PhD Diaries: an archive of accounts of their experience by doctoral students, supervisors and examiners

PhD diaries database search

The database consists of details and full documents (in PDF format, shown as ) of the case studies. Some selected examples are shown below:

Introduction

• Prof John Wakeford
• Case studies
• Our thanks

Prof John Wakeford

Prof John Wakeford (University of Lancaster) was the first to organise professional development events for the benefit of academic staff who are responsible for the supervision of postgraduate research students. John has been involved in this field for more than 20 years, designing workshops for universities across the UK and advising academic staff and PhD students on ways of tackling a wide range of challenges and difficulties. One outcome of this work is a unique collection of case studies principally from UK universities, revealing the challenges faced by doctoral students, supervisors, examiners and others contributing to the doctoral process.

Case studies

Since 2005 John has been working with the UCL Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) and the UCL Graduate School to provide support to PhD Supervisors at UCL. John generously offered to donate his collection of case studies to UCL to make it available as an online resource. The searchable database above is the result of this collaboration.

All these diaries are genuine, first-hand accounts and perspectives written by participants in the process, elucidating their own experience often while seeking advice on problems they have confronted. Many have welcomed the opportunity to recount and share their experience, particularly if it might be used to help others in the future. The text has been approved by the participants themselves. Only the names of participants and institutions have been changed.

We propose to use this resource in a number of ways including the following:

• As a readily available resource to all higher education institutions
• For use in supervisory workshops in UCL and elsewhere
• As a resource for PhD supervisors, graduate tutors
• As a resource for students. Some case studies may be helpful to those who are thinking of doing research leading to a PhD but are not sure what this entails. Students who are currently engaged in PhD research and experiencing some specific difficulties may find reading about similar cases useful since it is often easier to reflect on someone else’s problems than on one’s own. Stories can be a powerful learning tool…

Our thanks

John and I are very grateful to Prof David Muller, Graduate Tutor in the Institute of Child Health at UCL, to Ms Man Yang (CALT) and to Dan Stowell who is currently doing a PhD at Queen Mary UoL; without their expertise and hard work, this database would not exist.

Su Bryant
Director of the UCL Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT)

This page last modified 4 May, 2011 by CALT Web Support

Database administration (authorised staff only)