Hi
Welcome to the Bath doctoral community! As I discovered this time last year, summer can be a very strange time to start your doctoral journey. The campus feels empty one day and then teeming with 'bright young children' the next depending on which summer school is resident. Academics are deep into their research and you may just wonder what on earth you have moved to. On the other hand, it's a great time to start, quiet coffee queues, slower pace for getting settled and everything seems just that little bit calmer. As your Doctoral Welcome Team, we have put together a short video and a poster with tons of information to help you settle into doctoral life as quickly as possible. Many of us arrived outside of a main cohort in October, so we understand that you may have particular questions when you start at different points in the academic year. We look forward to meeting you virtually or physically over the coming months around campus, online or at one of our Welcome Team events.
If you are on campus in the next few weeks, one of us will be in Cake in the Commons on Friday mornings between 10.30 and 11.30 in 10W each week throughout July and August, so do come along for a chat.
In the meantime, if you have any burning questions, use one of the many links in the poster to find out more or contact us. You will also be contacted by your Programme support contact in the Doctoral College and/or your Doctoral Training Entity to make sure you have the administrative info to begin your research.
Some key resources to also take a look at are the online arrival essentials information and the Doctoral College Handbook. As you weren't able to make our Doctoral College Welcome Reception in October, we captured some pictures and the opening speeches for you. Watch the videos and get to know our Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, our last Students' Union Postgraduate Officer, Liam Emery, and our Director of Student Services, who has an important message about taking care of yourself and your colleagues and friends throughout your doctorate. We've also collated some online information from exhibitors at our Information Fair in November, so you can find about more about the range of support available.
Once you are a registered student, you will receive the regular email 'Doctoral Digest' from the Doctoral College, where they handily give you a summary of events, activities, training opportunities, sources of support and more. Do follow us on Twitter @DoctoralBath too. Happy reading!
In the next few weeks, the new welcome team (pictures and blogs to follow) will be working out how best to support you (and us) and plan activities for the coming year not only for students on campus but those of us who don't always come to campus. If you have any ideas, thoughts or suggestions as to what you might like to have arranged, please email us on doctoralwelcometeam@bath.ac.uk.
In the meantime, have a great summer, hope to see you at coffee and looking forward to meeting you in the future
Jane (on behalf of your Doctoral Welcome Team)
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