University of Edinburgh Welcome Week 2016

Postgraduate Student Welcome

Kirstin Sargeant: Good afternoon, everyone. Wow, that is amazing. My name is

Kristin Sargeant. I am one of the university's induction

coordinators. It's probably me that you've been communicating

with about this event if you've had any questions. On behalf of

the university and my team specifically, welcome to the

postgraduate welcome talk. It is my pleasure to have you here

with us.

Just a few of the housekeeping things, we're not expecting any

fire alarms to go off. If they do, please note where your fire

locations are to get out of the building in a very orderly fashion.

We have a few talks from current students and Professor Mary

Bownes to give you today. Then we will have a student

services fare where you are able to mix and mingle with one

and other, as well as a number of the student services that

have come to share with you what they do. That's our plan of

attack for the day.

To start us off, I have a video about what it means to be a

member of the University of Edinburgh community.

[Video starts 0:01:10].

Female: The University of Edinburgh is not just a great place to work

and study, it's a community. It's also part of the wider

community of Edinburgh itself. Our students are at our

community's heart and do so much to make it special.

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Female: You worked hard to get here…

Male: So be proud to be part of the community

Female: We're proud of the university. Join us to make it even better.

Male: You'll meet people from all over the world.

Female: Get to know as wide a range as possible.

Male: Develop your understanding of different cultures.

Female: You learn so much.

Female: There's only one University of Edinburgh. There's nowhere

else quite like us.

Female: There are so many elements to our community, from a vet

school to an art college and all points in between, but the

outside world sees just one university. We should make that

image the best it can be. Let's treat everyone we meet, fellow

students and staff and the people of our city, as we would wish

to be treated ourselves.

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Female: Universities are about free speech and the opportunity to

debate.

Female: Those debates don't have to develop into arguments.

Female: Debating and challenging ideas are part of university life.

Male: Do it with respect for other people.

Female: We're all different. We've all got different views. Embrace that.

Female: It's what makes university so exciting.

Male: While you're busy respecting others, take time out for you.

Respect yourself.

Female: You'll learn so much at university, not just in terms of what you

study, but about yourself and about other people. Of course we

want you to have fun too, but please always think about the

impact of your actions on others.

Female: We're adults and we take responsibility for our own behaviour.

Male: Think about how you behave and the impact it has on others.

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Male: Don't be afraid to challenge behaviour among fellow students if

you think it's inappropriate.

Female: Be a good neighbour.

Female: Be responsible for yourself.

Female: Don't be afraid to seek help from our community in those

moments of self-doubt.

Female: We are one Edinburgh.

Female: Understand your rights and responsibilities.

Male: It'll make your time here so much better.

Female: We're all one.

Female: We're all proud to be here.

Female: Together, let's continue to make it something to be proud of.

(Laughter)

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[Video ends 0:03:25].

Kirstin Sargeant: With that, I would like to introduce Professor Mary Bownes, our

Vice Principal here at the University of Edinburgh. (Applause)

Mary Bownes: Welcome to the University of Edinburgh and the opening

session for postgraduate students in this wonderful festival

theatre. It's amazing to see so many of you here. My name is

Mary Bownes and one of the Vice Principals of the University.

You have joined one of the world's top universities. We're

ranked in the top 20 in the world, so my sincere

congratulations to all of you on obtaining a place here.

We're expecting around 7,000 new postgraduate students that

are taught from 167 nationalities and 1,250 new postgraduate

research students from 97 different nationalities, so you're a

huge organisation. Altogether, there are about 8,000 PGT

students, over 5,000 PGR students, so with the

undergraduates involved, as you've heard, we're a community,

a big community with over 37,000 students.

There's a few little bits and pieces, like it's really important to

know not just that you belong to the University of Edinburgh,

but where you belong because you'll get much of your

academic support from different locations. You'll be in one of

our 3 colleges. The biggest number of postgraduate students

are in arts, humanities and social sciences, some of you in

medicine and vet medicine and some of you in science and

engineering, so I hope you know which college you belong to.

