How to deal with inadequate PhD supervision

Since Times Higher Education reported earlier this month that I received compensation from Soas, University of London over PhD supervision failures, I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of students who have reached out to me with stories that are alarmingly familiar.

What has been most interesting is that it’s not just research students who have been in touch: a fair number are completing taught master’s and undergraduate degrees at other London institutions.

The question I am asked most is how to start a complaint. It seems that students are, at a very basic level, unaware of how to deal with conflicts with their university.

The very first thing that students facing such difficulties must do is to be honest with themselves and ask whether or not they have a valid complaint. University students today are treated as customers, which is how many see themselves. With that comes a sense of entitlement that they have paid for a service and therefore expect to receive a specific desired outcome, regardless of their conduct.

I believe that the student-institute contractual relationship places obligations on both parties – students must produce work, of a reasonable standard and to deadline, in order for it to be marked in a timely fashion. They must attend all lectures and commit to the course. If the student can show that they have held up their end of the bargain, and that the institution has failed to follow through on its part of the agreement, then there is a process to follow.

Students need to be efficient in their communications about any complaints; they must identify the issues and propose a resolution – all the while remaining calm and clear in all correspondence.

I’d advise a student in any sort of grievance with a university to be meticulous about record-keeping, ideally logging all their interactions in a notebook. Approach the complaints process as you would research: be methodical, account for all the variables and, above all, be comprehensive. Deal with matters head-on.

Make use of the Data Protection Act 2018, in particular the powerful “subject access request” (SAR). You are entitled to see any data relating to you that the university may hold. For example, you could request a copy of your supervision records. This would require the university to contact all supervisors and ask them to submit any records they have on you. But this also means that you need to be timely in making such requests because staff may leave, and emails, documents and written records may be deleted.

Use the free template letter available from the Information Commissioner’s Office website to make such a request. And always ask for electronic copies of any data because word searching and cataloguing are easier in that format.

Legal measures and the courts should, at all costs, be a last-resort option. If you have failed to resolve the issue directly, your next move should be to use the institution’s internal complaints procedure. All these details will be easily accessible on the university’s website, and a Google search can help to locate the relevant documents.

Usually the procedure, regardless of the university, will involve completing a short student complaint form, stating the type of complaint you wish to bring, the issues, your grounds and your resolution.

Complete this form and provide any and all relevant documentation and evidence. This will make dealing with your complaint much easier for the investigator in charge. Usually this person is an academic from another department.

Their job will be to investigate the issues, speak to the relevant people concerned (including you) and then write a report. Having been through this process three times, I assure you, it’s easy to complete and the investigator will want to ensure that fairness is achieved.

Should you not be happy with the outcome of this process, you are entitled to appeal on strict grounds. Again, look for guidelines on the university’s website. Such appeals are usually narrow in construction.

You will be issued with a completion letter when you have exhausted the internal process. This will allow you to have your case reviewed by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA). I took my case to this body but found its involvement to be unhelpful. This process works only if your university complies and provides documentation. In my case, this didn’t happen properly. In general terms, however, the OIA did assign a caseworker quickly, who seemed to understand my issues.

Although I didn’t get the answer I wanted from the OIA, this didn’t stop me from negotiating with the university. My advice here is simple: do not settle; take charge and ownership of your case.

As negotiations broke down in my case, I had no choice but to issue a legal claim. I did this by following the pre-action protocol, which is a series of steps that one must take to bring a claim to court. I used Money Claim Online to issue the claim, and wrote detailed particulars of the claim. Here, the previous investigators’ reports were very helpful because they included summaries of the issues previously dealt with.

In addition to taking these steps, students must also be aware of the personal investment that they will have to make in this process. There is a huge power imbalance between student and institution, so you will need to be highly motivated, organised and energised. I’ve been asked a lot about whether I ever felt threatened during my ordeal with Soas, and the fact is, I did. But I felt I had little choice. I was stuck, and no one was willing or able to help me; I didn’t have the funds to instruct a solicitor to act on my behalf, and I found the students’ union’s attitude to be unhelpful.

In making a complaint, you must also be prepared to fight a long battle – most likely alone, and most likely to an unsatisfactory ending.

In the end, Soas settled the claim and paid up, in full, with interest. Bringing this action has corrected several major wrongs that the university made during my six years there. However, it cost me an incredible amount of time and took a great emotional toll. And while I am left with a sense of satisfaction, I’m disappointed that the university director still refuses to issue a formal apology, as was recommended by one of Soas’ own investigators.

I hope that if you’re unhappy with the support your institution is giving to you, this advice will make you feel empowered to take matters into your own hands and make your complaint. Keep your chin up and keep going.

Vishal Vora is a legal academic at the Max Planck Institute and a research associate in the School of Law at Soas, University of London.