How to overcome PhD isolation in my article over at Warwick University’s Postgraduate Study Blog… Have you been told that the postgrad life is one of solitude? It doesn’t have to be: with only a little effort your CV, as well as your social life, will shine. It can seem strange, when embarking on a postgraduate degree, … Continue reading
Category Archives: Careers
An Ode to the God of Part-Time PhDs
by Rebecca Booth Janus is the two-faced Roman god of transition, and a fitting symbol for the multiple roles of a part-time PhD student. I work full-time at the University of Oxford, and am a part-time MPhil student at the University of Roehampton, reading Cultural Studies. Currently in my second year of a four-year programme, … Continue reading
Reader/Lecturer/Associate Professor? Understanding Academic Job Titles
Perhaps you are looking for an academic job, or looking for a PhD supervisor: Associate Professor sounds good, right? But is that more senior than Assistant Professor? What about Lecturer - or Reader? Does a Reader really just read? The academic world has always enjoyed its mysterious hierarchies and systems, and you are not alone … Continue reading
Into the Rain: The International Student Experience
Half of the PhD students in the UK are international: the university system here couldn’t survive without them. If you ask British or international students what is the best thing about studying here, one of the top points is the diversity of the people you meet and all you can learn from them. But what … Continue reading
Is Academia Really in Such a Mess?
So you’re doing a PhD - or maybe you’ve just finished one - and all you hear is how terrible the academic job market is now. Hundreds of highly qualified people applying for each nine-month part-time teaching fellowship, salaries dropping, more PhD graduates and fewer new jobs. Your supervisor might tell you that actually there … Continue reading
Welcome to The Gradgrind: Positivity and the PhD
So here you are, living the dream: maybe funded, part funded or not at all, but either way managing somehow to do a PhD. What a privilege! Organising your time exactly as you please, exploring an intellectual field that fascinates you, surrounded by like-minded people and having your horizons broadened every day. So why is … Continue reading