Changing PhD to an unrelated one?
Hi Everyone,
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
Original post by Cedg25
Hi Everyone,
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
You can't 'transfer' a PhD, you stop one, and hope (though it's quite unlikely) to successfully apply for another one. The only thing that could be described as a 'transfer' is if you move from one project to another within a research group, pretty much only possibl ein the first year.
PhDs are independent pieces of research, not courses.
Original post by Cedg25
Hi Everyone,
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
So a key question is who is paying ? If you have an individual merit scholarship or are self funded and near the start of the project, then a qualified "maybe" if you can persuade another supervisor and / or institution to take you on. However if you are on a DTA, CASE award etc and any of the money comes from the supervisor or their research group, almost certainly not. They worked hard for the funding and probably have very little of it to begin with, so won't let you walk off with it to benefit a different group.
Original post by Cedg25
Hi Everyone,
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
It sounds as if you've lost passion in your subject areas as a result of studying a topic that you're not interested in. So it's worth seriously considering whether you've really lost passion in Computer Science altogether, or whether you just aren't interested in your current research topic.
If it's the latter (and from what you've said, I suspect it might be), then you need to have an honest discussion with your supervisor and/or someone within your academic school about why you're not engaging with your research. If you don't feel your supervisor is approachable in this regard, there should be a PhD/PGR lead within the department who is there to deal with these kinds of issues. You may also find it helpful to get in touch with your Students Union - their education or postgraduate officers can provide further advice and support.
You mention that your supervisor won't allow you to study your topic of interest but you haven't really said why - is it because they don't think it merits investigation? Because it's not within the remit of what they have funding for? Or because they don't feel that there is anyone able to support you with researching that topic within the department? Solutions inevitably depend on the specific circumstances but, by talking to your academic school, you could look at ways to alter direction on your existing research to make it more interesting/engaging to you, or at bringing in additional supervisors (potentially from another institution) to support new areas of your research.
As @threeportdrift says, changing research topics - and even PhD subject - entirely is certainly a possibility but you'll essentially be starting over again - something that can be both very costly and, as @Mr Wednesday has pointed out, comes with risks to your funding status. So it's definitely something you only want to do if you absolutely have to.
Amy
Original post by Cedg25
Hi Everyone,
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
This is my second post - I am currently studying a computer science related PhD after having done my undergraduate in the same topic. I am now at a different university to that which I studied my Undergraduate (got a comfortable 1st class hons degree).
Anyway, I don't know if its the coronavirus, the university, the supervisor etc but I do not have the same level of passion for this area as I did when I did my undergraduate (I think its partially my supervisor as I haven't been allowed to study the topic I wanted to, for reasons I disagree with).
Anyway has anyone ever transferred PhD? What is the process like? and more importantly has anyone ever transferred PhD to a different field entirely?
@Mr Wednesday and @threeportdrift have said all the key stuff, so there's nothing important to add. The only question I have is have you actually spoken to your mentor about this? Everyone gets disillusioned and disheartened during their doctorate, but it's not always the right thing to do to jack it in. Not without some serious discussion and reflection. I'm not suggesting it's 'kneejerk', but the bit about coronavirus just made me think this is a recent, rather than a deep-seated or ongoing feeling about your PhD, and perhaps some remedial action could be taken to save it.
Why not find a way to talk about what you want to talk about within your topic....that you've been assigned. A PhD topic is a rough guide... Very small amounts of it are actually "new research" despite what people believe. You can surely talk about a different area of CS and still make your supervisor happy.
Finally, i would really consider why your supervisor doesn't want you to do the topic you want to do. There must be a justifiable reason? Discuss it with him/her for your clarity and see where there is wiggle room.
You don't sound like you've done a master's, which means you likely highly talented in your field, but i do sense a bit of arrogance "easily a high first in undergrad". That's amazing, but that doesn't mean much to other uni's if you become a PhD drop out with that first.
Finally, i would really consider why your supervisor doesn't want you to do the topic you want to do. There must be a justifiable reason? Discuss it with him/her for your clarity and see where there is wiggle room.
