Couch to PhD

New year, new you.

I have never been naturally sporty but know that as I get older it will become increasingly important to be physically active.

Of course, I regularly walk the dog twice a day but apparently, although good for you, this is not enough to become and maintain physical fitness.  My friends tell me it's important to become breathless during physical exercise, at least three times a week.

I've been aware of this for some time but had done nothing about it. 

Last summer however, I was inspired by the #thisgirlcan campaign seeking to encourage women to take part in sport.  I think it was knowing you didn't need to look perfect (I don't) or be fit (I'm not) or always need to leave the house with hair and make-up done (you don't?).

I'd often fancied the idea of opening the front door and just running (think Forrest Gump).  So, I downloaded an app "Couch to 5K" and gradually was able to run further and further.

Now, I can run for 30 minutes without stopping, which I'm quite proud of.

I'm still a fair-weather runner and need little to dissuade me from going for a run.  It very often goes to the bottom of my priority list.  But when I'm actually running - the endorphins, the loud music, the adrenalin all add up to create a good feeling.

I do actually find myself wanting to go for a run, rather than thinking I should go for a run.  Which for me, is great progress.

I decided that running is actually a very good activity for a PhD student.  It gives me time to think, it clears my head and it releases all the stress and anxiety I have about my PhD.  I'm often bogged down in articles and books considering other people's theories and trying to come up with my own.

Can I come?

Doing a PhD is very much like running a marathon.  You're in it for the long haul, you can't see the finish line and you may look a bit of a wally throughout the process.  However, by the time you've finished you're changed into somebody better. 

So, the best advice is simple - just keep going.
#thisgirlcan

Size is Everything


It's probably fair to say that many people are consumed with size.  Society tells us some things are better if they are bigger: houses, cars, diamonds.  Other things are better smaller: waistlines, debts and gadgets.  There's plenty of debate from size zero to plus size and everything in between.

I'm 5'10" and love being tall.  My height is something I've always enjoyed and as my children get older I'm excited about the day either of them will be taller than me.  It hasn't happened yet!

Recently, the size of my PhD has begun to overwhelm me.  It's massive.  I don't recall being told, when I began this process, that the size of it would be one of the biggest challenges to overcome.  I'm sure they must have done.

Do you ever look back at photos of yourself and think, "I don't know what I was worried about back then"?  I thought I was fat/spotty/ugly.  I should have enjoyed and taken pride in my youth much more.  After all, now I have wrinkles to add to the list.

Similarly, I used to think writing an essay was hard; lots of articles to read, trying to summarise, making sense of arguments and adding criticism. Now I've got my PhD to write and wonder what I was worried about back then.  Knowing all the literature so well that my argument is clear and progresses logically makes my brain ache.


So what's the moral of the story? Stop being so hard on yourself.  We're all doing the best we can at the time.  Keep going and congratulate yourself on your progression.  Give yourself more positive messages.  We should work on encouraging ourselves as much as we do other people.  Challenges are good things because they push us to grow and become our best selves.  There's nothing wrong with looking at ourselves and saying, "I'm okay and I'm doing well".

No More Excuses


So now I've stopped teaching I find myself in the disconcerting position of having no excuses left for not getting on with work on my PhD.  Easter holidays over, husband at work, children at school.  It's just me, my Labrador and lots of empty pages.


"Are you really just going to read that book?"
Procrastination comes in many forms and it is so easy to find other things to do.  I always know how much I am putting off work when I am suddenly filled with a compulsive desire to make cakes, or worse, to clean the house.

We can make all the excuses we like, but to achieve something, there is nothing else for it, but to just get on with it. It's easy to become an expert in avoidance tactics.

Walking to clear the head or to avoid the empty page?
A PhD is all about independent learning and self-discipline.  As a result, in my experience, there are many temptations.  Often these may even come disguised as worthy, useful activities such as attending training courses, gaining teaching experiences, accepting public speaking invitations and networking.  More mundane distractions including repeatedly checking email, organising filing systems, going to the library, tidying the desk, answering the phone, err - writing a blog.  Each of these can be useful or important but any or all of them can be a time stealer. 