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Within that, you all belong to a school, and within that school

the key people to get to know besides your new cohort are the

course organiser if you're a master's student and your

supervisors if you're a PhD student. There's also much

administrative support in the schools and beyond, so make

sure you join in the inductions and welcomes during this week

to be sure you learn where to get all the help you need.

You may be interested to know that the bulk of the intake

obviously to postgraduates are from Scotland and the rest of

the UK, but there are many EU students here and my overseas

students. It's going to be incredibly easy for you to make lots of

new friends from different backgrounds, and that's going to be

true wherever you've come from. You're going to be looked

after by a huge number of academic and support staff.

Altogether, there are over 13,000 members of staff supporting

the student community. You're going to hear a lot more today

about their services and the support available to you.

Our Principal, Professor Timothy O'Shea, sends his apologies

that he isn't able to be here today. You may wonder why he

asked me to come instead. I'm a biologists and have had a

good number of PhD students in my team, but I spent a huge

amount of time looking after all the PhD students in biology

and then became Associate Dean, looking after postgraduates

in science and engineering, where I was pushing to set up all

the amazing additional training and opportunities you will get to

develop your skills whilst you are studying for your PhD and

your master's. These are all set up to equip you for the wide

variety of careers you will get into. I had postgraduates as part

of Vice Principal remit for over 10 years, so I'm especially

delighted to see so many of you now coming to study in a wide

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variety of disciplines. Today we have both taught master's

students and research students present.

The Principal has asked me to speak a little about the history

of the university. Since this is a people day I'm going to

concentrate on some of the people and then give you a few

tips for how to get the best out of being here at the university.

I'll start by saying you're our future and you're the leaders of

tomorrow, so that's what we're aiming for. You university has a

wonderful history. It was founded more than 400 years ago and

it became the model throughout the world for great civic

universities. The university has made massive contributions to

the world over time, and I'm going to go very quickly through

some of the amazing people who've been here and what

they've done.

In the enlightenment time, David Hume gave us sceptical

enquiry and the basis for a lot of scientific methodology.

Principal Robertson established the modern style of writing

history and wrote the first history of America. Professor Hugh

Blair was the professor of rhetoric, established the first

professor or rhetoric in the UK. This is the study of literature.

Before Blair, people didn't study works of fiction. The idea that

you could study fiction originated here in Edinburgh. Joseph

Black came up with large chunks of chemistry, including latent

heat and carbon dioxide.

James Hutton did something quite astonishing. Have you

noticed Arthur's Seat yet? Yes. No? Okay. You have to go and

find Arthur's seat. Hutton trained in medicine and then spent

years gazing at Arthur's Seat trying to make sense of it. When

you go and look at it you'll decide it looks very odd. There's a

bit that sticks up and it's very vertical. That's the plug of a

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volcano, similar to the one the castle sits on. Right next to it is

Salisbury Crags, which sits very horizontally.

As I said, Hutton, who'd been trained in medicine, looked at

Arthur's seat for 20 years and then came up with 2 very

profound ideas, nothing to do with medicine. One was that the

core of the earth was molten. People thought that was a very

odd idea, but it turned out to be true. He came up with the idea

of sedimentation, that particles and objects fell in layers in the

sea, became solid and then rose again. Then he got into a lot

of trouble with the church by saying that however old the earth

was it wasn't what the bible said, it was much, much older than

4,000 years. He was a very important person and invented the

whole new subject of geology.

Adam Smith lectured in economics here and is a highly

respected voice from our past. In the 19th century, Charles

Darwin, famous for evolution, also studied medicine here.

However, he didn't like it and spent much of his time with the

botanists and geologists. He eventually gave up studying

medicine, but he continued the thinking he began here in

Edinburgh to develop his Theory of Evolution, which led to a

much greater understanding of how species evolve through

time to the amazing variety of plants, animals, bacteria, viruses

we see today. His line of reasoning was almost identical to

Hutton's. He looked at variation and tried to figure out what

was going on. People are very aware of his arguments, but

Hutton really preceded him by that type of thinking in geology.

