Re: How to deal with PhD supervisors who hardly read your work?

Jose Capco wrote:


I am facing a dilemma which many PhD students are
also facing. My supervisor is hardly reading my
work
and each time he has an excuse that he is busy or
other things. So I want to know how other PhD
students (or former PhD candidates) have dealt
with
this situation.

I do understand that as a new PhD candidate the
role
was reversed, i.e. I used to take a lot of time to
produce significant mathematical work (and of
course
I have felt that my supervisor was becoming
impatient
of that). But now that I have practically finished
writing my dissertation (up to some typographical
and
other errors I am constantly trying to correct). I
feel that I am being dealt unfairly. I have
already
started writing my work 2 years ago the first two
chapters of which was finished a year ago. But my
supervisor has just finished reading the first
chapter (of a mere 120 pages dissertation).

The problem for me is actually twofold. I am a
foreign student and after some limited amount of
time
the alien office asked me to leave the country or
search for a job if I want to stay longer. Because
my
dissertation had took some time and now my
supervisor
is taking almost the same amount of time just
reading
it.. I fear that I would just end up like another
foreign friend I had who had the same situation
and
was forced to look for a job and in the end he
left
the country because he said that his supervisor
had
taken so long time just to read his work and he
had
rather preferred to get paid in his job and his
PhD
was practically in vain. So I ended up working in
a
company while waiting for him to read my work. I
would still prefer to get my PhD title and then
leave
the country (and personally I'm not very
interested
in staying in Europe any much longer), but I
really
don't want to ruin my life just because my
supervisor
is taking such a long time just reading the work.
I
can't even apply for any postdoc or any other
position I like as long as my PhD remains hanging
in
the air. I can work in a job in an industry which
is
fine in itself but its not what I am dreaming for.
I
guess one problem Germany is facing is that most
professors aren't being controlled regarding this
matter, PhD education works based on an honesty
system between supervisor and supervisee and we
are
literally under the mercy of our supervisors.

Ok.. I really don't want to sound like a drama
queen
here. I just need an advise or two from some
experience mathematicians who have gone through or
know of these situations. Any advise would be
helpful
and I would be very thankful for anything that
would
motivate and encourage me a bit. Thanks

Sincerely,
Jose Capco


Jose, sorry that I have not been in this situation
before,
but no one has yet written to you. Since your
situation is
clearly a pretty severe one, I think I ought to try
to help
if I can.


Please do so. You might still have some advise that I haven't tried yet and I am sure it will
motivate me if nothing else.


If I were in your situation, I would try these
(perhaps you
have tried some of these already):

1. I imagined you have explained to your supervisor
about
your situation. If not, I don't know why because you
should.
It may help to mention it again.

He knows every single detail of my situation.

2. Try talking to other professors in the
department. See
what they have to say. At least they know your
supervisor
and may be able to offer advice that could make your
supervisor listen to you if he isn't.


This is indeed a good idea. I definitely should give this a try next time
I visit the university. There are not a lot of professors who know my supervisor personally, as he is the only person in his "chair". He has a so-called
Professorship (in German "Professur") position without a chair. I really don't know how this is even possible, to have a research "group" consisting of
only one professor. In all the universities I have been in, the professor belonged to a research group consisting of many other people.

3. Try talking to your department chair or the one
in
charge of graduate studies in the department (if
there is
one in charge, that is; ones in charge of graduate
studies
are common in the United States, but I don't know
how
common they are in Europe).


Well, like I said. He is the only person, thus also the head of the "chair". We belong informally to the "algebraic geometry" research group, and this consists of only he and me. When I still had my positon in the university, he was still the head of graduate studies as well. I do not know very much about the university politics, maybe the head of graduate studies are different people every year (it was at least so in my former university).


4. Try talking to your dean if everything else
fails.


I'd like to leave this as a last resort. I don't want to cause any commotion, talking to higher people is like a double-edged-sword it can also turn things against me. But it is definitely a matter I should consider. I'd like to wait some 6 months or so before even trying to think about this. I have already told him that I want to get a life and marry and get out of Europe and since then it has been 6 months and so far he has read one and a half chapter of my work (the work itself was however written about 2 years ago already), hopefully things will improve.


5. Is there something called a school of graduate
studies
or something by that similar name within your
university?
If so, you can try talking to people there about
your
problem. If there is a dean of graduate studies, he
or she
may be a good person to go to. If there is such a
dean,
then this dean may be better to talk to than the dean
that
the math department chair works for since this dean
deals
with graduate studies directly.

Yes, he was the head of the school of graduate studies when I was still working in the university as an assistant to him.

6. I don't know if the alien office will be willing
to
give you additional time because of this situation
you're
in. Have you tried talking to them?


Oh.. that was the story of me during February of 2008. The situation was that I had a students visa during my application as a fresh PhD student,
and during that time my supervisor convinced me to change my visa status to working visa and both the university and the town's alien office were not so experienced with foreign non-EU students. I sometimes feel I have to blame my supervisor for all this, but this won't solve any problem. My supervisor suddenly decided (not out of his own free will I guess) that my job contract as an assistant in the university cannot be prolonged and the alien office wouldn't give me my student's status back. This wouldn't be the case had I lived in a big enough town where there is more support and protection for foreigners
(for instance Munich where I finished my masters, a few PhD students I am aware of have had the same situation as me but they really didnt have much problem as I). I would strongly advise against any other non-EU student to study in my town (its called Passau). Well, I even took the only lawyer in the town that specialized in german alien residence law to fight my case against the alien office.. in the end I had to give a lot of money to the lawyer who really wasnt very helpful and the alien office out of sympathy recommended me to finish my PhD outside the federal republic of germany. I desperately looked for a job and landed in Austria and cross the borders to show my supervisor my work every 2 months (or less, depending on how often he replies my emails). I really just want to get over this and I feel a bit frustrated that even though I've been through this my supervisor isnt taking me as seriously as I would expect him to.

If you have tried these or you believe these won't
work,
then please let us know. My message will at least
help us
realize what you have tried so far.


I have tried the following:

1. I tried to publish some of my work as preprints in some preprint server (in arXiv and real algebraic geometry server). My supervisor advised me against
doing so, because he told me that the university might sue me for publishing some of the results of my dissertation there. But after insisting to him that I want to make my work known after such a long time just waiting for things to happen, he agreed partially. I would really want my work to be seen in open access or commercial journals as well.

2. I have began reading works in pure algebraic geometry, scheme groups, Tate Shafarevich conjecture etc. and other more popular fields as I think if I do a work there I could independently publish some work (totally unrelated to my dissertation) without any need to ask permission from my supervisor or the fear of my university suing me for publishing my work. I don't want to remain stagnant and do the same work all this years just because my supervisor is taking a long time reading the work. This will also boost my status a bit if I want to apply for a teaching/postdoc position later on when I have my title already.

3. I am slowly trying to apply for positions in other universities (for postdoc or teaching or whatever there is) even though I haven't had my PhD title yet. I even told my supervisor I am doing so, because I feel I am not developing anymore. He will not write me a recommendation letter until he completely reads my work. But I am still applying anyway.

and after reading your advise I would want to

4. Talk with a professor I know who knows my supervisor and ask for his advise.

I would wait a bit more for me to progress a bit in other areas and just observe my supervisor. Its really difficult to control him while I am in another country and visits him only when he has the time.


Anyway thanks a lot. You have at least motivated me and gave me a bit of direction on what I should do next.

Sincerely,
Jose Capco
.

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