PhD blog: 15 | Prospects.ac.uk

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Assessment assessed

The time came, eventually. After several postponements and frantic emails (appointment making in academia can be a frustrating experience), I have had my annual assessment. But before I entered the meeting, true to form (pun intended, groan expected) there was another form to fill in. This time a nine-page epic asking me strange and perplexing questions, to be answered in the box provided. Apart from describing such mundane, quantifiable things as ‘the ability to recognise and validate problems’ and ‘an understanding of relevant research methodologies and techniques and their appropriate application within one's research field’, I had to describe my knowledge of ‘the context in which research takes place’ and even the ‘relevant health and safety issues and demonstrate responsible working practices’. Other topics I had to write about were ‘communication skills’ and ‘personal effectiveness’. Needless to say that after over an hour of form-filling, I was not in the best frame of mind for the meeting.

The meeting began with my assessor asking me to notify her of any problems I might be facing on the PhD. The first thing that popped into my head was the rainforest of paper that I have had to tick boxes and justify research and reiterate my proposal and audit my skills and approach ethical implications and tick more boxes. I spent about fifteen minutes on the subject of forms, stating the need for some sort of consolidation and a very clear timetable of what is needed and at what point in the year. My assessor stopped me in mid spleen-vent and said that we need to process this into a sentence. Which ended up reading something like: ‘Graham is concerned by the number of forms and feels the dissemination of information could be done in a more simple, structured way.'

Moans forgotten

The meeting then turned to my work. Luckily, since I found out I was unsuccessful in my pursuit of funding, I have been extremely motivated and managed to write about 15,000 words of a rough chapter, and I have written copious notes. The target for a part-time first year PhD student is to have written about 10,000 words. I was in the clear. My assessor was impressed, and the vitriolic moaning from a mere ten minutes before was all but forgotten. She suggested I think about publishing an article next year, and attending conferences. I’m looking forward to that – a reason to step away from the computer and books and meet other people. Submitting articles for publication and conferences is the only time a PhD student can ‘test’ their research out. Work is up for critical assessment, and the audience will ask questions. It’s all part of the learning process, and it could theoretically change the shape of a thesis.

Anyway, back to the assessment. The assessor did tell me all the usual ‘it’s not easy’ and ‘it gets harder’ ghost stories that I’ve heard from every academic person I’ve come into contact with. And I had a chance to tell her about all the good things that are a part of PhD study: my positive relationship with my DoS, the joy of uncovering something new in research and being part of the community of students at the university. All this was written down in bite-sized sentences that my assessor and I agreed on.

With my assessment over, I felt heartened that I was on the right track, and it was far from the detailed examination of my soul that I had suspicions it would be. But right now, the work doesn’t stop and I am knee-deep in luminous Post-It Note page markers (other page markers are available), novels about computer programmers and theories about the End of History. Until next time…

Read Graham's previous blogs:

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