The architecture of the city and the university owes much to

the former student, Robert Adam. If you're an aspirant novelist,

then note the success of alumni such as Walter Scott, J.M.

Barrie, Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle. More

recently, we trained Stella Rimington, Head of Mi5, and

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Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer. You don't always

get famous for the activities you study academically. Olympic

athletes also come here. Katherine Granger, the Olympic

rower, learnt how to row while she was studying law at

Edinburgh.

All these former students should be an inspiration to you. Their

success often involved radical personal changes of academic

direction. One of the things I want to encourage you all to do is

to think a lot and come up with your own ideas. If you're going

to be successful you're going to need to take intellectual risks.

If you think about people like Hutton, Blair, Smith and Darwin,

we know when they first talked about their ideas a lot of people

said they were rubbish. Some even said they were heresy and

argued with them a lot. I encourage you to take intellectual

steps that may be controversial, and especially those that

stimulate debate.

Another researcher who was really important is Thomas

Bayes. Does everybody use Google? Yes. Okay. Had you

heard of Thomas Bayes? If you use a search engine or if you

don't smoke cigarettes because you might get lung cancer or

you use mobile phones to speak into, you're using Bayes' law.

It's the fundamental law for statistics invented by Bayes, who

was a school of divinity man, a clergyman. The reason he

invented it though was to improve his ability at gambling.

(Laughter) He came up with Bayes' law and it turned out, with

a lot of data, to be a fundamental law of probability that we all

rely on for many things.

The university, now your university, also produced many

things. Anaesthetics, antiseptics, neurosis, inflatable tyres, the

fridge and the kaleidoscope were all invented here. More

recently, Peter Higgs won a Nobel Prize for his work on

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predicting the Higgs boson. Maxwell was another Edinburgh

person, who gave us electromagnetism. Higgs continued in

that tradition and gave us an absolute new structure of matter.

Ian Wilmut cloned the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, which

has had a massive impact on medicine. We have Adrian Bird

now working in epigenetics. This was a word coined by a

previous professor, Professor Waddington, and it's to do with

how the environment can affect your genes.

You're in a university that doesn't just do new things. It creates

whole new subjects and whole new branches and it's now for

you to carry on that tradition. What advice would I give you at

the start of your studies? Well, it depends a bit on whether you

are here for a master's course or to do research towards a

master's or a PhD.

For the master's you have a very tight period of time and so

you need to be sure to keep up with the coursework and the

reading. When you come to choose your master's thesis you

may have the opportunity to do things outside the university, in

a company or in the charity sector or in the public sector.

These can add significant skills to come master's courses, so

do think about them. When you do come to your project, be

sure you know what you're going to do as you have a very tight

window to collect your data, analyse it and write it up. Master's

are a real stepping stone to many careers and possibilities and

so be sure you take the time to look at the options, which are

nearly always much broader than you expected.

To those of you doing research for a master's by research or

for a PhD, this is really hard. I still remember doing my own.

You're here to do something original. It may be that you think

you have ages, but time will fly by. At first you'll be led by your

supervisors, but soon you will know as much as them about

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your chosen topic. You need to take ownership of your project.

If you look at how we judge a thesis, it should be original,

publishable and a contribution to knowledge. That's actually

very underspecified, which makes it really hard. I encourage

you to attend a variety of training courses. The university has

very good training through the Institute for Academic

Development, sometimes done centrally, sometimes at college

level, sometimes in schools. They will give you a lot of

additional skills besides everything you will get from your

course.

An absolutely key thing for students to do now, all of you, is to

start to read some of the theses people have produced. If

you're a PhD student, read a PhD thesis. If you're a master's

by research, read a master's thesis. If you're doing a

dissertation during a taught master's course, look at some of

them. They'll give you an idea of where you're going. Don't just

think, "Well, I'll do this and my supervisor will tell me when it's

about right." Look at the theses, read them critically and think

whether you would have been proud to produce that. This will

give you a sense of what you're aiming for sooner rather than

later.

