Category: Blog

Crossing the halfway mark of your Master’s degree can be both an exciting and daunting prospect, not least because the inevitable questions of ‘what next?’ begin to rear their head. It can seem as though you’ve only just arrived in one place before you have to start thinking about the next step. The short duration…

Embarking on a Masters can be a daunting process, regardless of whether you’ve just graduated or are pursuing a degree later in life. You may be venturing to a brand new city on your own with little idea of what the next year or two has in store. The idea of starting afresh and meeting…

I haven’t written a blog before, but this past summer I took part in a research cruise around the Arabian Peninsula, so I feel I really should give this a try. So here goes… The research cruise was entitled AQABA (Air Quality and Climate Change in the Arabian Basin) which examined the impact of air…

Overseas fieldwork at Masters level can be enduring enough, particularly in unfamiliar environments and unrecognised cultures. Incorporate the necessity for a translator and this can amplify fieldwork challenges. However, manage and utilise your translator appropriately and you can produce a quality piece of research whilst enjoying the experience of conducting overseas fieldwork, remember not a…

Final year at university. Dissertation deadlines looming. Graduation fast approaching. Fellow course mates applying for jobs, attending interviews, and preparing to embark on life in the so-called ‘real world’. But what about those interested in staying in academia? What does a Masters entail? Why should you embark on a Masters in the first place? This…

In the middle of Mental Health Awareness Week, we were reminded of a recent paper on mental health of PhD students. Some of our earlier blogs spoke about how messy PhDs tend to be, how long the thesis can drag along, and how life revolves around coffee and editing. But how does this survival affect our mental state? Time for an anonymous PhD…

We all know that geography matters. Geography also matters when it comes to deciding where you want to study a PhD. There are huge national variations in expectations concerning what it means to be a PhD student. In light of this, we wanted to give some advice for those considering applying for PhDs beyond the…

This week’s blog is based on the all-important topic of applying for PhD funding. We took your questions to Professor Peter Hopkins who currently works at Newcastle University and has plentiful experience of both applying and judging applications for funding. From this interview, Beth and Wilbert have created a summary of helpful things to note…

Many funding bodies for PhD students (including the ESRC) offer students the opportunity to take an ‘overseas institutional visit’ (OIV) as part of their studies. Through this scheme, I have spent three months at a university in Ontario, Canada (fully paid for by the ESRC). In this blog, I outline exactly what an OIV entails,…

Greg Thomas, the PGF’s 2015/16 chairperson shares his experiences of completing the PhD ‘post-funding’. I am currently sat in Starbucks at Shrewsbury Railway Station writing this blog post, something that I promised Maddy back in September… That pretty much sums up my life at the moment, trying to be productive (or get away from the…