Don't last-year PhD students need supervision? I am a PhD student currently in the middle of my PhD. After talking to some senior PhD students, I came to know that during the last or second to the last year of PhD, advisors don't advise their students (advice to very small extent ). There are many things last year students have to do on their own. I don't know if this is true or not in general.


  Question : Don't last year PhD students need supervision?
On the one hand the amount of support needed on how to do research should decrease as the PhD student progresses. On the other hand, at the end is "crunch time" and a lot of projects come to an end at the same time. Each project should require less support by the advisor, but now there are more projects to discuss... Moreover, there is the process of finishing the dissertation, ceremonies, etc. etc. So the amount of time I spent on a PhD student would follow more a U-shaped curve: a lot at the beginning, then decreasing, but increasing again at the end.