OBU Library - make your visit time-effective

Perhaps the online researcher has even more temptation than most as it's hard when you're using Facebook or Twitter for research, not to get pulled into your friend's latest post.

My husband has a sign over his desk at home that says, "do the work".  Simple as that.  Sometimes the most straight-forward phrases are the best. 

A blank page can be very scary but the only way to get over it, is to just get on with it.  After all, the satisfaction that comes from a completed piece of work is a fantastic feeling.  Perhaps I'll try focusing on that.  Methodology, here I come!

A Break From Teaching

I am about to take a break from teaching in order to concentrate on getting my PhD finished.  It wasn't an easy decision because I love my job as a Lecturer.

Recently I've been contemplating the experience I have gained in teaching and exactly what it means to be a good teacher.  I don't profess to have all the answers yet and I know I still have a great deal to learn but for my own benefit and in order that I don't forget what I've discovered so far I thought it would be wise to write myself a summary.  I'm sure you will have your own ideas about what good teaching means but for me I believe the following to be good principles:

1. It's really important to care about your students.  Knowing all my students names, a few things about them, even really small details, such as where they're from or remembering comments they've made about what's going on in their lives makes a huge difference and helps to make the professional relationship friendly.  Even when badgering them for not being prepared for tutorials or not appearing to listen in a lecture can be done much more positively when they believe you actually care about theirs and others' learning experience.

2. I believe students are customers and that I have a duty to make their experience as good as possible. I know this is controversial and many academics disagree.

3. You need to be passionate about the subject you are teaching.  However, even if you are teaching something which isn't you're own specialist subject, you can (and should) become passionate about it.

4. You can't compare your own teaching style with anyone else.  For the first year I tried to copy others who were successful.  I was much happier and more confident when I found my own style and as Frank Sinatra says, I did it my way.

5. You can't teach something you don't understand completely.  If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough.  I tried to get away with this in my first year but students can tell if you don't know your stuff.  This means that the first time you teach a course or module is the most time-consuming it will ever be but every subsequent time you teach the same material, the better and more efficient you will become in delivery.

6. Participation (and lots of it) is vital in all teaching experiences including lectures.  People get bored very easily.

7. Admin staff are the lifeblood of any organisation and are hugely under-rated.  They have been a fantastic support to me in every teaching encounter I've had.

8. You need to keep learning new material to stay fresh.

9. The more experience of teaching you have, the better you will be, but it does not follow that everyone who has lots of experience is a good teacher.

10. Did I mention that it's really important to care about your students?  I'm really going to miss mine.  They're such lovely people and they've taught me so much about teaching and about myself, for which I am hugely grateful.


Special thanks to the students who agreed to being photographed for this blog.

Why Complain?




If you don't receive the service you expected, if the product you receive isn't what you ordered, if the experience you encountered was disappointing, I wonder if you do anything about it?

Some people believe it is their civic duty to complain.  For altruistic reasons they feel that by providing feedback to a company that's performed poorly, suggesting improvements will improve experiences for future customers.  This might be through completing a customer satisfaction survey, comment card or writing a lengthy letter of complaint.

Others do nothing at all; either because they can't be bothered or believing that it will not make any difference: time wasted.

There are those whose behaviour varies depending on what they are buying, how much they are spending and how important the purchase was for them.

 
Some people dislike confrontation or fear appearing fussy or difficult to please.

Social media can provide anonymity and a much wider circle of "friends" with whom to engage in word of mouth.

Sometimes, complaining can result in you feeling more pleased with how a company responds to you than if nothing had gone wrong in the first place.

I wonder what you do when dissatisfied?  Does social media play any part in your behaviour? Have you complained online via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or simply left a review on TripAdvisor?  Were you encouraged by the response you received or left feeling despondent and feeling service is depressingly bad? 

