======= Date Modified 16 Oct 2012 10:22:45 =======
Hi everyone! I'm now after 15 months in the programme but I still haven't presented my thesis proposal and I'm very frustrated. At first, my supervisor didn't agree with my research topic and asked me to do something else. I then listened to him and started to read the literature of the area he suggested. However, I found that I was really uninterested in that area. Besides, he didn't really provide any direction on developing a research topic in that area. So I kind of gave up and went back to the topic I initially proposed and my supervisor agreed. After completing 60% of the proposal, my supervisor suddenly told me that maybe I should really do something he is more familiar with (another area, not the one he initially suggested) instead of the topic that I proposed and have been working on. It now seems that he can only provide very general and superficial comments to my proposal because he is unfamiliar with the topic.

Now, I'm stuck! I don't know what I should do. Should I really just gave up my own topic again and started all over again in a new area he suggested? Did anyone encounter something similar?

You should seek a second opinion on the proposal from one of the other supervisors or some one who is more familiar with the topic. Perhaps someone who is on the qualifying exam board.