First year in review
A bit of a summary of how the first year of my PhD has gone.

You may have noticed a slight gap in the blog, this was due to the fact I was taking some time off over August so didn’t manage to finish the post in time, and rather than rush, I felt it could be a good example of work life balance. Also, this post works better this month anyway.


Given I made this blog to share about my research and life as PhD student, I thought it would be a good time to do a post about how my first year has gone. Technically it will have been a year at the start of October, but I think doing this post now instead works better with where I am up to with my research.


So, it has been a busy year overall between academic work and extracurricular activities such as being in the student’s union, or being the captain of a fencing team, but for this we will focus on the academic side of things.


The year started off a bit bumpy with a supervisor finding out they would be leaving the university a week before I was supposed to start, and then the replacement also leaving a week after agreeing to supervise. However, I am pleased to say that since December I have had three fantastic supervisors who I have really been enjoying working with. They cover various areas of knowledge such as supporting students with disabilities, technology in education and how we can build better software for society. I think it is definitely fair to say that my most important support has been my supervisors and their enthusiasm and confidence which has helped keep me motivated and driven, even when things have felt like they are stuck.


Something that I think can be hard to adjust to as a PhD student is how you see your supervisors. It is very easy to get used to the dynamic in undergrad where the academics are teachers or advisors primarily, whereas when you become a PhD student, they are closer to colleagues. Still not quite exactly equal, but it is more down to experience rather than a set dynamic. Such as when I have supervision meetings it is less about checking my work and saying something is right or wrong, and more a focus on brainstorming about the research and next steps and how to get the most out of the approach I am taking. I think this has definitely helped me become more confident in myself and my own ideas.


Now that I have talked about supervisors, lets talk about the exciting topic for research students, publications! I am proud to say I currently have……... zero.
Rather anti-climactic I know, and some people might wonder why as some PhD students often do have some work published by the end of their first year. However, trying to compare two PhD’s is often a very difficult task. Timelines for publications can be heavily influenced by the area and topic of research. Some areas have a lot of high-quality existing work which makes it more likely to be able to start writing almost straight away in your research. Some areas however (such as my own) are a bit more tricky to navigate and can take a bit longer to get to the writing stage. Neither experience is more valid than the other however, they are just different approaches. For example, while I haven’t published anything by the end of my first year, I am actively working on four different projects which should hopefully become publications in the first half of my second year roughly. These projects that I am working on are an interview study with teachers, a doctoral consortium submission about my research, a survey study of university students and a systematic literature review around support for and research of students with ADHD. So hopefully I will be able to share a bit more about these projects as they progress, and I will be able to talk about the process of submitting to conferences.


The other major aspect of my year has been the teaching that I do. In my case the teaching is a requirement of the funding agreement I have with my department, though it is something I had wanted to do regardless and actually started doing in my undergraduate degree. I have absolutely loved teaching in labs and workshops this year. It has been a great experience for building my confidence in my subject knowledge and working with a variety of people and students. I have taught on a mix of modules and topics from professional practice to web interface design. The most interesting part of this however is often not the content, and instead, seeing the different approaches students will take, and how no matter how well I think I know the content, there will always be someone who has done something creative and unexpected. Teaching is something I have always enjoyed, as seeing someone progress is such a wonderful experience, especially when you have a hand in it and can see their confidence building.


As mentioned in the previous paragraph, I am a funded PhD student, though this wasn’t the case at the start. Due to my research being my own idea and not an area the department had funding for, I was expecting to be reliant on student loans and income from teaching and other activities, pretty much up until I started. This was quite a daunting idea as PhD is a full-time job on its own, and the idea of being reliant on doing a lot of stuff extra on top of that due to limited student loans, made me worry I wouldn’t succeed. However, I was lucky in the sense that I had been communicating with my department frequently up until I arrived, as they tried to help me find my own funding or secure something in the university, and thankfully we did manage to get some. As part of the department increasing the intake of undergrad students, they had a need for PhD students to help with running sessions, and as a result after a lot of back and forth, managed to secure some studentships from the university to fund PhD students and provide them with income. This was a huge relief, and has made what is already a difficult journey, just a little bit easier.


While teaching during term time has been fantastic, it did mean I had a bit more time on my hands over summer, something I decided to rectify by doing some extra work in the department. This involved looking into ways the department could improve support for staff and students from diverse backgrounds. This has been a very interesting opportunity, especially as it has allowed me to work with different members of staff, and look at things from a new perspective with the consideration of staff and students. I think this has been very important for my development as it has allowed me to get a better understanding of what it is like to be a member of staff in the department and the reality of working in academia being more than just teaching or research.


The most difficult thing this year however has been balancing my time, and not exactly because I have a lot on. The worst time of year for me for managing my time, is not when I am busy and have a lot to deal with, it is when I don’t have anything scheduled. The most jarring transition for me from my taught degree to doing research, is that you often have complete control over your time and what you work on, which when your brain works like mine can be a nightmare. I have dealt with it by trying to schedule my time more and what I work on, so even if I have no meetings or teaching to structure my day, I have a self-imposed structure of what to work on. I genuinely think this is one of the most useful skills I have learned this year, as it is easy for a day to slip away when there are no events to work around and keep in mind to be on time for. So, while I am glad to have developed this skill, it is also safe to say I am looking forward to term starting again in a couple of weeks so I can have societies back on and teaching to do again to help bring some extra structure to my weeks.


Overall, I think it has been a good first year. I have definitely had my fair share of bumps in the road, but I have also had a fantastic group of people around me for support, as well as my family at home. So, I am excited for all the new opportunities that will come with second year, and seeing what challenges come with them, and hopefully passing my confirmation panel and being one step closer to those extra letters after my name.