Do you think complaining is worth the effort?

Does Bicester Village De-Value Luxury?

 
 
One of the benefits of being a student at Oxford Brookes University is its close proximity to Bicester Village. 
 
Students love bargains and I am certainly no exception! Bicester also benefits from many ready and eager students looking for part-time work to support the increasing cost of study and subsequently employs a great many of them.
 
According to their website Bicester is the home of "chic outlet shopping" and somewhere, "luxury awaits". 
 
 
But what does luxury really mean?  Isn't buying luxury at a discount price a contradiction in terms? Doesn't something have to be expensive and unattainable to be considered authentic luxury?  Surely words like bespoke, exclusive and quality equate with luxury whereas discount, available and "masstige" (prestige for the masses) means cheap?
 
Apparently the Duchess of Cambridge is often spotted at Bicester but I've never seen her.  I wonder if hunting for a bargain actually becomes more attractive if money is no object?
 
Perhaps people shopping at Bicester simply appreciate quality and if it is important to you to have the luxury label then why pay more?
 
Bicester village is certainly doing good business.  With a new "park and ride", ever-expanding car parking facilities and a shuttle from London, as well as coach trips, it is more popular than ever. 
 
For me, going to Bicester on a Saturday or Sunday takes the pleasure out of shopping because the experience is too busy to be enjoyable.
 
I would be interested to hear what you think.  What does luxury mean for you? How would you define it? Does the definition change if you're describing luxury products as opposed to luxury experiences?
 
 

 

PhD by Accident

OXBU Graduation 1998

My name's Sarah and I'm a PhD student

Even after two years I'm still reluctant to introduce myself in new situations as a PhD student, or even worse - a Doctoral Researcher (yet I must admit that I rather like this title on my LinkedIn profile - so perhaps I'm more attracted to the academic prestige than I let on!). 

What is a Stereotypical PhD student?

Fundamentally, I find it hard to shake the belief that academics are intimidatinginly clever and that somehow I must have slipped through the net unnoticed.  I feel quite apologetic about being a PhD student and don't really think of myself as a proper academic because I (hopefully!) don't fit the stereotype: bookish, bespectacled and well-read, appearing on University Challenge as slightly detached from the real working world yet not necessarily knowing more about anything than an ever-disdainful Jeremy Paxman.

PhD = boring?

I certainly wasn't among the star performers at school.  Yes, I went to a grammar school but everyone around me was on a fast track to Oxbridge (via fantastic A Level results) which I certainly wasn't.  Back then, to me, being academic just meant being boring.

My journey to PhD

After an undergraduate degree (Oxford Brookes) and a graduate scheme with a leading hotel company I worked for many years in the hotel industry.  However, getting married and having children made anti-social hours difficult (I told myself it wouldn't matter but actually it did).  In 2011 I went to the University of Buckingham to do a Masters degree in Service Management.  After this,  the possibility of a doctorate became the next natural step of progression.

What is a PhD anyway?

Today I am both an academic (Lecturing at the University of Buckingham) and a PhD student (Oxford Brookes). There's a lot of hype, sorry - prestige, around having a PhD but basically it just means you've written a really big report.  The report is so big that it has taken you years to write and by the end you're allowed to be called Dr...whoever.  Unless you're a celebrity and then you may get a doctorate simply for the joy of being you.  That's a real motivator to the rest of us...not.

PhD means passion

Now, twenty years later than when I first came to Brookes, my perspective on being an academic has completely changed.   Strangely enough, for me it isn't necessarily about studying, or even knowledge. It's about a burning desire to discover more about the subject.  It means getting to spend time researching something you are thirsty to know more about.  For me this means hotels, hospitality and service.  I can still remember the shock I felt when I first discovered that people are actually spending their time writing, researching and studying these things I am so interested in.

Accidental PhD

So I'm doing a PhD quite by accident really.  It wasn't part of my life plan... but it's been (mostly!) fun so far! 
Buckingham Graduation 2013



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