Peter Hancox, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and PGR Lead for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, gives his advice to those for whom the lockdown means starting to tackle your thesis… That day has come.  You can put it off no longer.  You can’t even go into the lab under the pretence that you just need to do a little more work. Photo credit: Rasmus Larsen You must start to write your dissertation. The experience of writing a dissertation can be lonely.  After all, it is your dissertation and no one else can (or should) write it for you.  It’s a bit like b ..read more

If you saw last month’s posts about perseverance and The Conversation, you’ll have picked up on the fact that November was #AcWriMo (Academic Writing Month) – an annual, month-long, communal attempt by academics at all career stages to focus on their writing. In thinking about what can be most helpful in both facilitating and improving writing however, I keep coming back to how important reading is as part of this process. In my work with undergraduates I am always struck by how much they seem to glean from reading other students’ work. It is easy to forget that many students operate in a bit ..read more

On Wednesday 19 June 2019, there is a deadline for PGRs hoping to graduate in July to complete all the requirements for the award of their research degree.  Among a few other things, this includes submitting an electronic copy of your thesis to the University of Birmingham eTheses repository. Depositing your thesis is a great opportunity to engage with Open Research. Making your research openly available without any barriers is recognised as benefiting both the public and scholarly endeavour, speeding up progress and improving research quality and integrity.  The UoB eTheses reposit ..read more