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Top Tips for (UK) PhD Students
Last week I gave a talk at the 6th Postgraduate conference in Bioethics supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Institute of Medical Ethics, and PEALS at Newcastle University. The conference consisted of 4 ‘keynote’ talks by established academics (who then held masterclasses), a good number of postgraduate presentations spread across 7 or so panels and a couple of ‘added value’ sessions. I was one of these latter presenters and I attempted to give a bunch of ‘top tips’ of things to do whilst studying for a PhD in the UK. Hopefully at least some of these translate across national and subject/ discipline boundaries. My talk was aimed at UK students studying for a PhD in ‘bioethics’ and I have reproduced the main points below:
1. Visit a Library to Do Some Intensive Research:
In my actual talk I mostly focused on the resources of the Wellcome Trust Library and pointed out some useful features of the surrounding area (the UCL SU cafe, directly behind the Wellcome Collection, and excellent for cheap coffee and lunch; the excellent second hand/ cheap academic book store Judd Books; and the Bloomsbury Waterstones). However if you get a chance to spend some time, even a few days or a week, at a different library during your PhD it is worth doing. I twice spent dedicated time in the Wellcome Library and the Royal Society of Medicine Library. I also spent a few days in Georgetown’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics bioethics research library in my first year. With all the research resources the internet provides for modern academic research it may not be that you will find anything new but it is definitely worth hiding away for an intensive period of focused reading, writing and ‘research’. One thing I forgot to mention during my actual talk is that institutions (often American institutions) offer unpaid visiting research fellowships to PhD students. It seems to me that there is not a strong tradition of UK PhD students doing this, or knowing about the possibility. However it seems to be a common thing across Europe and worth checking out. If you can plan a trip properly you home university may offer travel scholarships and other forms of support.
Organ Donation: Now there is an App for that!
A mere week after I blogged about the potential for social media to encourage people to register their views about organ donation facebook and the UK/USA blood and organ donation services team up to do exactly this! What they have produced is not exactly an ‘app’ but a Facebook page (UK version, USA version) for each service facilitating individuals in signing up to their countries’ donation register. In the new timeline profiles you can also make registering to donate a ‘life event’ under the health and well being tab (Facebook help page).
(Incidentally other health and wellbeing life events formally recognized by Facebook include: overcoming, but not contracting, an illness; quitting a presumably negative habit (smoking, drugs, alcohol) although not taking up a positive one (running, seeing a psychoanalyst); losing, but not gaining, weight; a change eating habits - presumably from omnivorous to vegetarian or vegan; getting glasses or contacts; and breaking bones. A somewhat strange list).
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