======= Date Modified 06 Jul 2011 16:57:05 =======
Hi guys,

I am in my second year of an arts / humanities PhD. My supervisor and I have had an increasingly fraught and negative relationship, and it has finally come to the point where we mutually agreed we would part ways, and I would find a new supervisor to work with.

While I am relieved to be "free" because our working relationship had gotten so bad, I am also unsure of what to do now. I have contacted a student advisor and am meeting with them in a couple of days, and think I probably need to arrange a meeting with my Head of School now to discuss it all.

Has this ever happened to anyone else on the forum? I would really appreciate any advice!

Thanks!! :)

Will your supervisor (as was) support you in getting a new supervisor? I'm assuming they'll be aware you need a new supervisor. Good you've contacted a student advisor, you might also be best contacting your postgrad tutor, should you have one. It must be an anxious time for you and I hope you get it sorted sooner than later.

Hi,

This does happen and it's the university's responsibility to find you another supervisor but sometimes their preferred solution might not be the best one for you so you need to think through the possible scenarios. Is there anyone else realistically capable of supervising your topic in your dept or in a cognate dept? Could you work with that person? You still have a way to go so you do need decent input. If not, might it make sense to look at transferring elsewhere or are you stuck for funding or personal reasons?

Although it is hard, I'd also suggest really thinking through dispassionately why your relationship got that bad and being really honest with yourself about your share of it all (if any) before you meet your HoS / or the director of research students (as appropriate). The reason I'd do that is first to try to avoid any 'out of the frying pan into the fire' scenarios. Eg if your ex-supervisor wanted you to use a certain theory, method that you really don't want to then you need to avoid being allocated another evangelist for that approach. Equally, if it's been a personality style clash, you want to avoid a repeat. But you need to think seriously about your side too, so that if you made any mistakes you don't repeat them. The reason I suggest this is that I do know someone who 'divorced' no fewer than three supervisors over 18 months, all of whom were decent people, because she didn't want to listen to the fact that there was a huge flaw in her researh design. She eventually submitted without supervisor approval and failed outright for precisely the reason they'd all told her. I'm sure that's not an issue for you but sometimes when any sort of relationship is going negative, you can end up staking out positions that you don't really want to hold, just because of the negative dynamics, so this is a good chance to start afresh.