I'm sure everybody will tell you this and I'm sure you won't

listen, but it will take far longer to write up than you think. Allow

time for drafts and for getting criticism. The text you produce

doesn't need to be extensive, but it does need to be

interesting. From my experience, the classic mistake is to write

300 pages when 100 would do, so don't write something too

big. Allow yourself enough time to get it just right, and do take

your supervisor seriously. They're there to help, even if

sometimes what they tell you isn't what you wanted to hear.

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It's absolutely crucial for all of you to be able to communicate

effectively. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? You

should be able to explain this to someone from any discipline

and any member of the public. Try it out on family and friends.

Give seminars, give journal clubs, go to conferences and

eventually publish.

One of the key things, whether you're tackling a master's or a

PhD, is to learn to give and receive feedback and criticism. I

encourage you to give each other honest feedback. If you're

discussing ideas and somebody says something that initially

sounds crazy, don't dismiss it out of hand but say, "I really

don’t understand that" or, "That doesn't seem to fit with the

findings I've been reading about." Say it politely, say it nicely,

but say it to them honestly, that at the moment it doesn't make

sense to you.

It's really important to help each other. From such

conversations you may change what you think, both those

giving the criticism and those receiving it. You might begin to

say to yourself, "I really need to think about this a bit more,"

and that's how you refine your ideas. Then you'll eventually be

ready to take your new results and your new ideas to the wider

community and discuss your ideas with anyone.

This may all sound a bit daunting, but I know you can do it.

Don't just study though. Work hard, but make sure you take the

time to enjoy the city itself. As well as lots of bars and clubs,

there are great museums and galleries and parks to see. The

Botanic Gardens are a must. Many of them are free to visit. I

suggest that at the fair today, besides looking at and finding

out more about the huge range of support available, that you

specifically do several things. I'd like you to chat to somebody

who's not on your course, not in your school, somebody from a

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completely different part of the university, and I'd like you to

chat with somebody from another country and start that

process of finding out more about the diversity of people we

have here.

As you settle in I strongly suggest that as well as joining the

clubs you have in mind, that you try something completely

new. This time in your life is a good time for trying new things.

The other thing to seriously help about is doing something to

help the wider community in a way that fits with your skills and

fits in with your course and the time you have available. You're

at the university at a time where there is much going on across

the world that needs to be changed, and I feel sure you will all

contribute to that. The UK too is changing in how it interacts

with Europe and there are still questions about what that will

look like and how Scotland will fit into it.

I just want to assure you that whatever your background,

wherever you've come from, you're all very, very welcome

here. It is our intention, whatever is going on and whatever the

outcomes are, to be a global university which gives the

brightest minds a chance to develop in a stimulating and in a

diverse environment with other future leaders. Enjoy your time

with us and I wish you all great success. Thank you.

(Applause)

Kirstin Sargeant: Thank you very much, Professor Bownes. It is my privilege to

now introduce you to three current students here at the

University of Edinburgh. They have all completed one degree

and are now working on their second degree here at the

university, but I'll leave it to them to tell you all about their

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experience. Can I first have to the stage Ludovic to tell you

about his?

Ludovic Capelli: Wow. (Applause) Well, good afternoon to all of you and

welcome to the University of Edinburgh. I'm Ludovic Capelli.

I've just finished an MSc in high performance computing at the

University of Edinburgh. I have a few tips and directions you

may want to hear actually because I just had an experience, so

let's see. Up. Come on. Thank you. Come on again, come on

again. Thank you.

The first thing I would like to talk about is actually your own

wellbeing because we all know it's going to be demanding and

challenging. If you don't know that, wait three weeks, you will

know it. (Laughter) Actually you cannot expect a lot from

yourself if you don't allow yourself to work in good conditions.

Every year the university has to send reminders to students

just to remind them to go to the dentist for free. You have free

check-ups with the optician as well and the GP. Many students

ignore that. Because of the coursework, the projects, the

exams, it's very easy to go over that and ignore it completely.

Also, do some sport. At some point you need to empty your

head and just get a clear, fresh mind, just not become crazy.

