Change PhD due to reasons unrelated to work?

Question

tl;dr How to handle the situation of transferring PhDs due to living conditions without destroying supervisor relationship? I have already talked to them and they are not happy with the idea.

I'm currently nearing the one-year mark into a computer science PhD in France. I have no trouble doing research and have good feedback on my progress from supervisors, collaborators, and people in my research community.

However, I have noticed that I have been quite miserable since I arrived here which I tried to narrow down for several reasons:

1. French administration is adversarial. I understand that most academics have their troubles with administration. My story here is that my institution promised to fund my conference travels when I presented my work, but would later take back promises.

My first conference took 6 months to get reimbursed.

Ths biggest problem is my second conference. I received an award that is supposed to partially fund the trip while my institution is supposed to cover the rest. Once my institution realised that I received this award, they decided not to reimburse me. This is in contradiction to what I was promised before I went on the trip. I declared everything before I went on the trip in their system which was "approved" by several higher ups. Unfortunately, administration thought it is ok to just not reimburse me anymore after I return and I have no power to change this. My current supervisor is taking steps to try and refute this but things are not going well.

My third conference has just been completed but now I am given the process here, I will have to wait over half a year to get reimbursed for this. Thus, at this point, I am > 1.5 conference trips in debt. The PhD salary in France is low and cost of living is high relative to other western European countries. All of these conference debts account to many months of salary.

2. Money. This is related to point 1, as I have perpetually been in debt ever since my first international conference, and the pay here is abysmal relative to the cost of living. At least in the US/Canada, there are plenty of internship opportunities that can help multiply living costs, but the opportunities in Europe are appalling.
3. Following from 1., I am beginning to resent the culture and how people work here. Furthermore, without getting too much into politics, the country is supposed to be a socialist state with high taxes even on a PhD salary but I am not receiving any of the social security benefits.

Thus, I have thought about moving to a different country where at least the PhD salary is reasonable e.g. Nordic countries or Germany. I have talked to advisors who have positions open and are happy to hire. I've also talked to students within their groups without their advisors' presence, and see that points 1 and 2 would be solved. Furthermore, I cannot see point 3 being much worse if I travel to another country, and these countries are quite different from where I am in terms of culture anyway.

The problem is that obviously, my supervisor would not be happy for this to happen. I've talked about this to them but they seem quite pissed, even though they are generally a nice person. What tips do you have to navigate this situation? I do not want to spend many more years of my youth miserable and poor. Furthermore, I am starting to grow heavy resentment towards research because of these issues, even when I try to rationally console myself that these two things are separate problems.

Answer 1

You cannot make your supervisor be happy with your decision. More broadly, as a general life lesson: you cannot control the feelings of other people.

You have certain ethical responsibilities to other people like honesty and keeping promises. However, these responsibilities do not exist in a vacuum and are not absolute; you have to care for yourself, too.

In this case, you are breaking a promise to complete a PhD degree, which comes with some cost to your advisor: failing to graduate a student can be seen as a failure of the advisor, and much of the early effort put towards training a student is paid off later on in shared academic productivity. Breaking this promise should not be done on a whim or without care for others, but I see no signs that this describes you.

Similarly, your advisor has some ethical responsibilities toward you as a student, including keeping your best interests in mind. If your best interests involve leaving to go somewhere else, that's a decision they should support. It's also reasonable that they counsel you that change does not always fix things, warn that you're losing out on progress made, etc - be careful that you are not interpreting honest and direct advice as mere anger. Ultimately, though, if you decide to leave and they do not support that decision (whether or not they agree with it) then they aren't meeting all their responsibilities toward you. That's their job to fix, not yours.

The biggest practical barrier to changing to a different PhD will be getting a position to start, since you will have a history of having left one program whereas fresh applicants start fresh. A (soon-to-be-former) advisor could be helpful in that process in reassuring other supervisors of your abilities as a researcher. If you can get another position without that support, though, you may just need to walk away without it, and that's okay.

Answer 2

My two cents as someone entering 4th year of a PhD program in econometrics in a European country where a conference trip is worth several months of stipend (I do not get wage, I am not an employee at the university):

1. This sounds terrible (if true), and as far as I am concerned, it justify leaving immediately, regardless of whether a supervisor get pissed.
2. Finding a job is a good way to get money. It should not be a problem with CS background.
3. If you despise the culture, you cannot avoid it, and it makes you miserable, then I would say that moving to a different country is the only sensible option. I would suggest finishing the PhD remotely (if that is possible), but I am not sure it would be worth the try considering point 1.

