Graham Foster has just begun a research degree. My path to a PhD At high school I was never a particularly good student, nor was I a lamentably bad student. I occupied an invisible middle ground, even being forgotten by teachers, who were startled if I put my hand up, or even coughed, in class. I did the work that was necessary, collecting average marks, rolling my eyes at the teachers’ listless dissemination of tired syllabi, and generally feeling discouraged to think freely. I drifted into university after this, not because I had a strong desire to learn, but more because I felt I was expected to go.
It was at the University of Wales, Bangor that I began my undergraduate degree in English Literature in 1998. This, it should be said, was not my first choice of alma mater. Nor was it my second. Out of the six universities I selected on my UCAS form Bangor ranked at number five, and was the only one that accepted me after some terrible A-Level results. I guess what I am trying to say is that I was never the most conscientious of students and, in the interest of 100% candour, I should say that my undergraduate degree did not fare much better than my A-levels. Earlier this year I found myself in the office of the head of the English Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University, explaining to him why I had only obtained a 2:2 for my first degree, while he frowned deeply. It was the usual story, I said, desperately trying to justify my poor record. There were too many distractions for my immature, younger self to knuckle down and do the work. He frowned more. I know what you’re thinking: this history is incongruous with the usual requirements of postgraduate study. You’re not wrong. So how did I go from mediocre undergraduate student to PhD study? A new pageToo put it simply, I have always connected with literature. From an early age, I found myself deeply in love with books and stories. All I needed was an environment to encourage this. It certainly wasn’t school, with all the teachers sucking the life out of the written word. My degree at Bangor went some way to feed my passion, and I had some fantastic tutors, but it just wasn’t enough. It was when I enrolled on a Masters in Creative Writing at MMU that it all came together. Under the guidance of Michael Schmidt and Andrew Biswell, I found myself involved in lively, engaging discussions that unlocked my brain completely to the idea of spending time exploring my chosen subject. This was the perfect environment, and it was reflected in my marks. I graduated with a distinction in 2006, and the course led to work as a literary journalist (for publications such as The Daily Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review) and my own magazine – I am the editor and co-founder of Manchester’s Transmission. And now, after a year of working on my proposal, I have enrolled on the PhD at MMU. Financial planningAgain I can hear murmuring: all this is fine if you have the money to wallow in the academic world. Well, I didn’t. And I don’t. My education has been funded by a succession of low-income McJobs. You name it, I’ve done it. I’ve bussed tables at a famous and inexplicably popular coffee shop; I’ve been a stock room attendant in a ‘fashionable’ clothes shop; I’ve even been a campsite manager in rain-soaked Northern France. I’ve used inheritance from dead relatives to pay fees and moved in with my parents to make my meagre wages last longer. Education has never been a free ride for me, and throughout I have worked hard to fund it. My PhD is no different. I was unsuccessful in acquiring funding from both the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the university. I decided to start my PhD anyway, still relying on parental support and a lousy job at a department store. Now I have entered the first few weeks of study, I can’t help but feel I have done the right thing. And so far my passion for the subject has overcome all the obstacles and setbacks that have been thrown my way. |
