Hi all,

I'm self funded (at UK university) and did some work for a third party. They then awarded me with a little funding in form of a studentship and paid the sum to the university. Even thought the university has received the money, they won't pay out the studentship until the end of the academic year. If they pay at the end of the academic year this would be 8 months after the sponsor has transferred the money.

I only know that it will take this long as my supervisor started chasing them...

Does anyone has experience with this? I find this quite unacceptable...

This also leads me to this: Imagine I'll get another opportunity in my last year and another third party will pay another studentship. But then I'll never receive it as I may graduate before that?

Thanks

All the best,

nordsee

Hi Iwan,
Yes, this is exactly the case. At least I have the impression that I am supervised in an "independent" way. However, this is not helping me. I need a kick to start running. Not really doing a lot of useful things in the past months, but instead I am working on assistant jobs.... And yes, as part of my annual review there was supposed to be a third/ external person, but there wasn't. I guess I should ask about this, since I'm also paying for this "service"...

I have actually also a "third" supervisor, a researcher who is in supervisorial training. I told him my concerns, and he tried to push me in a certain direction. I am reading / collecting information on this now...

Concerning the increased support, my lead supervisor started organising regular meetings where I have to show some output which then will be discussed. This was a great idea at the beginning, but I had to cancel the last two meetings, since I don't really have anything to show... yes, you are right, I need to finish within these three years, but I also see this possibility getting smaller every day.

It is hard for me to judge whether my supervisors are good or semi-good. I don't really know to be honest.

Exactly. I feel like if I would be given a clear topic with clear structure I could just start working properly. However, at least so far I don't have the ability to come up with own research questions particularly in view of a topic area I've picked myself. There wasn't a predefined projects...

This also reminds me of a fellow PhD student who was struggling at the beginning and didn't know what to do, but since his supervisor noticed this, he is being more treated like his supervisor's personal assistant. He is working well now and going to many conferences. That sort of supervision would certainly help me...

Thank you so much for your empathy! It does sound like a pretty awful and frustrating situation. But great to know you managed.

Concerning my initial topic, I though I am interested in it, but the deeper I go in this topic area, I am either not sure anymore or I "have just read enough" for now.

Hi Tudor_Queen,

Thank you for your quick and valuable reply. I really appreciate it. Please excuse me my delayed response.

I may have identified a gap area, but I can't really come up with a research question or a specific gap. What I have not mentioned so far is that I initially applied with my own research proposal, which has quickly proven to be both not academic enough and not being a gap. This contributes to my struggles.

My supervisors recommended me to look into several things in the past months, which I did. However, after reading and writing on these things I was just like "Ok, all clear, so what now?" I never really had any questions on it, which couldn't be answered by existing literature or by one of my supervisors.

I was thinking of leaving for a while now, but then and also now I am not clear what else to do. So I stayed with the studies, although my interest, motivation, and efficiency are probably close to zero. In contrast, when looking at my research assistant job, I perform quite well...

Hi all,

I was previously consulted this forum and I am very grateful about both the quantity and quality of help I have received. Thanks again for this. In my previous thread I was concerned whether a PhD is the right for me. I'm now convinced to have found the main issue: the missing research question.

I think this is important for the context: I'm self-funded and every time I have to pay tuition and invest my time, which I could spend earning money and consequently afford a potentially decent standard of living, I feel like doing an investment deemed to fail.

I'm looking now for over a year for a feasible research question. My supervisors realised the struggle I'm in and have increased their support which I'm grateful for. I have gone through a lot of literature and related areas. However, I still have no more than the area of research. The more I work/read the more I feel away from an actual research question. I have told this my supervisors, but obviously the can't give me a topic. I don't really know what I'm doing and this kills my focus, efficiency, and worst: motivation.

Are you aware of anyone who has quit because they failed to identify a topic?

I'm grateful for any type of help/reply.

All the best,

nordsee

Absolutely, I should really set daily aims and will do this for the next day before leaving uni on the day before. Thanks for this and all the other help!

I'm in my first year and would love to have some structure. All I get in structure is sometimes a little push from my supervisor in a certain direction. But I personally feel that I either end up in dead ends or that in areas where I can see the wood for the trees. I'm doing a PhD in the UK and the overall time should only be three years in total.

