Re: Sex Discrimination

Alex Heney wrote:


But it sounds like she may have been on one of the courses that lead
to a higher level if an extra year is taken, and she has been asked to
finish without doing the extra year.


The OP said she was doing a PhD, and I have never seen a PhD that worked like that.

Standard practice is you don't sign up for a PhD, you sign up for an MPhil. After two years, you are assessed. If you pass, then you are transfered onto the PhD programme, if not, you are awarded an MPhil.

PhD/MPhil are research based degrees, awarded for completing some original research which furthers the boundaries of knowledge in your field. BSc/MSc are course based - you pass a set number of exams to prove you've memorised a certain amount of other people's knowledge. They are totally different things and it seems very strange for someone working on a PhD to be offered an MSc.

If a PhD student has reached such an impasse with his research that his supervisor recommends he no longer continue, then I don't think it makes sense to try to continue with that supervisor. If the problem is with the supervisor, e.g. if he is indeed discriminating on sex, or (much more common) he is too busy with own research to give much time to his students (especially if their research doesn't interest him so much), then I would suggest finding a new supervisor. If no other supervisor is willing to take on the student, then perhaps the supervisor's assessment that the student is not capable of continuing is correct.

Some students have been known to ignore their supervisors advice in these situations and submit a thesis entirely on their own, but even if the university allows this, the examiners tend to agree with the supervisor so I wouldn't recommend it. And you can't sue a university into giving you a PhD - either you've submitted research which is worthy of one or you haven't.

--
Richard
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Relevant Pages

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