thanks guys.. the admin has no idea.

i will copy and paste that draft and send it first thing tomorrow.

i will also remove it from here incase my supervisor googles it. i doubt he'd be that bored but no harm in being too careful!

thanks all.. i'll let you know how it goes. :-)

i have sent the email... :-) maybe it helps to show am thinking about it at half past one in the morning. lol.

fingers crossed!

i will also email the admin. :)

thanks all............

hugs to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my supervisor is still as silent as ever and has not responded to my email 5 days later. do you think i should:

1) send a reminder

2) keep my cool and wait for next week to pass and send a reminder if i have not heard anything.

3) email the secretary of the school who is also silent on the issue again.

4) email the director of studies in the hope that he will chase supervisor?

am afraid this last option might strain relations between me and my supervisor. its been 3 weeks now since i submitted.

One of the problems with emails is that it is very easy to just ignore them - Maybe you should try calling him or speaking to him face to face with reference to your last email to see what the progress is? You could always have a few suggestions of potential examiners and take them to him?

Another option would be to give him a week and email him again about your last email and cc the secretary and the head of the grad school about it? that might spur him into action?

thanks Tricky. he's hardly at the school as he is part-time. so calling him is not an option. no one will pick.

cc-ing the letter sounds a bit drastic. a meeting might be the way forward. after all its all that has worked in the past. am contemplating emailing him again to ask for a meeting to discuss this issue. i will also send another email to the school secretary. if i hear nothing at the end of this coming week, i will contact the director of research.

re giving him names.. i asked the secretary of school about this and she said that's its my supervisor's role to find examiners.. not mine. another thing is, if i suggest a name and the viva does not go well, i take full responsibility. so even though i have a few names in mind, i prefer to hear his suggestions first and then if am unhappy with them, i'll suggest mine at my own risk.

another thing that may be causing this delay is that my supervisor has not kept up with research as he also works in industry and makes more money there. therefore he has no incentive to attend to his research students.

what do you think? am i doing the right thing or being too quick or too slow to act?

i would do two things, first I assume you have an administrator in your post grad school? If so, get in touch with them. My experience is that they are the ones who get things moving and keep the whole thing on track. The one here is really good at keeping the academics in order! Second, get in touch with the secretary of your faculty. They will also know who to chivvy about this as they will know which of the academics will get things moving with the sending of appropriate e-mails to your supervisor, suitably worded, supervisors may be able to ignore you, but won't find it so easy to ignore someone who is equal or above them in the pecking order.

Hi Jojo,

how is your examiner situation going? I posted earlier, having been in a similar situation, but with a different supervisor (one, whom I respect and get on well with but who is really busy and seems to overlook things from time to time).

I found going the administrative chase-up route more effective than trying to contact the supervisor. I don't think the admin or course conveynor chase ups are 'nasty' in anyway. I just think when they send reminders and notices of the sort like "well this situation has to be resolved, we have a time line here, can you fix this by such and such" and do it fairly neutrally, it just has more of an effect, than a 'clamouring' student.

I followed the wait time and rang the PG admin last week, just to check whether my thesis was with examiners and she assured me it was. It will probably still take a while. She cautioned me that it was a really busy time for them all but that I will hear once the examiners are finished. That was fine by me...I just want it to be examined-I'm over the indignation bit by now after having fretted over these sorts of things for a couple of years.

So, my feeling is, as with the poster (Joyce, I think) below, just use your admin people to help follow up for you but give them time as well and in the meantime focus on the rest of your life, because the examiners take a while anyway. Good luck

hi guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for your tips. i finally got to know my examiners!!!!!!! and they are exactly who i'd have wished for. one is a professor and the other a reader..... both old and established in the field, therefore they have nothing to prove. they also agree with my methodology. am glad! yipee! can now familiarise myself with their work.

the admin route of chasing things up eventually paid off!