fran harkness

Earlier this summer, noting that most PhD supervisors were OOO and therefore not distracting their doctoral students from important questions, we asked doctoral students from across the country an extremely important one: if your PhD were a dessert, what would it be, and why? If you've been to one of our University training days you'll know that it’s our favourite icebreaker to help students to introduce their research to each other but also to remind us all not to take academia so seriously...

We were chatting to a University doctoral school the other day about how the academic system accidentally teaches PhD students that there is only one type of researcher: the university academic. And it’s a shock when doubts creep in that you don’t want to take this path, or you might but also you could explore 15 other things (someone just tell me which!), or worst of all, are eaten with worry that you’re not “good enough” to be an academic. It’s a shock because no one has told you that...

Last year we started sharing stories from researchers describing their PhDs as everything from dark chocolate to cheesecake, mochi to tiramisu. They're a funny yet honest reminder that a PhD doesn't have to be taken quite so seriously. From the messages it's clear that our reminder is resonating with many of you. When you're knee-deep in a three year project it's easy to forget that a PhD is something you do, not who you are, and that there is plenty of life after submitting your thesis. So...