Final year project, no supervision

[Projectneg]

My DD is in her final year at Oxbridge and has to do a project which, along with exams, will lead to a pass/fail grade in her masters (STEM). I’m keeping details vague for obvious reasons.

Her supervisor changed halfway through the project. Since the change, DD has been trying to meet the new supervisor but any meeting keeps being put off and now the supervisor is proposing to meet her for the first time next week, just a week before the deadline for the (very substantial) project. The supervisor is elsewhere, hasn’t seen a word of DD’s work and the meeting would, in any case, be virtual.

DD has been working very hard and, under the previous supervisor, was getting good feedback. But she’s anxious about whether she’s still on the right track.

I can sense rising panic in DD and I don’t blame her. I can’t believe that the supervisor thinks this is at all acceptable: if she (the supervisor) hasn’t got time, why doesn’t she pass it on to someone else?

Every year, a number of students fail so it’s not a case of the project getting nodded through. I can’t quite believe that DD is being left to sink or swim like this. What can she do?

There should be a schedule for supervision meetings. Does she have this?

in my department it would be posted on the course moodle.

if meetings have been missed due to the change in supervisor it is worth escalating to the course leader.

Your dd needs to be assertive and insists she see the new supervisor immediately, reasoning that this will give her a little time to make any last minute changes. If not she could threaten to contact the head of department and personal tutor/director of studies as a matter of urgency, and actually do this if nothing comes.
Id also be keeping her director of studies/ personal tutor in the loop.

Contact the course leader or head of department right away, and ask both for an extension given the disruption and an assurance that she will be able to have some supervision and feedback before she submits her work. My head of department would take it on themselves to do this if it's a member of staff who's dropped the ball, as I suspect this is.

Thanks all. Will pass this on to DD.

I agree this is serious.

It could still all go well.

However if feedback is not both substantial and largely positive, or if this meeting is postponed, think DD should take immediate action. She has been bounced around and put off unacceptably.

Normally one files for Mitigating Circumstances. Whether this is successful isn’t known for some time. As the ultimate mark is Pass/ Fail she may be advised to do her best and take this route.

This being Oxford I have a small hope that DD’s Senior Tutor may be able to offer an extension or another more satisfactory solution. But I wouldn’t hold my breath

DD will need evidence so she should collate all relevant emails etc. Best wishes to her

I was hoping you would chip in, @poetryandwine, as I’ve seen and appreciated your contributions on other threads.

I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want DD to be linkable to this thread but she’s got some other members of staff involved now. I just hope that it will make some difference. I feel so angry and disappointed on her behalf. This stuff is stressful enough at the best of times.

It’s not clear from your post how long your DD was effectively without a supervisor, do you know this?

@TreesToday since the end of the spring term. She was told the name of the new supervisor and then she (DD) contacted her (the supervisor) and then the round of slow responses and delayed meetings began.

Is this a taught Masters?

In which case, she needs to contact the Director of Taught Postgraduate courses in her Department or School. She should have records of her attempts to meet with both supervisors.

She could also contact her Faculty's Director of Postgraduate Education, but try the Director of PGT first.

Well, there are a lot of human reasons for this unfortunate situation - her original supervisor may have moved elsewhere or have an illness (or maternity leave). I have a colleague battling a serious illness but still working when they can.

The substitute supervisor may already have a full teaching load, and other commitments which can't be sloughed off.

But the Department needs to sort this out - if only with an extension to your DD so she has adequate time to act on the feedback from supervision.

@ParmaVioletTea it’s an integrated masters. I believe most science degrees at Oxford and Cambridge have a similar thing in 4th year.

@ParmaVioletTea yes you’re right, the original supervisor leaving was for completely valid reasons along the lines you suggest. And the new supervisor is of course very busy. But still…

Ah, so the Undergraduate Director of Education might be more appropriate. She could also seek advice from her pastoral tutor in her college. In person, I'd suggest.

She should keep a paper trail, but resist getting personal about it. As I pointed out above, there may be an entirely unavoidable sequence of very human events. The department & her College need to know she's fallen through the cracks. This is not a normal situation & the people who can fix it need to be informed.

