Giving up PhD?

[CDAlady]

Should I give up? I haven’t upgraded yet. I have done two and a half years PT. For the last year my supervisor has said I’m nearly ready to upgrade.

However, in the last term he has been asking for major changes. This involves dropping central themes which were in my research proposal and research contract and which he never mentioned were problematic before. On top of this he has suggested completely new topics which will involve new lit reviews and aren’t really related to what I have been writing or discussing with him.

I don’t understand why he has been saying everything is fine until now and all of a sudden saying I am going in the wrong direction. My two main concerns are that I don’t think he has really been reading my work until now and I am running out of time to make these revisions. My other concern is that the change of direction is a long way from my interests and expertise. Our last supervision meeting was very negative. In contrast to previous meetings were we discussed possible upgrade examiners etc. I got no encouragement or reassurance and it is quite clear that the revisions they are asking for are probably not possible in the time allowed for upgrade.

I feel that both my supervisors allowed me to spend two years writing and rewriting without properly reading my work and now have actually read my work and lost confidence in me. I just want to stop.

Train to them about your worries. If young are uncomfortable with that, speak with the head of department

I would see them separately and ask for a bottom-line opinion on a) the work so far b) what changes they see necessary for an upgrade and c) why the topics suggested are off course for what was achieved so far. If they said it needs to be more academic/have better theoretical depth and so on, that would be different (and might still involve a lot more reading) but it seems odd to change topic quite so substantially.

Do you have anyone else outside the two of them, a mentor or head of postgrad studies? You could go to them in confidence. Our mentors will act as mediators in these types of situation and sort out what everyone wants (e.g. to change supervisor).

How are you funded? If by yourself, I guess it is also a question of if you need this PhD for your work/career or not. If not, the fact it is not fun and not what you envisaged may count more than a grit your teeth situation.

Thanks for your advice. I think I do need to speak to someone else. I’ll tr to identify whbthat would be.

To some extent, the PhD training aims to transition you into an independent expert in your field - as such, you should be the one "driving" the collaboration with your supervisors during the later part of the doctoral training - unless you are totally lost, in which case, they should rescue you / your thinking.

It is important that you ask them to explain their motivation for the sudden change, and where it stems from. If you feel that you have a better grasp of the field through your reading / study, you should be able to gently challenge them if you disagree with the new direction proposed.

My experience, from a supervisory point of view, is that it is counterproductive to speak to a mentor and have them intervene before you actually bringing up the topic yourself and attempting to have the discussion.