Tuesday 28th June, Streatham Campus & Wednesday 29th June, Penryn Campus
This year marked the first Doctoral College Summer Social events, which were held at the Streatham and Penryn campuses. These events were themed on networking and communication within research. We were very lucky to have guest speaker, Donna Peach, founder of @PhDForum, to come and give talks about her experiences as a PhD student, and how being part of an online community has helped and supported her throughout her studies.
Donna is a lecturer at the University of Salford, and currently nearing the completion of her PhD in Psychology at the University of Huddersfield. She started her PhD in 2013, where she noticed there was the need for a support network for students. As an undergraduate, Donna was part of a Facebook group that offered advice and support in times of need; this offered inspiration to set-up something similar for PhD students and researchers. Due to the nature of research work, finding a similar support network can prove difficult and students can sometimes feel isolated. Whilst there were group chats and Facebook groups, there wasn’t something that gave the same support Donna had experienced as an undergraduate. A lecturer suggested to Donna that she use social media, (Twitter in particular), to reach out to others in a similar situation. After starting Twitter on a personal account, she wanted a more anonymous feed that anyone could contribute to. Four years and over 30,000 followers later, she has created @PhDForum, a thriving network helping people from around the world and from many different disciplines get in touch with each other. It is a place to discuss and get advice on struggles and problems encountered throughout your PhD and beyond, as well as a place to congratulate and celebrate achievements and milestones of all users.
Following Donna’s talk, there was the opportunity to ask her questions about anything! Four lucky winners, received signed PhD Comic books by Jorge Cham (speaker at the November welcome event). This was followed by cream tea and a chance to network with fellow students and researchers. Donna joined us here again, and really put her academic match-making skills into practice to help some of our students from very different disciplines engage with each other and talk about how their research could help each other.
The Penryn event was a slightly smaller and more interactive event, with Donna again, offering fantastic advice and helping students from various disciplines connect with each other over tea and scones and start the debate over whether it is Jam then Cream or Cream then Jam.
We would like to give massive thanks to Donna for giving inspiring, engaging and entertaining talks on both campuses and who provides continuous support to those on @PhDForum. We hope this event has encouraged you to reach out to fellow researchers, whether it be within the University, or through networking on social media. If you aren’t yet a follower of the PhD Forum, we highly recommend you get involved – there is so much invaluable help and advice available, from useful resources and software, to inspiration when you’re feeling a bit stuck!
Thank you to all those that attended. We hope to be able to hold annual events for the Doctoral College and welcome input from students and researchers, so if you have any ideas and suggestions for future events, please do get in touch with us.
All photo credit in this post must go to: Theo Moye.