You are right, I should be clarify what I think my supervisor is thinking.

yeah, I'm already doing the morning thing and it clearly works best, although not satisfactory.

Yeah, not being funded gives certainly more flexibility (you can't loose anything if you don't have it), but its it actually possible to transfer to another institution and to be still in 2nd year (which will start soon)?

Unfortunately there is no funding. I was so keen to do a PhD that I decided to finance it with savings, parental support, part-time jobs.

As far as I know changing the university would to start again.

I'm impressed by your reply. Thank you so much for it.

As you say, I've already contacted student services two days ago and got a first counselling appointment for in two weeks. I'm really hoping that the root of the issue is elsewhere and that counselling may help me to identify this.

In my first review, my supervisors expressed their satisfaction stating that my progress is quite more advanced for someone at my stage. I have to say, I was quite motivated at that time and produced a lengthy report / review concerning the technical aspect of my studies. I enjoyed working on it and learned actually quite something. However, now I'm on the political science part of study and don't really find a lot of useful things (or I don't recognise them as useful). This said, my background is not political science...
This situation is getting worse for about 6 months now. From my lead supervisor's facial expression and can clearly see that the level of satisfaction has decreased. Clearly, the current situation is quite different to when I started. I'm not really producing anything, which has to with two things a) I can't really find a lot of relevant things and b) I procrastinate like crazy despite coming into grad school and "working" from there.

Thanks for the further replies and suggestions!

@Becky1210

Why exactly did you drop out then? Didn't want an "average" PhD? Didn't expect a thriving academic idea? What are your doing now?

However, what you are describing pretty much sounds like me. I'm very hard working and really have to say my BSc and MSc were simply a lot of work, but that's it. The BSc was even harder...

My topic is used to be interesting, but this is decreasing now. Not entirely sure about the reason yet. Anyway, it is definitely not keeping me awake at night...

@Tudor_Queen:

yeah, I don't think it is a short term low, since it's going several months now and only getting worse even after my one week holiday. However, I want to rule out any other reasons which are influencing my attitude towards my PhD studies, as I always wanted to become an academic and to stay at uni. However, the environment at my current uni is not what I'm used to from both my BSc and MSc uni. A lot of people seem to be very isolated. Can't tell whether is this willingly or unwillingly.
Yes, I'd love to have a doctorate, but if I don't stay in academia it's just a fancy title and doesn't really have any further use for me.

So, I better come up with some alternative pathways before I leave the programme or have to pay another year tuition.

Thanks again!

Thank you Nad75 and tru for your replies and the advice. I really appreciate it.

@Nad75 I'm cutting it down now to 5 days and 9-5 and will see how this goes. However, I just spend a week back in Germany without doing anything and I expected my motivation to be higher again. Well, it was pretty good on Monday, but now it is simply getting worse again... I'm not entirely confident about the issue here, but reading what @ Tru wrote, I see at lot of matches to my personality and came up with similar thoughts already.

@Nad75, I think I will do the two week thing and then see whether @tru's reply is the situation here.

Thanks again!

Hi everyone,
I'm currently at the end of my first year of a fully self-funded PhD study and I need to make a choice whether I should pay another year of tuition fee or to drop out. Maybe someone else is or was in the same situation...

I was quite successful throughout my BSc and MSc both academically and personally (i.e. social life). I enjoyed my previous studies and the quick results (papers, exams...). Then I started working and it really bored be like nothing before (two different jobs on two different continents). I wanted to get out of it and thought a PhD may be the right thing, since I've always enjoyed uni.

However, a PhD is absolutely different. I don't really have any contacts here and don't know how to change this. My PhD topic averagely interests me and I'm sure I could somehow do it if I had more motivation. Social life etc could contribute to this. However, is this the issue? Currently, I'm coming into uni 6-7 days a week and trying to force myself to do some work. However, I mostly procrastinate. I'm already considering to quit, but have no plan for afterwards. The alternative of doing some boring and meaningless stuff in an office simply kills me.

Was anyone in the same situation? If so, what did you do about it?

I very, very much appreciate any sort of report on your experience. Thanks in any case!