Academic

The PhD viva is a crucial milestone that determines your doctoral success, yet many candidates approach it with a lot of anxiety and not enough preparation. This comprehensive workshop demystifies the viva process and equips you with practical strategies to perform confidently on the day. You’ll learn how to prepare systematically in the months leading up to your viva, from re-reading your thesis strategically to anticipating examiner questions. Through interactive discussions and proven techniques, you’ll develop the skills to articulate your research clearly and defend your work without becoming defensive. ...

A few years ago, I sent a friend a book chapter I’d been working on for months. Desperate for validation, I waited anxiously for a response. As the days passed, I convinced myself he hated it. Obviously, he was putting off telling me how bad it was. Two weeks later, the email arrived … with an attachment. My friend had completely rewritten the chapter. Not only that, he’d used tracked changes in Word, so it was a sea of red. As you can imagine, my heart plunged into my boots. I’d wanted him to say, “Goodness, Catherine, you’ve worked really hard on this. Well done.” As I hadn’t explained my requirement, he’d assumed I wanted extensive editorial input. ...

At the moment, it’s easy to think there’s very little that’s within our control. Unfortunately, we’re right. However, this makes it even more important to focus on what we can control. In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey separates our lives into three concentric circles: control, concern, and influence. The Circle of Control The Circle of Control includes events we control directly. In the Circle of Influence, we find those areas where we have some control but are also partly affected by the behaviour of other people. Finally, the Circle of Concern is everything that affects us, yet we’re powerless to change it: economic uncertainty, in-laws, and spiteful weather. ...

Back in the 1990s, you’d be hard pushed to find an office corkboard without an Eisenhower Matrix pinned to it. Although this time management approach has become slightly unfashionable, it remains a valuable tool for dealing with overwhelm. The Eisenhower Matrix Each of your tasks belongs in one of four quadrants: Quadrant 1 — Urgent and important. Here’s where you place those tasks with a screaming deadline, or unexpected emergencies, such as illnesses or exploding boilers. You have no choice but to deal with this task. ...

The Support-Challenge Matrix was developed by John Blakey and Ian Day and presented in their book, Challenging Coaching. The matrix maps the level of support your supervisor provides against the level of challenge they set for you, and is helpful for thinking about the PhD supervisory relationship. The Support-Challenge Matrix High Challenge + Low Support = Anxiety: Maybe it’s too much, too soon. Your supervisor is expecting you to write a literature review when you haven’t even found out where the toilets are. The task feels overwhelming, but you lack the confidence to ask for help. Awash with imposter feelings, this is evidence that you shouldn’t be doing a PhD. This can happen when a supervisor unconsciously adopts the Persecutor role in the Drama Triangle. Low Challenge + Low Support = Inertia: Nobody’s pushing you or showing you what’s required. You’ve been left to figure it out for yourself, but there are few clues. As Newton famously explained, you’ll be stuck until an external force is exerted upon you. Low Challenge + High Support = Dependency: Although this is a desirable situation in the first month of your PhD, you can’t remain dependent. It’s vital that you become an independent researcher and start solving some tricky problems on your own. A supervisor who encourages dependency might have unconsciously adopted the Rescuer role in the Drama Triangle. High Challenge + High Support = Progress: This is the sweet spot! Your supervisor is challenging you to pursue that research problem and to make your own mistakes, but they’ve got your back in case you experience any major issues. Knowing we have a safety net makes us more willing to take those necessary risks. High Challenge + High Support is a Win-Win, where you get the support you need and your supervisor gets credit for another successful completion. If you feel the balance isn’t quite right in your supervisory relationship, you can use this matrix to initiate a conversation with your supervisor. Yes, it might be an uncomfortable conversation, but it’s the only way to make progress. ...

When you start a PhD, you’ve probably emerged from a taught programme, such as an undergraduate or Masters’ degree. At that level, you’re used to a lot of structure and explicit deadlines. As a doctoral researcher, though, you need to leave behind that student identity and become independent. This means assuming more responsibility as the PhD progresses. That’s the only way you can make and defend an original and significant contribution to knowledge. ...

Are you constantly overwhelmed by requests, struggling to protect time for your most important work? Or do you feel guilty every time you decline an opportunity? Academic culture often rewards saying “yes” to everything, but this approach can lead to burnout, compromised work quality, and misaligned priorities. This interactive workshop provides practical strategies for establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries in academic life. You’ll explore why saying “no” feels so difficult, examine the beliefs that drive overcommitment, and learn to distinguish between opportunities that enhance your goals and those that derail them. ...

Devised by Dr Peter Nixon, the Human Function Curve shows the relationship between pressure and performance. If there’s minimal pressure, we don’t perform; we’re just bored and understimulated.With a little more pressure, we enter our Comfort Zone. Although, as the name suggests, this feels nice, researchers won’t find new ideas by staying here too long. As the pressure mounts, we enter the Stretch Zone. This is where we want to be most of the time: it’s the sweet spot between pressure and performance. ...

You might have come across the idea of achieving a Win-Win in a situation, which maps quite neatly with the Drama Triangle. This matrix shows the four possible outcomes based on who wins or loses in a conflict or disagreement: The Win-Win Matrix If you make an unreasonable demand on your supervisor, you become a Persecutor. Although you might win in the short term because they become a Victim or Rescuer and concede to you, it’s not going to be an effective long-term solution. They’ll probably feel resentful and might then also become a Persecutor. Then you have a vampire battle on your hands. ...

Developed by Stephen Karpman, the Drama Triangle provides a social model of human interaction. Specifically, it describes the connection between personal responsibility and power in conflicts, revealing the shifting and often destructive roles people play. These roles form a ’triangle’ because people typically cycle between them, with each role triggering the others in a self-perpetuating pattern. These unhelpful behaviours occur in many situations, including supervisory relationships in the workplace. The three roles are the Victim, the Rescuer, and the Persecutor: ...