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Make peace or war against supervisor?
G

Have some updates, unfortunately some bad news here to those who in my situation.

I took an advice from some of the school body, and to focus sorely on improving my works, and try to avoid too much confrontation with my supervisor, and try to keep thing professional.

The result is horrible. You know last 3 months when I spent time trying to improve my works. My supervisor did almost jack shit to help. On the other hand she has been spending last 3 months trying to imply to those within faculty that my works were not good enough, that I was lying on my publication and even shut down my running experiment without consulting me. And now they tried to force me to accept Master under her condition (the works that she suspected me of not doing were not acknowledged, and so on).

So learn my lesson. NEVER COMPROMISE with them, those lying SOB. Those with power don't compromise, you step back one step and they will exploit your weakness to push you further until you fall off the edge. I still have some reservation, but coming next week I will consult the Student Union for official complaints. If not consulting legal support to see if any grounds on my case. Even if I fail all this and have to take Master, I rather will look to change supervisor and rather do it under someone else.

Make peace or war against supervisor?
G

Thank for more opinions.

@windowsill: The screwed-up things are: i don't have any external individual connections. Because everything have to go through her. On the technical side of the project at least. It's the school policy because they were afraid on the whole properties right and stuffs

I also thought about throw all these away, but I'm in my 3rd year already. And i have devote a lot of time on these, even couldn't make time and ended up missing out on my friend and cousin oversea wedding. And honestly the thought of something like this happens again scare the crap out of me.

I think i will go and talk to the union at least.

Make peace or war against supervisor?
G

Hey, thank for the opinions guys.

On Mathcomp question. I don't know, I honestly think she tried to be hostile in this case. Simply because i contacted the school and tried to settle that whole communication issues, and then she just find every way she think of that can hurt me. Like i said, if she actually had doubt on my results, she can start investigate and prove that it's (not) true.

I means I had no choice, she was not helpful before, but my communication with her was stalled horribly and we still discuss on things that already 6 months old because of that. It actually getting worse than it sounds, as she basically know nothing about my progress. If I left it like that till the end, it will be the examiner who will fail me, not her.

I am really on a fence now, so i guess i will have to see if there's any chance to savage this relationship. But it's difficult you know. If I don't clear all of these false accusation up and any of the current students or staffs leave the school and become my future employer(s), my reputation there will be ruined with or without her reference. But there's no other way to clear it, other than to bring that to the college attention, and that will piss her off further, destroy any chances to make peace.

The only way is she admitting that she was wrong at that, and somehow the school can pressure her to keep the relationship professional. But knowing her, there's only 5% chance to happen. And i'm already generous

Make peace or war against supervisor?
G

Quote From Dunham:
Honestly, I would contact former PhD students. If there are enough people backing up that she does stuff like that often and can be regarded as incompetent, than this will end bad for her and she probably knows that. I am not sure about law in other countries but I am pretty sure that you could even sue her for defamation if she accuses you of making up results without any proof and maybe it is time that somebody does it. This is a serious accusation that can ruin your reputation in academia.

I also agree with Mathcomp that there is not so much sense in just threatening her, as you will need her support in the future. I think there is no other way then changing supervisors. She will never give you a good reference and probably makes your life a living hell.

Yeah forgot about the reference. I almost forget that there's a life after postgraduate. that's another thing to worry.

Thought so many times about suing her up in the past few month. Even tried to look for similar case. But generally feel like it should be the last option (no time/money and won't gain much). Make the complaint to the school is more favorable, but wonder if they will be on my side? Of course I chat with the former students many times and many things they said can be used against her. But letting them to actually speak up or have it in writing form will be difficult.

But I was shocked too when she just casually and make remarks implying that i could have made up results in front of people. I means that is clearly wrong right? Like is there any excuses that she can give in this case? Is there any exceptions that you know of? I means it's very blatant and it's not in private conversation too.

Make peace or war against supervisor?
G

Hey thank for the opinion.

Generally, I think the whole event was sort of a success. Because whether my actual work is good or not, it's still better now than into my 4th year and then she act up, you know. Not to mention, I have a feeling that she learnt as much about my works during that presentation as any other guys in the room too

Anyone know how bad will it be for a supervisor or the college to get/have a failed student? I means yes i will call her trying to "put me in my place" is to suit her ego. But other than that, crediting others for my works and implying that I may have made up these results won't help me or her in anyway. Unless she just set up the stage to set me up to fail and then push all the blames on me..

Make peace or war against supervisor?
G

My supervisor is horrible. She don't read my works. She always put the blame on her students. Since my enrollment, half of her students dropped off, the other half finished late due to her. I have several clashes with her, but generally i believe the student has to be independent so our relationship was still on working term.

The issues started with her suspecting me of not doing experiments and make results up due to some unknown ill advise. It can be easily proven by ask some students but she was not interested in investigating it. And our communications started to deteriorate as she will put her microscope on everything. Basically we will still discuss about the planning, despite the experiment already has been done.

So i try to seek supports from the local level in college , the aim is to clear out misunderstand, and basically so we can agree on my progress and move on. But that's when hell break loose. She thought that i was taking it personal, started to accuse me: of refusing doing what she tell, exaggerate my mistakes and downgrade my works. The college listened to her and request an earlier thesis-defense~ish session and i have to provides a short summary of my works.

The initial feedback seemed to be positive. And I could see my supervisor surprised at the actual amount of my works too. But then my supervisor started to falsely credit others for my works and once again implied that I may have made up these results both in front and behind my back. The result is: my works were judged to be inadequate.

I have 3 options now: A) make an official complaint regarding those false implication + everything else (and request to work with other supervisor), B) accept the result and continually work with someone who publicly did and possibly will continue to undermine my works. Or C) use A as a threat and suggest her to take a step back. What should I do based from your experiences?.

PS: my other supervisor is useless