Having just participated in the post-graduate Induction Week, I would like to share a few comments on this overwhelmingly positive experience.<\/p>\n
First of all, as an in-context student, I realised the importance of face to face contacts with my supervisors and the rest of the\u00a0academic community, or other tutors, administrators and fellow PhD students. I have known my supervisors – Richard and Julian – for a year now, having\u00a0completed\u00a0a couple of\u00a0DL courses with them last autumn and spring, but DL, web-based, email-supported and Skype-enhanced\u00a0connections\u00a0could never\u00a0fully replace the psychological, emotional and intellectual comfort of\u00a0meeting them in person. \u00a0<\/p>\n
During last academic year, I\u00a0also became familiar with other significant people in the School of Education through email, but, again,\u00a0meeting them in the concrete environments of their offices and daily activities created an additional connection, vital\u00a0for\u00a0all concerned parties.<\/p>\n
Another major practical advantage of taking part in the meetings and lectures during that initial PG Welcome Week was\u00a0an opportunity to work out how the PG support and training systems\u00a0function, what’s on offer and when, \u00a0and who takes care of what\u00a0– not just within the School of Education, but within the broader parameters of the Faculty of Humanities.<\/p>\n
Establishing contacts and ways of\u00a0maintaining regular communication lines with\u00a0fellow doctoral students, whether \u00a0full- or part-time, residential or in-context,\u00a0was also an important benefit of being at The University during those first few days.\u00a0 I only wish that the in-context “pioneers” – Achilleas, Magdalena and Paul – could have been there at the same time as well. Their cyber-support and encouragement were a great prelude to the real-life experience, though. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sharing experiences with other –\u00a0\u00a0former, current and\/or prospective – PhD students\u00a0is\u00a0always extremely reassuring as well as interesting, but\u00a0during the Welcome Week, it also became quite clear to me\u00a0that it is almost impossible to compare them adequately and accurately:\u00a0I discovered\u00a0that there is no universal\u00a0formula for the PhD\u00a0journey as each doctoral student moves along an individual route,\u00a0often through the uncharted waters (or, in my case, unmapped and unexplored desert sands…) of idiosyncratic research needs and requirements.\u00a0\u00a0My supervisors discussed those with me at length and although I am\u00a0now only at the very beginning of my work, I feel that meeting them was\u00a0absolutely crucial in establishing the foundations for\u00a0a sustainable (and\u00a0possibly quite\u00a0idiosyncratic!) modus operandi that could\u00a0work for me\/them\/us on a long-term basis. \u00a0<\/p>\n
At the end of the week, I felt I had been listened to and offered a tailor-made approach to my research needs and interests. I also felt I could not have moved forward without the experience of\u00a0the introductory\u00a0consultations and encounters. Ultimately, I\u00a0came away from Manchester with a clear plan of action\u00a0for the next few months and a firm resolve to strengthen those fledgling academic connections through further\u00a0trips and meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On a slightly different note perhaps, here is another observation – I was truly impressed by the sheer vibrancy of The University of Manchester, teeming with thousands of students and hundreds of nationalities, and overflowing with creativity, energy and freedom to express individual passions and interests. It all seemed to spill over into the city, embracing it, engaging with the world.\u00a0Yes, fair enough, Oxford Road was<\/em> a little messy and noisy, but I didn’t mind it. Why am I going on about it? Because I am familiar with\u00a0a somewhat different, clean and quiet, glamorous and expensively built educational institution located\u00a0outside the main\u00a0city, where guards only allow authorised people in, where most people look alike, where tidiness and\u00a0tranquility hover close to sterility…\u00a0Of course, that, too, has its advantages, but the overall impression of Manchester was that of life as opposed to inertia. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Magda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having just participated in the post-graduate Induction Week, I would like to share a few comments on this overwhelmingly positive experience. First of all, as an in-context student, I realised the importance of face to face contacts with my supervisors and the rest of the\u00a0academic community, or other tutors, administrators and fellow PhD students. I have known my supervisors – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[455],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p865eh-fQ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}