======= Date Modified 21 18 2010 04:18:57 =======


Hi all,

I started my PhD on Feb 2010. I did my MSc in north America studying a particular phenomenon in Ecology. For the PhD I wanted to expand my knowledge and skills so I shifted to another field in Ecology, this field requires a totally different set of experimental skills than those I gained during my MSc.

I was busy during the first 3-4 months working on my literature review. I expressed my concerns about not doing anything experimental but my supervisor felt that my progress is very good (he gave me 3 out of 4 for progression in the assessment required by the Graduate School). In fact, I believe that he was going to give me 4 but because I expressed my concerns about progression in front of the adviser he gave me 3.

On May, he took off for a 3-month course overseas. Until a month of so ago, I was drifting in the school do nothing but readings. I had to discuss a point related to the samples with another doctor in the department. At the end of the discussion, I asked her about the transfer report. She was shocked by the fact that I did not do anything experimental yet. I told her that I attended a training course and would be attending another one on September. Her answer was: "anyone can attend these training workshops, what skills have you gained and applied toward your project?". The answer was nothing.

I panicked and emailed him. He said: "Don't worry, we will figure out something experimental to do during Sep and Oct before the deadline for submitting the transfer report.

Although in these situations there are no angles and demons and I can list plenty of my mistakes, I do not think that my situation is acceptable or normal. He is knowledgeable, accessible (I can talk to him anytime, he never asked me to come back later even if he is busy), and very humble (if he does not know something, he says it upfront, not misleading students as many in academia do) but he is very laid back. I gave him an application that I completed with the exception of few administrative parts that I could not figure out, but he left for his overseas course without completing it. If that application was sent before, that would shorten my waiting period (it would mean that I would have an access to a nationwide center that would have trained me and worked with me on my samples) But maybe I gave it to him before his travel where he was busy.

He manages a successful lab (surrogate for success is the publications of his students). But I do not know what is wrong (if there is anything wrong), is it me? Is it that fact that this is "not his project" and he does not pay for me and I am the one who made the contact with the owners of the samples (a lot of samples that needed years to be collected)? Or maybe he is not interested in my work? (my work is in the same field [ecology] as the rest of the lab but the theme is a bit different).

Any feedback or suggestions would be truly appreciated.

======= Date Modified 27 33 2010 00:33:03 =======

Hi all,
I started my PhD 5 months ago. I still cannot figure out what exactly I would be doing. Along with that, I think I am left without much of support or supervision. My supervisor is accessible and has good background (but has not done herself any work recently in my area of interest). My topic is more multidisciplinary in nature than the previous work my supervisor did 15 or so years ago, meaning that I must be trained in remote sensing and geographic analysis. The question here is: should not I offered training opportunities or my duties as a PhD student include teaching myself these techniques without a push to get me going?!

Lab wise, I asked a colleague to let me know whenever she is in the lab working so I pick up some analytic techniques. She did not. I am a bit less worried about that because I am starting a training course at another University next week. Yet, I should, I think, have been shown around the lab because after all the specific procedures may vary from one place to another. I am mentioning that I was not shown around just to clarify how consistent the patten of negligence I am experiencing.

I approached the professor responsible for monitoring the progress of students and the possible problems they may have with their projects or supervisors. He felt that I am not in the best situation but still I am not too far behind, I do not think he understood my situation owing to the different approaches of work (me being heavily experimental, and he is extensively theoretical).
any feedback would be truly appreciated.
yours truly,
Biologist.

Smilodon - Thanks for the very useful piece of advice.

Thanks buddies for the reply ... or maybe mates as you say in UK :-)

Seriously now, I would be working in a new area of research with a lot of experimental protocols that I am not familiar with. That is basically my concern- who would be there showing me how to do things in the lab.

======= Date Modified 28 36 2009 03:36:57 =======
Hi all,

I am finishing my M.Sc. in Canada in a couple of months and found myself an admission to a British University. From the feedback of her students, the supervisor I would have seems to be very supportive, knowledgeable and keen on helping her student not to mention that her area of research is very interesting. However, she informed me that she would be in a maternity leave until January 2010 but I would be starting my studies on September 2009. According to her, she would be available one day weekly to follow the progress of her students including myself. Whilst I did not need my supervisor virtually at all during the masters, I assume that the PhD is a total different story!
therefore, I wonder if the arrangement of having her one day weekly would affect my progress?
any feedback would be appreciated.
thanks.

Some of you guys had missed the point. I compared the PhD dissertations of two students in UK and Canada who undertook their degrees from the labs I am interested in. Both included 4-5 experiments as this is the norm in this field of study. the Canadian student done them all but the British one acknowledged at least 4-5 professors for doing parts of the experiments (not showing him how to do them). Also, they did him some modeling. This never happens in a Canadian University. Everything included in a dissertation is the work of the student. It might be complimentary to the work of your supervisor or mate but not their work. Subsequently, they might be published as one paper if we want an excellent journal (this actually happened in my lab; we published in Ecology).

I am doing my MSc in Canada but I am considering UK to do my PhD.
My only concern is that UK training seems to me not as good as that in Canada or USA as the student in many cases accepts a PhD admission offer where the project details are well-defined (e.g., objective, techniques, model organism ...etc). In Canada/USA, the student spends his/her first year do nothing but reading to come up with a project. As I have a lecturer position without the need to do a postdoc, I am afraid that the UK PhD won't make knowledgeable/self-dependent enough to initial my own research program as a Lecturer. Any feedback is appreciated.