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.

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.

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!