{"id":57,"date":"2017-07-11T10:18:41","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T09:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/?p=57"},"modified":"2017-07-11T10:18:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T09:18:41","slug":"professor-julie-sanders-explains-why-doing-a-phd-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/2017\/07\/11\/professor-julie-sanders-explains-why-doing-a-phd-in-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Julie Sanders explains ‘why doing a PhD in 2017’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The present of Academia and the academics of the future.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Julie Sanders explains \u2018why doing a PhD in 2017?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

At the RoF conference last 16th<\/sup>\u00a0March, we realised how valuable the skills we acquire during our PhD are in the most diverse career paths. We now have more options in mind, face a broader horizon, but are still unsure. So, we may now wonder, \u2018what is there for me after the Viva?\u2019 We met with Professor Julie Sanders, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, to ask her how we should look at the future and make what she calls \u201can informed choice\u201d. Key words are:\u00a0openness<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0interdisciplinarity<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0opportunity<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We as students need to understand that the world is changing, and with it the job market too. New global skills are required, we\u2019re in the digital era, we need to be flexible and to adapt. In the future we will have not just one but many and multiple careers, and need to be prepared for that and try not to \u2018limit\u2019 ourselves. We need to understand that the PhD needs to be a full experience, it is not just feeling the pressure of needing to be at our desk all day long focusing on our own work, but \u201cactually, it\u2019s looking at posters, it\u2019s going online, it\u2019s going along to things. You need to make sure that for all that stress you don\u2019t narrow down your options.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

And listen carefully: this does not only apply to students who wish to develop various skills and use the PhD \u201cas a springboard for other kinds of careers\u201d, but also to those aiming for a job in Academia. \u201cAcademics will need to have much more stretch and openness than in the past, certainly we\u2019ll need to work in teams<\/em><\/strong>\u201d, learn to adjust and \u2018be open\u2019 to the different institutions and discourses. So, do not assume that because you want to be in Academia you only have to engage with what looks like the pure academic stuff. The world is in transition, and \u201cacademics need to transition too.\u201d Interestingly, the Research Councils are in fact beginning to encourage students to pursue work placements and cross-disciplinary activities, for instance. As Prof. Sanders says: \u201cWe need a little bit of that more\u00a0diversity\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>into the actual Doctoral experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we compare the UK system to that of the US, for instance, we see that timing here is very tight. Students should perhaps be given more time to \u2018explore\u2019 and should more easily find opportunities for cross-disciplinary encounter. The HaSS faculty itself is so \u201cdiverse\u201d, ranging from Creative Practice to Business, from \u2018traditional\u2019 Humanities to STEM subjects such as Physical Geography. Students should be able to take real advantage of that and be \u2018exposed\u2019 to interdisciplinarity, by for example gaining digital literacy and understanding statistics, to be able to more easily navigate in today\u2019s changing world. This means shifting mind-set, realising that we should not just concentrate on our specialism but fully engage in the transition. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not a crisis, it\u2019s an opportunity<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u201d And, mindful that \u201cthings change\u201d, we need to seize it.<\/p>\n

Sometimes PhDs tend to assume that they master their narrow discipline and know who they are, what they want. Here is what Prof. Sanders does not agree with: \u201cyou might go to a seminar given by somebody from another discipline, or you might do a work placement or you might do something around impact that completely blows your mind and you just didn\u2019t know it was there. We need to keep enough light in there, in the Doctoral experience, to help it be an informed choice.\u00a0You don\u2019t know what you\u2019ll be surprised by<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this is exactly why doing a PhD in 2017: it\u2019s for the opportunities, whatever your plans are and whatever career path you\u2019ll take. \u201cBecause of the massification of HE, the undergraduate degree is far more common and so some of the defining things become the next qualifications. These are also the spaces where we can start to build global competencies\u201d, says Prof. Sanders. \u201cThe PhD is actually brilliant\u201d because, if done well, following the right training, exploiting the right opportunities, it teaches us to work independently and collaboratively, to manage our own time, to manage projects. Thus, it prepares us for this time of \u2018transition\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The present of Academia and the academics of the future. Professor Julie Sanders explains \u2018why doing a PhD in 2017?\u2019 At the RoF conference last 16th\u00a0March, we realised how valuable the skills we acquire during our PhD are in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6877,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/researchingourfutures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}