The PhD experience: this far, and no further

Five students on how doctoral study changed them and their futures

Published on
August 14, 2014
Last updated
October 16, 2018
Holly Else
Read more about
Read more about: 
Academic careers
PhD, postgraduate and early career
Research

Register to continue

Why register?

  • Registration is free and only takes a moment
  • Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
  • Sign up for our newsletter
Please
or
to read this article.

Related articles

Reader's comments (4)

#1 Submitted by mork on August 14, 2014 - 4:18pm
Interesting article.
#2 Submitted by Jeremy Blank on August 15, 2014 - 3:42am
What was absent from this article was an experience from the Visual Arts or Creative Arts, sure English is there however the Elephant in the room 'the Creative PhD' now dictates & effectively directs academic structuring of disciplines such as Visual Art (in all its manifestations) which is very disturbing. In UK the merger of Art Schools within Uni sector or as Universities in their own right (UAL) are new phenomena. The imposition of such wholly bogus academic justification (the PhD) as the defining criteria for those who may teach within the creative arts is fundamentally flawed. What are being generated through research funded models of academic teaching & learning are now nothing more than good 'lab rats' able to comply with funding criteria, write proposals which may attract funding & create bland & vacuous outcomes. Sadly the cancer has now been adopted globally.
#3 Submitted by WendyBell on May 18, 2018 - 4:57pm
Thanks for the interesting article. I appreciate reading the stories. It would have been more balanced, however, to include women who completed their PhD.
#4 Submitted by NathPal on July 19, 2018 - 5:39pm
It is a good thing PhD students can talk about the bad side of research life. I'm a computational PhD student at Birmingham and it has been a lonely and hard-working ordeal. I am surrounded by experimentalists and lack support from my supervisor. If I'd have known it would be this emotionally draining, I wouldn't have done it. There have been some positives in terms of me gaining research skills. I hope it will help me in getting into the real world of industry but I'm not sure. I'm at the point where I'm too far in to quit, can't wait to get it done with and move on out of academia.

Sponsored

Featured jobs

See all jobs
ADVERTISEMENT