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>> EMMA: I did not know that I was going to do a PhD. That was not always the game plan, but I loved researching at the Masters level so much I finally felt confident in applying for PhD programs and I have loved every minute of it. Even though it's hard and challenging, you grow so much as an independent researcher and an academic and there are so many opportunities so even if you don't want to go into academia you can take advantage of all kinds of things specifically at St Andrews that beef up your resume and give you a whole host of experiences to help you decide what you do and don't want to do when you finally go out into the real world.
I chose St Andrews from my PhD in a completely different process than I chose a university for my masters, for my masters there were spreadsheets and all kinds of Excel documents trying to make the best decision. But with St Andrews it was the first program I applied to it was the first program I was accepted to. I had a visit day here, I got to meet my supervisors, I was in love with the project. Any time I was trying to think about other universities I'd want to go to, none of the projects seemed to be as on point for me as the one here and so it was one of the easiest decisions I've ever gotten to make so it was clear and straightforward and I had a feeling when I came here about my supervisors and it just stuck the university has a lot of really excellent opportunities for research here. I'm lucky enough to be in the English department and we have a specific house just for PhD researchers which is really nice, so it's really nice to get to go there.
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>> EMMA: Another cool thing is the library has this address called More Books and if you need a book and the library doesn't have it you just email More Books and they get it for you. So the research community is really supportive and there are a lot of ways to get your hands on the material you need. The supervisors are incredibly well connected and you find new and new ways to get new perspectives on your area of study.
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>> IWAN: St Andrews for me is... the first word that comes to mind would be 'home'. Walking, as we are right now, besides the Cathedral and the coastline, it's an incredibly stunning beautiful landscape. The town itself reminds me of my hometown, being from a small town in Somerset, so not only do I feel very at home, the community is very small and very supportive so you feel very secure, very safe. You're surrounded by incredibly old buildings so you always are feeling a part of history which when studying is an incredibly, I feel, important thing to kind of immerse yourself in.
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>> TARN: I'm studying modern and contemporary poetry and I guess it is a little bit strange doing that in the face of, you know, a decaying Cathedral from the medieval period right next door to you. But there's something that resonates I suppose with this idea of writing about things that are important to us now in a society where things are changing constantly. You know, obviously, we all come here for academic purposes and I think what's really amazing is that the community intersects so much between you know the different periods of study that people are doing, the creative writing Department and the those doing critical studies. It's amazing the opportunities that arise with all of the different students that are here doing postgraduate work.
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>> SIOBHAN: St Andrews is just an incredibly supportive environment to be and I have lots of colleagues in the School of English and across the university, there's always spaces to talk and to be with other people who are going through the process, have gone through the process and are willing to share and talk about it. Which is fantastic. We've got reading groups, we've got seminars for instance I'm a part of the Food for Thought reading group where we discuss literature and text relating to food and that's an interdisciplinary group that draws people from across the university and it's always fantastic to meet up with them and have a chance to discuss things that, you know, got you into research in the first place there's just so much to do and so much on.
>>IWAN: Studying in Scotland, I find is an incredibly exciting area because with the political turmoil that's going on at the moment studying a post-colonial text in the context of the United Kingdom you do feel on the forefront of history and it does feel like what I'm looking at in the books does come alive from the pages working in St Andrews allows me to really emotionally connect with what I am writing because I am not from St Andrews I am away and so things like food and identity are just so much as part of my personal life is there a part of academic life as well.
>> IWAN: It's highly highly multicultural, very international, which is one of the major perks of being at a university like this not only does it mean that the small community means that you are very easily able to make friends you also find that you are finding people who are from all walks of life.
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>> SIOBHAN: The research culture particularly within the School of English is amazing they are always events on either on Wednesday evenings with the weekly seminar groups where professors from different universities come and present there are also talks put on by staff from the school of English itself my friend John runs the PG Forum and that's a really great way of trialling our papers and also just getting ideas on how to be more productive or things that can make the PhD journey a bit easier
>> TARN: Teaching was always going to be a really important part of the PhD for me. Both because of the professional aspect of it and as well as the fact that I really enjoy it having been a teacher for the last few years of my life before starting my PhD and the opportunities we have here to work closely with students in tutorials is wonderful because we really get to see the progress working with a small group of students. We get to see the improvements immediately and throughout multiple semesters as you run into them again and again.
>> PAUL: I love learning. I've suddenly found my niche in life after, what, 30 odd years in paid employment all I want to do is be a scholar. All I want to do is find things out. I want to learn things, I want to write about it, I want to be published. I'd like to do it here at St Andrews. Where else?
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School of English
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