defferal options from PhD following bereavement

positivenote

hi all,
im a part-time registered phd research candidate in DCU and am on the 3rd Year (officially) of my track. I am at the stage where I am approaching my transfer to the 'official' Phd following a scheduled interview/presentation. I have submitted a first draft of my lit Review and have been working on corrections before I proceed to do the Lit review of the next area of interest for my research. However, my dad suddenly passed away two weeks ago and my head is all over the place. I have spent the last two weeks trying to get my head around the shock and grief as well as trying to help my mam. There has been no time to do anything research related and to be honest I cant see this situation changing in the next few weeks at the very least. I have also considered just walking away from it altogether given the suddenness of my dads passing... but I do realize that these thoughts are not really being based upon a clear head.
I am looking for people to advise me on how to approach this as I have sent in a report on my progress over the course of the last year, as it had to be submitted by next week, that I feel now that I rushed through over the last few days and its nowhere near representative of my academic capabilities. I would approach my supervisor but they are off campus at the minute and I am out of the country for two weeks from next week to try and have some family time.
As you can probably guess Im a little all over the place and am even unsure if any advice can be given here... but if anyone has any advice please feel free to pass it on either here or through a PM.
THANKS

djpbarry

First of all, sorry for your loss. My condolences to you and your mother.

Regarding your research, you need to talk to someone. If you can't get hold of your supervisor than talk to someone else in the faculty. I'm sure some sort of solution can be reached that doesn't involve you packing everything in.

Worst thing you can do right now is keep everything to yourself.

challengemaster

positivenote wrote: »

I am looking for people to advise me on how to approach this as I have sent in a report on my progress over the course of the last year, as it had to be submitted by next week, that I feel now that I rushed through over the last few days and its nowhere near representative of my academic capabilities. I would approach my supervisor but they are off campus at the minute and I am out of the country for two weeks from next week to try and have some family time.

Sorry for your loss.

Your supervisor may be off campus, but you can always email them.

Explain the situation as you have here - that you had a sudden bereavement in the family (I would mention who and when also, just so they understand the gravity of your situation). That you had to submit your annual progress report, however under the circumstances it was rushed and you do not believe it's an accurate representation of you or your work in the last year.

Explain that you are taking some leave for a few weeks to be with your family and ask to have a meeting with them when you return.

As djpbarry has said, I would also try approach another member of faculty...

Academics aren't robots, they have families too.... there should be no issue in cutting you some slack.

AntAunt

Very sorry for your loss positivenote. I've been there myself.
All the advise I got at the time was to try not to make any drastic changes in the weeks and months following such a difficult time. Routine and familiarity will be your best friend trying to make sense of things.

I've recently taken leave from my PhD, and found that the people involved, including the IRC, were understanding when I explained my own circumstances for taking leave. As said above, other academics in your department will also be a good place to go in the absence of your own supervisor. I doubt anybody expects very much from you at the moment so go easy on yourself.

You're also a part-time student which means there's almost an inbuilt expectation that you will get delayed and held up over the course of your studies as your other commitments and life gets in the way. Does your university have a postgraduate student support office? There's one in UCD and I found them really great, a helpful intermediary between the paperwork and regulations of the uni and your department/supervisor. Might be worth checking this out.