We all need it, maybe two or three times a week or once a

week or once a month, I don't mind, but just go there. Most of

all, don't forget, you're not in jail. You're in uni. (Laughter) You

have 40,000 students in this university, 40,000 students. Just

imagine the number of friends you can make. Just don't stay at

home working all day. That's something you should do too, but

also make friends. Don't worry about that.

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Above all, you're not alone, again because you have uni

behind you. They have a team of people whose jobs are to

solve your problems and answer your questions. They are

professionals. They know what they're talking about, so just

ask them if you have any problem.

Okay, now you're ready, let's see what you will have to face.

The first thing, you're big time ahead indeed. Just a quick

recap for people not from the UK, not very familiar with the UK

class systems, this is what happens. Let's get rid of all the

bottom part and focus on the first class. We all want the first

class. We all want this. You will need to get more than 70% of

the global average. You have 3 semesters, so a person getting

60/70/80 would get a first class. Very easy. Global average,

70. Perfect.

You can do even more than that actually if you want to and if

you can and if you really want to, want hard. You can get more

than 70% per semester and then you would get a distinction.

Getting a first-class degree with distinction from a top 20 uni in

the world would be something very nice to put on a CV,

wouldn't it? (Laughter) It would be, yes.

Now we all want to get the distinction. Okay. We all want it, so

let's see how easy it is to get a distinction. This is what I was

told when I asked my supervisor, "Hey, okay, how can I get

more than 70?" If you don't want to read this briefly, he just told

me, "Well, when I give you coursework if you do everything I

ask for you can hope to get between 65 and 75. If you want to

get more you have to do more than what I ask." You will

quickly see that what they ask you is already a good piece of

work, so if you want more, well, do more, work more.

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If it's not enough for you and you want even to make more,

that's perfect because it's your time to shine. It's your time to

shine. Many of you are here for a year. A year is really short,

so it's your chance. Seize it or leave it. Take it or leave it, your

problem. If you want to take it, it's perfect because the

University of Edinburgh, the city of Edinburgh is really vibrant

and dynamic. Many events happen all the time, all the time,

conferences, talks, competitions, meetings, hackathons, for

people in computing. Just go there, make it happen, meet new

people, because you can turn these events into networking

events. You can meet CEOs, you can meet CTOs, experts in

your field. You never know who you're going to talk to. Maybe

you're going to have a talk with your future employers or the

person who will give you an internship.

For example, a year ago I went to an event organised by the

University of Edinburgh on 4th November. I even remember the

date, because actually I just had a talk with someone from

Waldies and then I ended up working for them part time. It was

wonderful. They install tracking and things like this. Wonderful.

That's a big name.

That's a really big name, but that's not the only big name you

have in Edinburgh. You want more big names, it's not a

problem. You have many companies and start-ups, Microsoft,

IBM, Amazon, Toshiba, Oracle, Fujitsu, Rockstar. You prefer

start-ups, Skyscanner, you have FanDuel, Malzie and many

others. I don't even list banks and all these big things waiting

for you. They are all beyond these doors. Don't go unnoticed.

Make sure that they remember you. You're in a city called

Edinburgh. You're in the university called the University of

Edinburgh, which also happens to be the number one in

Scotland, by the way.

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Whom do you think these companies are waiting for and whom

do you think they would like to hear from? From you. Keep that

in mind. They want to hear from you, so keep that in mind.

Most of all, keep in mind to enjoy your stay with us at the

University of Edinburgh. Thank you. (Applause)

Connor: Wow, there's quite a few of you here, aren't there? I don't

actually have any PowerPoints. (Laughter) My name is Connor

and I'm a second year PhD student out at Easter Bush Vet

School. I have been through this process twice already at the

University of Edinburgh. I did my undergraduate vet degree at

the University of Liverpool and then in 2012 I came here and

did my masters. I did a taught master's with a research

dissertation and then went back to Liverpool and finished off

my clinical training and then came back here last September to

start my PhD.

The first thing I would tell you is that you better hit the ground

running because it's going to go incredibly, incredibly quickly. I

cannot actually believe that I was sat where you guys are sat

now a year ago. It's just absolutely vanished. On that note

though, nobody ever says at the end of their PhD, "I read too

few papers" or, "I did too little work." Everybody always

pushing themselves to do the absolute most that you can do,

and to be honest with you, you are going to have to.