(But if it's something like NatSci at Cambridge, this is a notoriously difficult degree - the resilience & independence needed is part of the point)

Yes she’s remaining very professional about it and has relevant people involved. And yes, she’s certainly learnt as much about resilience as she has about science.

I agree; the reason is irrelevant (and this being Oxford odds were it was a good one). That doesn’t mitigate the effect on DD. I am glad she is bearing up, OP.

I very much hope she can get an extension ahead of a Mit Circs panel unless this meeting is substantively positive and she thinks finishing on time is reasonable under the circumstances.

What are DD’s plans for next year? Specifically, will the project mark matter or will only the P/F outcome be known? I ask because, conceivably, an easy way out from the university’s perspective is to require her to submit and then, if the project is substandard, to pass it anyway.

If the mark is P/F, this only rules out the second project supervisor as a future referee. If the mark is public, it may be more serious if she wants to return to study or take a research orientated job.

I hope this won’t be an issue. If DD got off to a good start earlier, she may be in better shape than she realises. Just trying to think two steps ahead - Oxford should not be defaulting into giving her a low passing mark in this situation.

Any records that she had started her work in a timely manner with the first supervisor may be helpful

Again, best wishes

In practical terms, she can't have an extension because that will eat in to her time to prepare for the presentation part of the project. And the powers that be want to mark everyone's work at the same time "because of the curve". DD doesn't want to continue in academia but still wants/needs not to fail the blinking degree.

Things seem to be moving in the right direction now but I just hope that it's not too little too late.

Thanks again to all for their thoughts.

Good luck to her. I hope she gets some sort of mitigation. Can she push for extra time for the presentation - even an extra day or two (which shouldn't affect the marking of the whole cohort).

Thank you @ParmaVioletTea — I think it’s done as a cohort so no option to extend AFAIK.

I think that the university will be presenting her with a solution, OP. Although it is nobody’s fault, this situation is wrong. A different sort of student would be shouting from the rafters and every academic knows this.

I agree completely with PP that taking a professional stance is in your DD’s best interests but she should not be bamboozled. We also do cohort presentations sometimes but exceptions can be made. Oxford know how to word things!

OTOH esp if this is a matter of P/F and nothing more think it is quite possible that this DD is actually on track to Pass. It is wrong that she hasn’t had a good project experience but if there is no consequence to speak of then pragmatically she may wish to move on with her life.

Hopefully this will become clear after the meeting with the supervisor - misleading a student is serious. But evidence is needed, so considering the history perhaps DD should take notes on the meeting and email them to the supervisor to ‘make sure I’ve understood what I need to do’.

It is wrong that she hasn’t had a good project experience but if there is no consequence to speak of then pragmatically she may wish to move on with her life.

@poetryandwine always gives such good advice, and what I've quoted is particularly excellent advice. Sometimes, students just have to get on with things, just as we all do.

The pragmatic view would be - if a Pass is enough, and gets your DD where she wants/needs to go next, then that is good enough.

I hope the meeting with the substituite supervisor is a good one.

Something I learned, when I had to change PhD supervisors mid-stream, was that having to summarise my ideas, my hypothesis & where I was in the research in my first meeting was a really good moment for ME - it really helped me to have to explain succinctly & analytically, my whole research project! (my original one went on a year's sabbatical & had started to appropriate my work ...)

Maybe this could work for your DD?

First meeting with my new supervisor, I meant to say!

Yes, I fervently hope that you're both right and this will just turn out to be a blip without consequences. The trouble is that DD has struggled throughout the course for various reasons that I won't go into here, and it's more likely that she'll squeak into the pass category than sail into it. Hence my increased anxiety about the lack of supervision.

You are very kind, @ParmaVioletTea

Thank you also for first raising the important issue of retaining evidence, much as we hope it won’t be needed

Is this eg a Part III course, so a masters but actually part of the undergrad course as well? If so, she needs to contact the DoS (also ST if necessary) and her tutor; if it’s a taught Masters she needs to contact the departmental course organiser and the graduate tutor. It may be possible to self-certify a short extension to the project because of disrupted supervision, but she needs to get others involved at this point so they can advise and also arrange a replacement supervisor to look at it asap.

An Oxbridge student has a lot of support available from their tutor, DoS and ultimately the Senior Tutor of their college. It’s important to use that support effectively, and to access it in person.