European film festivals could learn a lot from London’s diplomatic approach to Chinese cinema

Posted on 3 December 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

Cathy Yan’s Dead Pigs. BFI London Film Festival Hiu Man Chan, School of Journalism, Media and Culture The 2018 BFI London Film Festival featured a spectacular programme of 225 films from 77 different countries. A wonderful showcase in its entirety, but this was also the largest showcase of Chinese cinema in the film festival’s history.
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Maggot racing, bones and organs – how PhD students can inspire the next generation of scientists

Posted on 26 November 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

Public engagement is an important part of being a PhD student, helping you to communicate your research to a diverse range of audiences. Here, Amy Smith from CITER (Cardiff Institute for Tissue Engineering and Repair) tells us how PhD students can get involved with their range of fun and interactive outreach activities. CITER is primarily a
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Repowering the UK’s oldest wind farms could boost energy generation by 171%

Posted on 20 November 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

Shzphoto/Shutterstock Rebecca Windemer (School of Geography and Planning) Wind energy has been identified as having an important role to play in the world’s move towards a low-carbon future. But, due to short-term planning rules, it may not have as big a part as it could in the UK’s own sustainable energy generation. To date, when
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LinkedIn Learning: learn about statistics and speed reading from your sofa!

Posted on 13 November 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

LinkedIn Learning is an online platform that offers a variety of courses to help you develop your business, creative and technological skills.  As part of our mission to make skills development more convenient and accessible to postgraduate researchers throughout their degree, we are trialing the platform over the next year.  All students prior to the writing-up
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Does everyone have a say in heritage? – Observations from the 2018 Association of Critical Heritage Studies Biennale Conference

Posted on 30 October 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

By Lui Tam, Welsh School of Architecture It is becoming evident that heritage is being studied by scholars from almost the entire spectrum of academic disciplines. Moreover, not only is heritage discussed among professionals but it also increasingly appears in everyday discussions. Critical Heritage Studies (CHS) is a research approach formed in such a context
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Your place in your Union: supporting PGRs through the SU

Posted on 23 October 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

Guest post by Jake Smith, Vice President Postgraduate Students @PostgradCSU It’s fair to say the experience of studying as a postgraduate researcher is very different to that of most other students. Gone are the days of exams, 2,000 word essays and having a couple of lectures a day with the 150 other students on your
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British film has a golden opportunity in Chinese video on demand

Posted on 15 October 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

Home theatre. BPTU/Shutterstock China has the highest number of video on demand users in the world. Here, Hiu Man Chan (School of Journalism, Media and Culture) tells us why exporting British content is not only great for the economy, but also an important form of modern cultural diplomacy… Video on demand (VOD) services are big
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Could diagnosing sepsis be as easy as using a pregnancy test?

Posted on 1 October 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

What if diagnosing serious illnesses such as sepsis or cancer could be as easy as using a pregnancy test?  This might seem like a silly question as they’re such complicated illnesses. However, the home pregnancy test wasn’t used until 1969 and before that you were required to see a doctor or rely on old wives’
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Building international links: the China Scholarship Council Special Interest Group

Posted on 25 September 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

The Doctoral Academy strives to make valuable links both nationally and internationally, and we recently welcomed a group of Senior Managers from Chinese universities, representing the China Scholarship Council Special Interest Group. The China Scholarship Council (CSC) is a non-profit organisation that provides financial aid for Chinese citizens to study abroad, and for international students to study in China.
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Are you a lurker or a sharer? Why you should be sharing your research online

Posted on 18 September 2018 by doctoral-academy-blog

“What experience do you have of using digital or social media to raise your research profile?” This was a question a fellow PhD student asked me in a mock interview at the Doctoral Academy’s Career Management for Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers workshop not too long ago. And there it was – the realisation that
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