In this category you can find reflections, tips and advice for any stage of your PhD from First Year Annual Reviews to Online Recruitment, Tutoring and Vivas. You can also find how to join exciting PGR reps initiatives, staying connected with the PGR community.
Promoting an online survey can be very time consuming and, if we are being honest, also a bit overwhelming at times. Especially if it’s not done in a targeted way! In the first part of this blog series, I wanted to highlight how important it is to plan everything carefully …
It has been a while since my last blog post on ‘Demystifying the Viva’, so I am glad that I finally got the chance to write down this interview with Dr. Temitayo Odewusi, former PhD student in Nursing Studies. If you haven’t yet read my previous blog posts on Viva …
Last year was one of the most challenging years for not only our school, but the whole world. The COVID-19 pandemic not only changed the way we perceive interpersonal communication, but it highlighted how student and academic communities can interact with each other whilst social distancing. As this year’s PGR …
Not long ago, an email was circulated to all PhD students in our School introducing Dr. Sheila Rodgers as the School’s Postgraduate Research (PGR) director. Being a student in the School for some years now, I know that the PGR director deals with matters related to PGR students. But I wasn’t clued up about its roles and responsibilities and what these entail for PhD students. Apparently, the Research Bow’s team was in the same boat. We discussed what kind of situations PhD …
Recruiting participants is a challenge for many psychosocial research projects, especially at a graduate level, where resources are scarce and project timelines are tight. Having just completed my online survey recruitment, I feel the urge to pass on my recently acquired knowledge on this topic. I do not claim I …
Annual reviews are deemed important points of progression during the PhD journey. In addition to being a progression review, the annual review helps to support students to successfully continue and complete their PhD journey. For first–year PhD students, annual reviews may be considered one of the most important points in their year, more so than subsequent annual …
When I started my PhD in 2018, two more experienced students (who are now Dr Somia Imran and Dr Temitayo Odewusi) organized a brilliant workshop on Viva preparation. It was my first year, but I was curious how the process of finishing three to four years of work would look …
I once heard a story about a PhD student who had been to a war zone, telling other PhD students that she was more scared of her Viva at the end of her PhD than she was of being exposed to war. This is a story that stayed with …
A PGR rep “Poster of the Week” Initiative Have you ever used your poster more than once or twice? Where do pre-loved posters end up? Is there a dusty corner with a pile of old posters somewhere in everyone’s office? Postgraduate research students very often find themselves in a “between …
Early in 2019 we discovered the writing of physician and counsellor Paul Tournier (1898-1986), and his approach within medicine that considers the whole person, including psychological, social and spiritual aspects. Delving further into his work, we discovered the International Association for the Medicine of the Person (Médecine de la Personne: …
