Student life

In a moment of optimism several months ago, I signed up to lobby with the Harvard Democrats at the Massachusetts State House. I was reminded of my decision a couple of days before the event by an email detailing my shifts and the bills I had to lobby on behalf of.

On a recent trip to Dublin I decided to visit some of the universities in the city to speak to students about why they chose to study there. 

The students were only too happy to list the things they loved about studying in the city, from the vibrant social life, to the friendliness of the locals, to the ease with which they could explore the rest of Ireland and Europe.

If Bridget Jones were writing this PhD diary, she might begin a review of her first term with an inventory like this:

“Supervisions – six; books read – 37; words written – 25,764 (hurrah!); free glasses of wine drunk – 142 (gah!); hours lost being lazy or procrastinating – oh thousands.”

I didn’t keep track of my first term with such precision but I have been thinking about what went well and not so well in 2017.

A specially trained team of students will take part in a project at the University of Huddersfield to help tackle hate crime at campuses throughout the country. 

The goal of the project is to tackle the barriers that might hinder the reporting of crimes or incidents motivated by factors such as race, gender or disability. 

Stepping into the unknown, I decided to attend a new college known as Ada, National College for Digital Skills. I was fascinated by the fact that the college specialised in digital skills and it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made.

I am surrounded by a dynamic community of digital thinkers who have similar interests and values.

In theory, the path to a PhD in the arts is simple: study hard as an undergraduate, find a topic that interests you and put together a proposal. When your thesis topic is the “depictions of mental health in decadent literature” or “just images in French new wave cinema”, the path, although strenuous, is neatly set out. If you work hard, the steps are clear and the work you do will be considered fulfilling and worthwhile.

However, there are ways to complicate this.

Durham University is the top university for on-campus wi-fi, according to data compiled by StudentCrowd. 

The online review community asked students to rate their universities on a number of criteria including campus facilities, students’ unions and wi-fi. 

The data were based on 7,348 student reviews, giving Durham an average score of 4.5 out of five for wi-fi. 

Whether you love it or hate it, Christmas is nearly upon us and universities around the world have been embracing the festive season with open arms. 

From setting up Christmas trees and decorations, organising seasonal events and capturing beautiful snowy campuses, universities are sharing the Christmas joy across social media. 

Here at Times Higher Education Student, we have scrolled through Instagram and picked some of the most festive posts to help you get into the Christmas spirit.

One of the pleasures of doing a PhD is that from time to time you can clock off early, abandon the library and do something else without anyone’s permission. For me, that mostly involves heading to the cinema.

My most recent trip was to see the superb Call Me by Your Name, the story of an intense but tender relationship that develops between two young men over a single summer in the early 1980s.

Going to university should not be limited because you have a disability, and I would like to believe that this is the case for everyone. Many factors need to be taken into account when choosing which university to study at. It is always worth considering every aspect of university life, such as campus size, commute and timetabling, and not allowing your disability to be the only deciding factor.