You don't sound like you've done a master's, which means you likely highly talented in your field, but i do sense a bit of arrogance "easily a high first in undergrad". That's amazing, but that doesn't mean much to other uni's if you become a PhD drop out with that first.
Hi Guys and thanks for the feedback - sorry I have just seen the notifications
@Keele University thanks so much for the advice - some of the most reasonable and thoughtful advice I have received - thanks very much! I have a PhD lead I guess that I could talk to but they are also my second supervisor and I don't find my first supervisor approachable at all.
As a little bit of background there are a few things that have highly frustrated me - and I have only been a student a few months, that's why I don't feel the great sense of loss if I was to stop the PhD. So a few things that have irritated me:
1 - Supervisor cancelling meetings last minute
2 - Supervisor not turning up to meeting and not saying, rescheduling the meeting, and then being late to the rescheduled meeting
3 - I have had 4 occasions where I have emailed someone in the university and had my emails ignored.
4 - A constant emphasis is put on the stipend that I receive - this is frustrating, I have never done a job before and have someone go "you make x money, that is really good money"
5 - During meetings supervisor will talk about unrelated issues randomly which I don't mind, the issue is when I make points about the work I have done and he looks at me for a good 15 seconds and responds "that noise reminds me of the time I was on a motorbike and …."
6 - Supervisor will send emails during supervisory meetings, this is frustrating, why bother arranging an hourly meeting with someone to just ignore them
7 - I was struggling to pick a topic as the ones I was interested in were rejected (for example I wanted to work on mobile devices but was told it was too difficult to jailbreak them, which I disagree with), I asked what my supervisors areas of interests were and the response was "well I have MY phd!" - I did not mean to offend my supervisor here, I was just curious to his interests as if any interested me it could perhaps bring on a mutually interesting topic
8 - No Induction within the university, No welcome to studying a phd or how to approach things.
Long winded I am sorry but just a few frustrations (these are not all of them), but as @Keele University has said I think I will talk to my other supervisor and get some feedback.
@Reality Check I think you are totally correct in the I am a bit disillusioned - my issue is that I am only a few months in! so perhaps a bad time to be disillusioned (in my mind at least), I do thank you for your advice and I will try not make the kneejerk decision and will talk it through! great advice!
@Realitysreflexx Thanks for the advice, and now you mention it I did sound arrogant! whoops! I merely meant my previous course was easy (most of the class got a 1st and did very well) I think because we worked well together tbh, I will try talk through more about potential topics and thanks for the advice.
@Keele University thanks so much for the advice - some of the most reasonable and thoughtful advice I have received - thanks very much! I have a PhD lead I guess that I could talk to but they are also my second supervisor and I don't find my first supervisor approachable at all.
As a little bit of background there are a few things that have highly frustrated me - and I have only been a student a few months, that's why I don't feel the great sense of loss if I was to stop the PhD. So a few things that have irritated me:
1 - Supervisor cancelling meetings last minute
2 - Supervisor not turning up to meeting and not saying, rescheduling the meeting, and then being late to the rescheduled meeting
3 - I have had 4 occasions where I have emailed someone in the university and had my emails ignored.
4 - A constant emphasis is put on the stipend that I receive - this is frustrating, I have never done a job before and have someone go "you make x money, that is really good money"
5 - During meetings supervisor will talk about unrelated issues randomly which I don't mind, the issue is when I make points about the work I have done and he looks at me for a good 15 seconds and responds "that noise reminds me of the time I was on a motorbike and …."
6 - Supervisor will send emails during supervisory meetings, this is frustrating, why bother arranging an hourly meeting with someone to just ignore them
7 - I was struggling to pick a topic as the ones I was interested in were rejected (for example I wanted to work on mobile devices but was told it was too difficult to jailbreak them, which I disagree with), I asked what my supervisors areas of interests were and the response was "well I have MY phd!" - I did not mean to offend my supervisor here, I was just curious to his interests as if any interested me it could perhaps bring on a mutually interesting topic
8 - No Induction within the university, No welcome to studying a phd or how to approach things.
Long winded I am sorry but just a few frustrations (these are not all of them), but as @Keele University has said I think I will talk to my other supervisor and get some feedback.
