Collaborative Doctoral Awards

Collaborative doctoral awards are a ‘special bread of PhDs’. In these kinds of PhDs, the work carried out is not only based at a higher education institution (HEI), but is also done in partnership with a non-academic partner organisation or business. This often means that the student needs to split his/her time between these two institutions, doing the work required in both, but at the same time getting the resources and know-how from both institutions.

But why am I discussing this today? Well, I am actually carrying out a collaborative doctoral award (or as it is also known, CDA); my HEI is University College London, while the partner organisation is The National Archives. When I accepted the post however I didn’t really realise what this means, and I am up to now certain I am not realising the full impact of this. However, yesterday I attended a meeting which for the first time opened my eyes to what this really means.

What was the meeting? The meeting was a London CDA Network Meeting. This means that the CDA students based in London (or even outside for that matter) meet up to discuss about CDAs, and in general as a networking and support structure. I had received e-mails about a couple of others, but for some reason or other never really made it. However yesterday I did! And so glad I did…I took so much out of it.

Being there, talking to other CDA students meant that for the first time I actually started to understand what a CDA really means…up to yesterday I knew there were two partners involved, but I never really thought about it, and how this affects me and my work (negatively or positively). The most important part for me was starting to realise the full implications of a CDA. This means that I can now start thinking about this reality, and hopefully making the best out of this experience…there is so much you can take from it once you realise the opportunities. Also, hearing others articulate their experience made me put into words some of the feelings I have been having about the PhD. It made me understand better that it is not only me having these thoughts and experiences…but what others could do was articulate them, having been in the process and thought about the reality of a CDA more than I had (Before yesterday I barely thought of myself as a CDA student!)

So what do I think about CDAs now that I have finally realised their scope? I think they are a great thing to be part of as having two supervisors in two different types of institutions means that you can get a wider variety of support. However, I think you need to first of all understand the reality to be able to exploit it as best you can and get the best out of it. It seems that CDAs are a ‘new breed’ of PhDs, so if I had to say anything for future students it would be for them to understand the reality sooner than I did. In a way I feel that when I started I was not made aware of the full benefits of a CDA…and this seems to be a common comment by most people there – e.g. not just me, but others as well never thought about being located at the partner institution and just thought about moving to the academic partner. However, this is one of the benefits of a CDA…that you can access the resources of both institutions, depending on the project’s needs.

I think that it is important that there is more information out there about what a CDA really is. I think it is important for new CDA students to understand what it means, since only like that can students get the best out of it. But overall I think it is a great idea…and having a student network for it is even better Thanks London CDA Network for letting me know about what I am part of without realising the full scope of it!

Filed under: Events and Activities, General, CDA, CDA students, Collaborative doctoral awards, HEI, higher education institution, London CDA, London CDA Network Meeting, network meeting, partner organisation, PhD

Pisa…A Research Visit

In the last post I left you with my arrival in Pisa. Now, having completed my time there, I am back in London. But how did it go, and why did I go there?

The first aim of my visit there was to determine a method for the extraction of the dyes from my photographs, followed by their separation using chromatographic methods. Thus, the majority of the first two weeks was spent trying out the methods mentioned in literature for similar methods (since none were found for my exact requirements), and then depending on the results obtained modifying the methods to obtain the best methods we could. This is proably one of the most tricky parts of a research project, since it can take a very long time till the best combination is determined. Luckily, we found something we could work with, and thus could get on to the next part of the work. This involved analysing aged photographs using chromatographic and colourimetric methods and correlating the two. What about the  results for this? I must say not all the results are perfect, but at least I proved what I was there to do.

What about the other aspects of the research trip? I must say it was great! I enjoyed the work, the people, the lifestyle…everything. Being in Pisa also meant I could get to other parts of Tuscany quite easily…so I visited Florence, Siena, Lucca, Cinque Terre, Certaldo etc. I also had people visiting me, which was nice.

I think that it is not enough from these research trips to take only the work, but it is so much better if you can experience a bit the life in that place…you really do gain a lot…not just in friends, and results, but also in other skills such as project management and time management (since you are there for a limited period of time).

Filed under: Events and Activities, Experiments and Methodology, Research Process, Travel, chromatographic methods, colourimetry, Florence, London, Pisa, project management, research visit, Siena, skills development, Tuscany