I would also add one last thing. If 1. is true the way you put it and you leaving because of that would destroy the relation supervisor relationship, is such a relationship worth your considerations?

Answer 3

You didn't mention what country you're from. It seems you're having difficulty with cultural adaption. I speak as someone who has lived, studied, and worked in the US and Canada and traveled to France as a near-native speaker after living in Quebec for 15 years. Normally I believe that we adapt better to situations as time goes by, but there are definitely cultural differences in how systems and institutions operate, communication style, etc. Since you've been in France for a year, I trust you to know whether you can adapt there or not. I would not be able to live or study in France, because the national character is so different from Quebec, where I was at home. Just be careful that you understand the local and institutional culture of the next country you plan to move to. Germany, for example, is not exactly unregimented or nonbureaucratic.

You original question was, "How to handle the situation of transferring PhDs due to living conditions without destroying supervisor relationship?" I think you should begin by evaluating the relative importance of that relationship compared to other criteria: the successful outcome of your PhD program, your mental health and finances during those years, forming a professional network, and whatever else is important to you. Avoid a course of action that will have a long-term---as opposed to short-term---detrimental impact on your long-term goals. Either staying or leaving could have detrimental impacts. How large is each impact in the grand scheme of things? Will there be ways to mitigate any negative fallout? Will the negative impacts stop mattering as time goes by? Or could these impacts make or break your career?

You say that you're "miserable." If you're that unhappy and it continues for years, it will most likely affect your productivity, relationships, and feelings about your field and future career. I once left a PhD program in the first year for a similar reason---the department reneged on a written promise to all incoming PhD students of full financial support through the end of the 6-year program because of funding difficulties. I took this as a bad omen for things to come. Leaving forced me to think harder about what I wanted and what I could and couldn't tolerate. I think you're at this self-reflective point and it will be helpful to ask yourself simply, "What is it that I really want---now, for the remainder of my studies, and in the future?" In your place I would leave, but you're a different person with different goals and values.

Answer 4

Like others have said, while the issues you are highlighting are very understandable, they are not things that your supervisor has any power to resolve or even expedite.

If you are on good terms with your supervisor then I would try to find a solution that benefits both of you and allows you to continue with your current thesis plan. You want to minimise disruption and maintain momentum as much as possible, otherwise you will have to explain a big gap in your CV when it comes time to look for a job post-PhD. The tough reality is that the academic job market is so competitive that people may not have the patience to hear you out even when your explanations are valid.

Does your supervisor have any external collaborations that are relevant to your research? Could you discuss with your supervisor the possibility of co-supervision with one of these collaborators?

Also, 3 conferences in your first year of PhD sounds like a lot (depending on the field obviously). You might consider being more strategic about which conferences you attend, and shooting more for journals as a venue rather than conference proceedings. They are generally better for your CV, and your institution may have reciprocal agreements that will waive any publication fees.

Answer 5

Nothing you describe appears to be something that your supervisor can fix, apart from 1. where (if this is really the way the system/institution (dis)functions) they could reimburse you out of their own pocket.

That is not something that is a given, however, depending on their own salary and the amount of people they would have to do that for. So I can understand their frustration - which may also come across as anger. I'd be frustrated myself if these were the reasons a good PhD student would end up leaving!

In the end, only you can decide what makes the most sense to you. Leaving and starting fresh won't be easy and also won't guarantee future hapiness, but it's your choice. There are still some things to consider, depending on how much energy/stamina you have left: You could still try to change the system where you're at by gathering other PhD students to rally (in a positive not an adversarial way) to admin - ideally backed by faculty - at your local institution. The reimbursement policy is abysmal, though not unheard of. The same holds for your second point, though rallying for an increase in stipends is going to be an even bigger fight.

As for your third point: nothing can change that. You can only minimize the impact. One option would be to focus on work (assuming that you are actually happy in the lab you are in as well as with your supervisor) and devote your attention to work so you can graduate as soon as possible to leave this place.

Answer 6

I think you should try to find viable ways to continue working with your current supervisor. Try to budget your expenses and, if possible, increase your income. You mention that you are a CS major so maybe try to find some side projects that can potentially make you money.

Worst comes to worst, you can ask whether there is a possibility of working with a co-advisor in a different country, but still, keeping your advisor as the main one.

Finally, moving again to a different country does not guarantee that you'll find better living conditions. As mentioned in other comments, you might also be seen suspiciously as you already left another PhD program. Not to mention that moving costs, financially, emotionally, mentally, etc.