They won't let you extend the length of the program by one more year? or are you in the program 2+ years already?
Yup, my second year just ended, and our law allows an extra year only if you've done three and your research is 100% complete, but not yet fully published. My head of department came off slightly shocked that the dude with the shortest list of failed tasks was also the dude with the shortest thesis draft and no published articles (out here, if you're working on a post-graduate degree, you have to occasionally publish articles on the progress of your research, showcasing your discoveries, in specialized magazines -- I didn't discover nothing, so I didn't publish nothing).
In my country we must choose between army and sivil service. You can also choose an nonweapon army, which will be like army just without any guns etc. And if you don't go to army (or sivil service) you'll go to prison -.-
Same here, except that the civil service option borders on government slavery (2x the time of an army draftee's service, virtually no pay and a need to PROVE in some way you're too pacifistic to do army service). The only good thing here is that the recent army reforms have finally taken care of the more criminal aspects of mistreatment of drafted soldiers, or so the newscasters say =)
Then again, if my medical problems get confirmed, I will be able to forget all of this and live a happy (painful) civilian life.