@Reality Check I think you are totally correct in the I am a bit disillusioned - my issue is that I am only a few months in! so perhaps a bad time to be disillusioned (in my mind at least), I do thank you for your advice and I will try not make the kneejerk decision and will talk it through! great advice!
@Realitysreflexx Thanks for the advice, and now you mention it I did sound arrogant! whoops! I merely meant my previous course was easy (most of the class got a 1st and did very well) I think because we worked well together tbh, I will try talk through more about potential topics and thanks for the advice.
Original post by Cedg25
Hi Guys and thanks for the feedback - sorry I have just seen the notifications
@Keele University thanks so much for the advice - some of the most reasonable and thoughtful advice I have received - thanks very much! I have a PhD lead I guess that I could talk to but they are also my second supervisor and I don't find my first supervisor approachable at all.
As a little bit of background there are a few things that have highly frustrated me - and I have only been a student a few months, that's why I don't feel the great sense of loss if I was to stop the PhD. So a few things that have irritated me:
1 - Supervisor cancelling meetings last minute
2 - Supervisor not turning up to meeting and not saying, rescheduling the meeting, and then being late to the rescheduled meeting
3 - I have had 4 occasions where I have emailed someone in the university and had my emails ignored.
4 - A constant emphasis is put on the stipend that I receive - this is frustrating, I have never done a job before and have someone go "you make x money, that is really good money"
5 - During meetings supervisor will talk about unrelated issues randomly which I don't mind, the issue is when I make points about the work I have done and he looks at me for a good 15 seconds and responds "that noise reminds me of the time I was on a motorbike and …."
6 - Supervisor will send emails during supervisory meetings, this is frustrating, why bother arranging an hourly meeting with someone to just ignore them
7 - I was struggling to pick a topic as the ones I was interested in were rejected (for example I wanted to work on mobile devices but was told it was too difficult to jailbreak them, which I disagree with), I asked what my supervisors areas of interests were and the response was "well I have MY phd!" - I did not mean to offend my supervisor here, I was just curious to his interests as if any interested me it could perhaps bring on a mutually interesting topic
8 - No Induction within the university, No welcome to studying a phd or how to approach things.
Long winded I am sorry but just a few frustrations (these are not all of them), but as @Keele University has said I think I will talk to my other supervisor and get some feedback.
@Reality Check I think you are totally correct in the I am a bit disillusioned - my issue is that I am only a few months in! so perhaps a bad time to be disillusioned (in my mind at least), I do thank you for your advice and I will try not make the kneejerk decision and will talk it through! great advice!
@Realitysreflexx Thanks for the advice, and now you mention it I did sound arrogant! whoops! I merely meant my previous course was easy (most of the class got a 1st and did very well) I think because we worked well together tbh, I will try talk through more about potential topics and thanks for the advice.
@Keele University thanks so much for the advice - some of the most reasonable and thoughtful advice I have received - thanks very much! I have a PhD lead I guess that I could talk to but they are also my second supervisor and I don't find my first supervisor approachable at all.
As a little bit of background there are a few things that have highly frustrated me - and I have only been a student a few months, that's why I don't feel the great sense of loss if I was to stop the PhD. So a few things that have irritated me:
1 - Supervisor cancelling meetings last minute
2 - Supervisor not turning up to meeting and not saying, rescheduling the meeting, and then being late to the rescheduled meeting
3 - I have had 4 occasions where I have emailed someone in the university and had my emails ignored.
4 - A constant emphasis is put on the stipend that I receive - this is frustrating, I have never done a job before and have someone go "you make x money, that is really good money"
5 - During meetings supervisor will talk about unrelated issues randomly which I don't mind, the issue is when I make points about the work I have done and he looks at me for a good 15 seconds and responds "that noise reminds me of the time I was on a motorbike and …."
6 - Supervisor will send emails during supervisory meetings, this is frustrating, why bother arranging an hourly meeting with someone to just ignore them
7 - I was struggling to pick a topic as the ones I was interested in were rejected (for example I wanted to work on mobile devices but was told it was too difficult to jailbreak them, which I disagree with), I asked what my supervisors areas of interests were and the response was "well I have MY phd!" - I did not mean to offend my supervisor here, I was just curious to his interests as if any interested me it could perhaps bring on a mutually interesting topic
8 - No Induction within the university, No welcome to studying a phd or how to approach things.
