Are you an international, distance, or part-time PhD student?

The Graduate School is well aware of the diverse nature of the PhD population here at the University of Exeter. We have over 1300 PhD students currently registered from more than 100 countries. However, doing a PhD in another country, and/or part-time and/or at a distance requires a positive attitude, a bright mind, lots of hard work, and a considerable amount of local support and guidance. Having been an international student myself, first at undergraduate level and then working in south-east Asia for my own PhD, I fully appreciate the challenges and opportunities that such an experience presents.

The University of Exeter generic skills training programme for PhD students provides a wide-range of workshops to help you undertake your PhD with confidence and confidence. Co-ordinated by our centralised Graduate School, the sessions range from’ managing your PhD project’ to ‘how to write effectively at PhD level’, through to ‘how to get published’ and ‘how to become a Professor in 10 years!’ We run over 50 different sessions, all repeated throughout the year. Some will be much more appropriate in your first year of study, whilst some will be more relevant for the later stages of the PhD project – you can pick and choose as you see fit.

One of the great benefits of attending these free, practical sessions as an international PhD student is that they provide you with an excellent opportunity to meet researchers from other subjects at the University, and to gain from their experiences, skills, cultures and points of view. They are also an excellent way of really enhancing your written and spoken English at an academic level, as all sessions are interactive and require research students to make a contribution.

The sessions that we run have been very highly rated by students who attend – in excess of 1400 per year – with 97% stating that they would “highly recommend” them to others. So, if you study here at Exeter, you will be able to benefit from our comprehensive training programme, exclusively for PhD students.

Below is a typical comment from an international student who has attended the programme:

“The Graduate School skills workshops offer a great opportunity for personal as well as career development. The seminars are presented by experts in a critical and self-challenging manner where group discussions and activities play a major role in the learning process. Although the seminars’ applicability ranges to all fields of knowledge, they are very well structured and professionally devised to target specific academic and career objectives. The focus is mainly on practical issues which enable strategic planning for the PhD.”

(Joseph Bayeh, International Student, School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

For those of you studying away from Exeter, over the coming months, with the help of the School of Education and Lifelong Learning and collaboration with the University of Nottingham, the Graduate School will be developing some interactive online PhD training materials. Such materials will supplement our existing repository of workshop training resources which you can access by clicking on the appropriate link on the left-hand menu.

Dr Steve Gaskin,

Director of Postgraduate Training

International students may also benefit from the University's Study Skills Service, in addition to the Graduate School's generic skills training programme.

Also, they should visit the International Student Exchange and Support Office

Also, international students may want to visit UK Thesis, an editing and proof reading service for international students