Fab Fest - Facts Facts Facts... and a new Friend
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| On Campus |
✅Alcohol free
✅New friend
Apparently it is a government requirement that students starting the PhD journey experience an information dump over their heads. My university does similar inductions at other times too. When I attempted the MRES the first time I was working on a temp contract in a new school so had to take a day's Leave Without Pay (LWOP) to attend this dunking ceremony. In my feedback at the end of the day I noted (putting it mildly) that I had to give up a day's pay to listen to information conveyed verbally which I could have easily and quickly digested in a written form in my own time. I can't have been alone in this complaint because they have now reduced the information delivery to just a few hours instead of a whole day and made it a compulsory online viewing of videos where completion is checked on certain benchmark dates. It seems even Higher Degree Research students can't be trusted to do their homework.
Putting that gripe aside, it is important information, including:
- An address from the relevant Dean covering the administrative aspects of the course
- What the research journey looks like
- Possibility to do an exchange referred to as a 'Cotutelle'
- A student's perspective of the journey
- Research training available at the university
- Career related training at the university
- Library services
- Wellbeing services
- The mentor program
- Ethics
- The thesis examination process
The best aspect of the formal part of the day was hearing the perspectives of recent graduates (example above). A common thread was their love of PHD Comics (example below). I also love the @LegoGradStudent on Instagram. If I was the one at the podium I would mention the blog posts of some PhD experts such as The Thesis Whisperer and patter.
The best aspect of the day was the informal aspects. I met E briefly at a faculty lunch last week. On this occasion we talked for over an hour and really connected. There is quite a difference in age between us but we are so incredibly similar in our interests, our abilities and our perfectionism. E has a heart for school students who have chronic illnesses and thus wants to research how teachers and schools can improve the management of students in these circumstances.
The final benefit of turning up to the fact festival was properly meeting my favourite librarian face-to-face. She originally came to my attention when she presented at one of these information days last year and then we interacted a little via Twitter and email. Now we also have a formal appointment next week so she can help me with creating search parameters in academic databases for a structured literature review. Librarians rock!
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