FERSA University of Cambridge Blog
Faculty of Education Research Students' Association
Disclaimer: Most of this information will be specifically for PhDs in Education, Psychology, and Mental Health Sciences, as that is our only reference point. How does one begin the process of PhD applications? From trying to decide on the perfect programme to writing research proposals, the process can seem overwhelming, before even starting. During the Summer…
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Welcome to part three of our Multi-Study PhD blog series. This blog is a follow-up from parts one and two where we introduced the concept of multi-study theses and answered several FAQs. In this blog, we spotlight five students who completed their theses at the Faculty in the last three years and used a multi-study…
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This blog is a follow-up from part one where we introduced the concept of multi-study theses, as an exciting and relevant approach to doctoral studies at the Faculty of Education.
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I wasn’t ‘officially’ (whatever that means) diagnosed with the specific learning difficulty of dyslexia until my first year of undergraduate study. The institution screened everyone on admission and to be honest, it wasn’t a big surprise to me when I found out I was. I’d always struggled to spell; my reading speed was bleak, and…
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The PhD journey is also not always fair or objective.Some people have money, some people have creativity, some have great social support, some have romance, some have their family around, some have familiarity with British society, some don’t look like outsiders, some never have problems with their supervisors, some have charisma, some have native English, some have peace, and some have good health.It is not fair, but everyone has something valuable.
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I’m a Cambridge graduate, a scholar, well into my second post-doc year, and I manage anxiety and depression. I’ve managed it all my life, even long before people talked about it, or understood what it was. And yes, I managed it whilst completing a stressful academic programme at one of the top universities in the world.
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Walking yourself to physical and mental health has become a thing, but like the Knight in Alice in Wonderland, I claim: “It’s my own invention!” At least when it comes to walking supervisions. Some of my former students, as far back as seven-eight years, may remember moments when, after a long and frustrating session in my hot, dark office I suggested going for a walk.
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As my country, the United Arab Emirates, celebrates its second-ever Emirati Women’s Day (August 28 2018), I wanted to share some personal reflections about being a single mother navigating the PhD experience here at Cambridge.
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If you go around asking people in academia for things that would make students write higher quality PhDs, I doubt many people’s first answer would be a furry friend. I doubt it would even be present on most people’s list. I may be a bit biased (ok, I’m totally biased), but I’m here to say that it should be! Here are five reasons why pets are an excellent way to give your PhD a boost. Disclaimer – this post might just be an excuse to look at cute pictures of furry PhD assistants (but it’s still all true).
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I am Lina and I like pictures. If asked to introduce myself to a group of academics, I would say: “I am Lina and for my PhD thesis I explored how children engage with wordless picture books.” Given my love for visual stories and my PhD topic, I hereby succumb to a temptation I always had in mind: to summarise my entire PhD life in 8 pictures. A complete thesis for the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge is equivalent to approximately 80000 words. Based on the famous saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, for the sake of this blog post, let’s equip images with even more power and try to visualise a four-year PhD experience.
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FERSA University of Cambridge Blog 