This week, resident blogger Emma shares her experiences as an international student whilst unpacking the new government's immigration plans, questioning particular restrictions for students, and musing on how this might impact international PhD researchers in the future...
Start off 2025 not with a resolution, but with a blog post that has the potential to change how you think about yourself and the place of other people's advice in your life.
A PhD can be a time of immense emotional as well as intellectual change. This week's bonus post is about taking the time to fully process how you feel even when it seems easier to postpone these aspects of life until the thesis is out of the way. This is the first of a two-part series about emotion in the PhD by resident blogger Ebba, the second one about heartbreak coming out on 26 December.
This week, resident blogger Ebba writes about an often hidden struggle: the management of menstruation and PMS during the PhD. The reader is advised that the post deals with depression symptoms, pain, and blood.
In this week's blog, Adam Nasser Benmakhlouf and Marta Duran Arranz reflect on the SGSAH workshop, Speak and Be Heard. They talk about the practicalities of organising the workshop, the emotional experience of attending, and the importance of having a so-called Good Voice.
In this week’s blog, resident blogger Beth shares her tips on how to maintain a work/life balance during your PhD. Photo by Tim Gouw on Pexels.com Full disclosure, when this blog goes live I will be up a hill in the Lake District. An old friend is visiting the UK for a few days and … Continue reading Back to Basics: A Balancing Act, or How to Keep a Work/Life Balance During Your PhD
Doing a PhD inevitably means staying in university longer and not being able to rinse off the student-status. This can at times feel a bit awkward when friends and people around us seem to be in completely different life stages. They might be getting a dog and a mortgage, while you’re trying to convince a prospective landlord that you are technically a professional even if you’re officially a student. You’re neither fish nor fowl, navigating the grey area of work, bureaucracy, and life.
Every PhD journey is unique. In the coming and borrowed lines, I would like to share my experience with research trips and how flexibility and resilience have been key to adapting and developing this core part of my research plan.
You either have it or you know someone who does: Imposter syndrome. Spreading like a viral disease across campus and beyond, it may be the reason you become your own biggest enemy. It’s the internalised fear of being outed as a fraud at any moment and could, at worst, stunt your own growth. Let’s talk about it.
Doing a PhD can be hard sometimes. While undergraduate and taught postgraduate students have regular courses to attend, group assignments, clear milestones, and a cohort with whom they share many facets of their university experience, PhD students often find themselves rather isolated on their unique journeys. Thankfully there are blog posts with life hacks for every walk of life – like this one, specifically curated for the PhD experience.
SGSAH Blog 