Long winded I am sorry but just a few frustrations (these are not all of them), but as @Keele University has said I think I will talk to my other supervisor and get some feedback.
@Reality Check I think you are totally correct in the I am a bit disillusioned - my issue is that I am only a few months in! so perhaps a bad time to be disillusioned (in my mind at least), I do thank you for your advice and I will try not make the kneejerk decision and will talk it through! great advice!
@Realitysreflexx Thanks for the advice, and now you mention it I did sound arrogant! whoops! I merely meant my previous course was easy (most of the class got a 1st and did very well) I think because we worked well together tbh, I will try talk through more about potential topics and thanks for the advice.
I think you need to do a bit of research into what goes into a PhD on the back end of things.
You might want to look into an article known as the Triple helix of innovation by Etzkowitz 2003. It discusses governments desire to monetise research, you need to realise the research you do should have some sort of publishable value...or solve some problem, even if it's only a small cog.
Interesting doesn't always mean valuable.
Remember your getting a PhD, your joining an elite club in a sense, idk if you want to stay in academia.. But you will constantly have pressure to publish if you do.
There's also a book, called The unwritten rules of PhD Research, it's easily downloadable for free. It was given to me for writing my undergrad dissertation, which i just completed. Oh and BTW initially i wanted to do a specific topic in entrepreneurship and ended up writing what my supervisor wants, but he was correct in the end! What i would have wanted to research would have been too difficult! I didn't see the difficulty before hand of course and I'm guessing jailbreaking a phone is easy, proving the value in research might not be.
Apologies for calling you arrogant, but remember in these covid-19 times... A ton of people would be kicking for a PhD spot. I just don't want you to give up easily.
Remember, universities are bureaucratic there are always interpersonal politics at play! If someone tells you don't do something, there's likely a reason! Even if it's silly, if you find out why then you can justify doing what you want!
Finally, you could also approach it, as fine I'll publish what they want and fit their ideas... And then you'll have how many xx years you have with your PhD to research exactly what you want. I remember my dissertation supervisor, who had never supervised and undergrad before... He said listen... First do everything you need to do to pass...worry about the rest later!
Original post by gjd800
Your supervisor sounds quite rude, actually! How did you apply to this? It's a bit mad to me that you'd start a PhD and not know the supervisor's research interests. I did mine where I did with the person that I did because of their research interests
Yeah sorry my bad explanation I think - so the advertisement included 5/6 sub domains of my project which is already a niche area (I would name it but would rather not on a public form im afraid!) but I find it weird that they have then told me not to do research on 3 of the 6 areas named in the advertisement, I have seen my supervisors interests also but a lot of his recent work has been co-published.
@Realitysreflexx I actually agree with everything you said, only thing I find weird is so my supervisor has told me what not to do - that's fine there must be no merit in terms of research of doing so. But has also told me he doesn't know what to research or he would simply just tell me - just a frustrating time over all (and good to hear about your undergrad, I hope you get the grades your after!)
Original post by Cedg25
Yeah sorry my bad explanation I think - so the advertisement included 5/6 sub domains of my project which is already a niche area (I would name it but would rather not on a public form im afraid!) but I find it weird that they have then told me not to do research on 3 of the 6 areas named in the advertisement, I have seen my supervisors interests also but a lot of his recent work has been co-published.
@Realitysreflexx I actually agree with everything you said, only thing I find weird is so my supervisor has told me what not to do - that's fine there must be no merit in terms of research of doing so. But has also told me he doesn't know what to research or he would simply just tell me - just a frustrating time over all (and good to hear about your undergrad, I hope you get the grades your after!)
@Realitysreflexx I actually agree with everything you said, only thing I find weird is so my supervisor has told me what not to do - that's fine there must be no merit in terms of research of doing so. But has also told me he doesn't know what to research or he would simply just tell me - just a frustrating time over all (and good to hear about your undergrad, I hope you get the grades your after!)
Seems odd that they would cut off half of the advertised options, for sure. It's a weird situation for you, I don't know what I'd do in your shoes tbh
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