ICMS/EMS Postgraduate Courses
February - May 2002
How to get a PhD
Jack CarrMathematics Department, Heriot-Watt University , Edinburgh
Students starting a PhD are successful holders of a well-earned undergraduate degree. However, for many new students, postgraduate research is a very unstructured environment. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what it is you're supposed to be learning. Yes, you have to write a thesis, but how do you start? What should you spend your time doing?
On an undergraduate course, you worked to a plan and your work was divided into manageable chunks with set targets and deadlines. For a PhD there is only one exam and only a few formal progress reports. Research degrees, unlike undergraduate degrees are seldom failed. They are simply not completed.
The main adjustment that doctoral students must make is that they are responsible (in conjunction with their supervisor) for planning their studies. You must learn to manage your work effectively and to set your own goals.
This brief talk will outline some of the issues involved including
- Interacting with your supervisor
- Becoming part of the research community
- Producing your thesis
- Various aspects of the process:
motivation, enthusiasm, isolation, frustration, procrastination, euphoria.
The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore
should be helpful to those of you who actually get around to reading it.
Other useful books are How to get a PhD by Phillips and Pugh and The research student's guide to success by Cryer.
The following is taken from A Random Walk in Science, an anthology published by the Institute of Physics.
The researcher's prayer
Grant, oh God, thy benedictions
On my theory's predictions
Lest the facts, when verified
Show thy student to have lied.
May they make me a BSc,
PhD and then
A DSc and FRS, A Times Obit
Amen