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I am a university lecturer (say university A) that has been offered admission to university B's PhD program. This university B is a well-known university in Asia..and I have to say that this is truly a dream come true for me. I planned this for two years to pursue my PhD here and what an amazing feeling I had.

I should have started my study in August 2018, but I had asked for deferment to enroll in January 2019. This was due to a training I had to complete in uni A. I also told them that, according to the promised deadline, this training should be over in December 2018. I simply wrote this on my email. I was so worried uni B wouldn't permit this, but they did! I was incredibly happy to hear that and became even more excited to start my study..even more committed and fell in love more with uni B.

I was ready to wait for January 2019 and also for the training I would face soon. I was waiting for the news of the start of the training, and kept waiting. I waited..to the point where I realized that this training just wouldn't happen in December 2018 or before.

I was so sad. It's not that I couldn't leave this training. I mean, I could also reject the admission offer, right? It's just that I had to make this choice. If I were to leave this training, I would have quite a big consequence..roughly as big as what I would have for rejecting the offer from uni B.

However, I know for sure that the training SHOULD be given to me before July 2019 as the rule states so. Hence, now, I am trying to figure out how I can ask for my second deferment..now to August 2019. My effort and questions:

  1. Instead of just email, I plan to ask rektor of uni A to back me up, and it seems positively this will happen. The rektor will send statement letter to uni B that explain my condition. I go this far because I just think clarification is needed and hopefully this will show my commitment to them. How do you think this will work?
  2. Beside that, I am considering to also emphasize my commitment through my own letter. Here I would like to write that this deferment will be the last one I ask, and if I can't enroll in time, I will accept the consequences such as I can no longer pursue my PhD in this department, even in uni B. Will this do? I mean, am I doing too much, or this should indeed be done, or not enough? What would this letter be called? An agreement letter?

Advices are really appreciated.

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If you have already been offered the position and it isn't contingent on the training, then just accept. You may miss "the training" for now, but that doesn't close you off from learning the material later.

There is no guarantee that the first university will ever get the job done and you have little influence and no control over that.

Note, I'm assuming here that you are the recipient of the training, not the trainer who is being depended on by others.

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  • Your assumption is correct. The thing is..I have to join the training, and it is by the law that this training should be given to me before July 2019. Hence deferment (again) to August is my option. My question is more about how to ask for the second deferment. If however the deferment is not allowed, I will definitely follow ur opinion, which is to simply accept to enroll in January.
    – bms
    Oct 3, 2018 at 0:22
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    Probably the only way is straight up asking. Explain carefully the reason. Explain that you are trapped between two hard constraints and that your request isn't frivolous or because of indecision. The problem for you is that you have no control over the reaction, no matter what you do. If the other institution has constraints, financial or otherwise, you may not get a happy result.
    – Buffy
    Oct 3, 2018 at 0:25
  • +1. I think explaining very carefully will be the best thing to do. Will what I plan to do in the last paragraph be considered too much?
    – bms
    Oct 3, 2018 at 1:34

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