DWLresearch

In July the thesis forum welcomed two speakers who shared their experience of the PhD with us.   Dr Georgios Patsiaouras (Management) Georgios completed his PhD at Leicester in June 2010 and returned as a Lecturer in September 2011. He emphasised that his discussion of the PhD process was very much his unique experience. It was refreshing to hear a frank account of the ups and downs of completing a PhD. He felt that researchers should regard the four years of the PhD as the training required to become an academic. Georgios juggled teaching, marking, invigilating and publishing three papers during his PhD candidature When Georgios began to write up his PhD he came up with a strict formula for achieving a consistent  output. Over 7 months he aimed to write 350 words a day, no more or no less. After successfully working to this model, he was left with three months to make revisions and edits and getting the thesis completely ready for submission. He strongly advocated a ...

Are you a postgraduate student interested in the commercial development of cutting-edge new technologies? Maybe you are interested in learning new business skills to improve your employability? Or perhaps you have an idea of your own as a commercial proposition? A number of internship opportunities currently exist for postgraduates to work within Enterprise and Business Development to assist with the commercialisation of new technologies emerging from the University's research base. Training will be provided in the following areas: HEIF and Knowledge Exchange within the context of Universities Assessing new Technology Disclosures Intellectual Property Rights Market and Competitor Analysis Market Intelligence Resources The Process of Commercialisation Finance and Investment The training is expected to begin mid September 2012 - exact date to be confirmed. Bursaries of up to £2,000 are available. Duration of the Fellowship is 6 months and will be structured to fit aro...

PhD researchers Emma Comber (Chemistry) and Sarah Bugby (Physics & Astronomy) are behind a new initiative to launch a student-led research magazine. Over to Emma & Sarah... "Frontier is an exciting new student-led University publication focusing on research being undertaken at the University of Leicester by students. This magazine will be student-led and we need as many contributors as possible to make it a success – could that be you? Frontier will be a high quality magazine, freely distributed throughout the University, presenting your research in an accessible and entertaining way. We’re hoping to make Frontier something that the whole University can be proud of.  We need people for the following roles: ·          College representatives – we are looking for someone from each college to collate work from all its departments, approve it for publication and make sure that their disciplines are being fairl...

Our speakers at the July thesis forum will be Dr Shujaul M. Khan (Biology) and Dr Georgios Patsiaouras (Management). Shujaul passed his viva in May so he will be able to provide a very recent account of the PhD process. Georgios completed his PhD at Leicester in June 2010 and returned as a Lecturer in September 2011. There will also be plenty of time for group discussion and informal chat. Hope to see you next Tuesday!

This week a number of postgraduates from Leicester were involved in focus groups for two new websites aimed at researchers. Both sites are the result of co-operative work between SCORE , The Open University, University of Leicester, University of Nottingham, Mimas and HEFCE . The focus groups were part of the second phase of evaluation for the websites. Ready to Research draws together some of the best open educational resources on the internet to help you develop the research skills you need. Digital Scholarship has been created to help develop the skills you need to successfully study in the digital environment.  Both sites will be officially launched on July 11th, but you can take an early look by using the links above. If you visit the sites, please take a few moments to complete the survey on the homepage. This will help the SCORE team understand who is visiting the site and allow them to take on board any suggestions you might have. Thanks to all focus group par...

Dr Christiana Tsaousi (School of Management) was our second speaker at the June thesis forum. She completed her PhD at Leicester in 2010 and recently returned to take up a position as Lecturer in Marketing and Consumption. She reflected on her experience of completing a PhD and preparing for the viva. She described the difficulty of working in a new area of study but emphasised how important it was to talk to her supervisors throughout the process. She found that meeting them and discussing data left her feeling confident and with a renewed energy and purpose. Frequent deadlines worked well in keeping the thesis on track and regular feedback helped to chart progress. Unlike our other speaker , Christiana didn't use any manuals or guides during her PhD. She said that help books can be useful but it is still down to you to produce the dissertation. Her own dissertation only had real structure a few months before submission. Remember that every PhD is unique! It might be that yours ...

Ashley Dodsworth (3rd year, Politics) was the first speaker at our June thesis forum. Ashley gave an honest talk about the doctoral experience so far and her plans for her final year. She had plenty of useful advice for those just starting out. She advised finding out what conventions your department and the University expect you to adhere to (formatting, style) and stick to these from the start. Doing lots of preparation in the early stages will save time later on. Compile a list of common abbreviations and spellings to ensure you remain consistent throughout your thesis. Ashley advised first year students to make the most of opportunities early on in their candidature and then aim to reduce their activity, whether teaching or attending conferences, in the final year. A key piece of advice for the writing process was giving yourself permission to write badly! Your work will be re-drafted and edited a number of times, so don't worry that you need to get it perfect first time. B...