half year is a very terrible case), and he/she is not happy with your stuffs, what are you going to do then ?? You should not be involved in this kind of situation and not work for these people. I encourage you to have contact with this supervisor and students to know how to arrange a regular contact and meeting. Not just email contact, that is nothing. Must be a face to face talk. You can show stuffs to him/her, he/she can demonstrate something in front of you. You deserve to know this information. I wish you a best PhD hunting. Most of us only have one PhD. So plan it wisely before you take the position and offer.

It seems like an unsolvable systematic issue, unless the entire system is reformed, I suppose. I might be very wrong at this stage.

I do not have any experience of being a Post-doc which is even one of my future options. But as a job offered by employer, yes, you could apply this position. Just clarify your current state, and give them a clear indication of when you are going to finish.

Hi, Silver,

Needless to say the benefits you might have from having multiple superiors, I totally agree with other above.
I'd like to share a different view regarding to this issue. Often, the superior is the one who received research funds from public sectors and reallocate these money to his/her PhD student as studentstipend/scholarship. Of course, the one paid you wants you to do decent work for him/her, so somehow the PhD student shall follow this superior, not others who co-supervising you and less financially contribute. This is the reason why a PhD student needs to know where the studentstipend comes from. It might be a negative point of view, but, at least we should think about it. It is not about number of superiors, it is about what the project is, and how these superiors collaborate (including share funding and ultimate research goal) to each other.

My experience is that, you should never ever trust any verbal agreement, unless they have written this down in a formal format. It is strange to see they do not have fund this year (I mean a real one year long, 365/366 days, around that), but suddenly have something to offer next year. This is not the way of how the gov/org allocates the research fund to Uni/institute. Promising is nothing.

In your cases, I would keep looking for other PhD positions. Normally, they shall support you for 3 years.

Dear Anggha, Could you please define "busy" and "not busy"?? I believe the supervisor and his/her research experience are more superior than the university ranking.

Hi, Derose,

I totally agree with above all posts from others. I have a little more to say. It is just my opinion.

We are in similar situations. But the good part of my case is now I've almost done my final thesis and will submit it soon. If this is your first year, my suggestion is, earn your MPhil and quit. I suppose you'd like to pursuit a career in uni, in that case, you should have a good PhD supervisor who can give you enough supporting in research. What I mean about the support is, (1) you write papers with your supervisor and he/she gives you suggestions/comments, or he/she may be finish some parts of a paper for a better format/style/quality, (2) you collaborate with your supervisor for applying funding, (3) he/she discusses the work with you, and would like to share some experiences, and (4) he/she recognizes the quality and potential of your research and he/she has willing to take your research path or methodology as one of his future research direction. Apparently, you do not have a "good" one now. If you have only spent one/two year on the current study, why not then find a better opportunity which closes to your current research field/topic and you "think" (tricky term) you could finish it soon (in 3 years). I am not discouraging you here. But the support from your PhD adviser is critical for your academical career. Of course, it is not the only determinate factor, but certainly his/her support would rise the chance of your success in uni.

I am not a native speaker, hopefully my language does not block you up.