Becoming part of the community
The PhD student holds a strange place in a university. You’re a student first and foremost, but one outside the main mechanisms of the university. You may have some limited modules but, at least in my experience, these are short and very often remote. Beyond this, a PhD student’s work is a lonely affair, particularly for people like me doing a project in the humanities.
My days are most often spent in the library, poring over books and writing up notes, with the only contact required by my course being an occasional meeting with my supervisors. It’s very easy then to feel disconnected from the student experience. For some, this will be perfectly fine, and in fact might be appreciated. But it wasn’t what I wanted. For me, university was another opportunity to meet new people and if my course wasn’t going to provide for that I would have to find a way to do that myself.
First things first I decided to live on campus. This is certainly not the easiest decision. My main source of funding is the government PhD loan which struggles to cover both the university fees and accommodation. Still, I felt it was important for me to be physically at the university and so be able to interact directly with the rest of the students. The first advantage of this was immediately clear. I had been worried about moving into shared accommodation. I had not had the best experience of this in undergrad and there was the persistent worry that I would end up with a group of undergrads that I would be almost a decade older than. Fortunately, this didn’t happen. I was in a with a group of master’s students who were all around my age. From here I had an immediate connection to the rest of the student body and a chance to do social things with others.
My choice of university definitely helps here as well. I did my undergrad at a London university which had no campus and a student body spread all over the city. In Aberystwyth, the student body is centred so firmly around the university and town that it’s almost difficult to avoid being a part of it. Small connections lead quickly onto other connections and by following these threads you can quickly get to know the entire town. I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that yet! But still it has been nice to see that there is a place for me here. I had come in worrying that I would be forever on the periphery, but I have quickly seen that I can be a part of this community.