Hi Missscully,

I can totally relate to you. I am now nearly 10 months into my PhD since October 2016. I admit I get the feeling of quitting a lot. I have a supervisor who is such a big 'visionary' for the whole university, he is a 2nd supervisor for other students (they never ever see him, it has always baffled me?) but with me he doesnt care about what I do, as long as I magically come up with something. Having a supervisor like that, really magnifies the feeling of self-doubt, quitting, and injustice. The problem staff and the university never really bother about the injustice or what phd students think, as long as the guy is supported from higher up, and has money pumping-in (general money not attached to a project). I follow what my counsellor/therapist always says to always analyse any quitting thoughts based on evidence and a 5-part model. I have to replace any irrational thoughts with balanced thoughts based on evidence. I agree with goodboy, in an ideal world an academic supervisor should be like a factory assembly line supervisor, we should be guided from day 1 of the PhD. A fundamental future question for academia is 'Is it really asking too much, when students plead for at least a good basis for the first 3 months of the PhD/project guidance? I personally dont think it's too much, a PhD is how I view it, a training degree (a bit like an apprentice training in a certain skill like Joinery or plumbing or an electrician NVQ...etc). Why do academics always revert back to the 'independent work' lecture? It is pretty obvious, no one wants to be spoon fed or to cheat, as PhD students naturally we want to do own work. We don't need to listen to a bullshit (apologies for the language) lecture on independent work, we need supervisors who do the guidance job from day 1 and can suggest alternative methodologies and reduce any doubt by clearly identifying the resources available.