If you're doing a master's by research or if you're doing a PhD,

the workload can sometimes take over your entire life.

Sometimes that's a good thing because it means that you get

the work done, but at the same time I would say to you don't let

it completely take over your life all of the time. You are in an

amazing city. You're in an amazing country and you really have

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to spend the time to get out of the lab, get out of the library,

see what there is to see in Scotland, go up to the Highlands,

go to the islands, take the weekend off. Don't just sit in the lab

24 hours a day crying over the latest failed experiment.

(Laughter) Trust me, we've all been there.

The other thing I would say is that you are all, by definition of

being here, incredibly, incredibly intelligent and intellectual

people. Whether you're doing a master's by research or a PhD,

the project that you start off thinking that you're going to do is

not going to be the one that you write up in your thesis. It's just

the way science is. The things that you think will be easy will

not be easy. The things that you think of as really difficult might

just suddenly fall into place. You might have to completely

scrap whatever it was that you were planning to do and rethink

from the very beginning.

The important thing is that you have the skills and the

intelligence to do that. This is your project and you can and will

make a success of it whatever happens. Your supervisors will

be an infinite amount of support to you, especially in the early

stages of whatever course that you're doing and whatever

degree you're studying for. As you get further on, especially if

you're doing a PhD studentship, then it is your project and you

can turn round to them and say, "Well, actually, do you know

what? I think this would be a better direction for me to take this

work in" or, "Shall we do this extra experiment because I think

it'll really support the findings that we've got so far?" Don't be

afraid to say things like that to people. They are experts in their

field, but your project is yours and you will be the expert in it by

the end of your time here.

The other thing on that note I would say, (Laughter) and at risk

of sounding completely hypocritical, is this is something that I

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was told quite a lot when I first started and I never really

listened, but whatever the situation you're in, just ask. Whether

it's you're in the lab and you're doing something for the very

first time and you don't know what you're doing, you don't know

how to work a certain piece of equipment, there are hundreds

of people around you who have done it before, who've been

there before, who've trained people before and they're more

than willing to help you. The University of Edinburgh is an

incredibly supportive university generally and the people there

are always out to help you.

That extends beyond the lab and beyond and understanding of

content of any course that you're doing. It also goes for just

general you and your wellbeing and your life. If there's

anything, anything that you are struggling with there are

always, always people who can help you, whether it's your

supervisors or whether it's your course directors or whether it's

your tutors or whether it's anyone within central university.

There are a huge amount of resources available to

postgraduate students and don't be afraid to ask for help if you

need it.

The only thing that I had left to say is that obviously I had both

of my postgraduate experiences out at a different campus to

the central university and I know that some people find that

quite difficult because it can be quite hard to integrate with the

rest of the university, but the University of Edinburgh has a

huge amount of opportunities to socialise, to mix, to get

involved with the way the university works. In my first year I

took on the student union postgraduate convener for the vet

school site and we did loads of amazing work last year to

improve transport links between campuses, to improve social

facilities between campuses, so there are definitely

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opportunities to mix with other students who are not just, in my

case, vets. It's totally worth taking advantage of all of those

things because so many people in the university have so many

different life experiences that you can really benefit from

sharing in.

I think that's pretty much everything that I was going to say to

you, but above everything else, enjoy your time and make a

success of it. Thank you. (Applause)

Kirstin Sargeant: Connor knows how to turn it on or turn it off. I don't know how

to turn it back on. There we go. Connor might have mentioned

it. He's in vet sciences. Our next student is Maddie Long, who's

working on her PhD in linguistics. Maddie. (Applause)

Maddie Long: Hello and welcome to the University of Edinburgh. My name is

Maddie and I'm doing research on language and cognition. I'm

about halfway through my PhD and I have to admit it's going

really well so far. I did my master's here at Edinburgh and that

allowed for a smooth transition into the PhD. I was able to build

upon my dissertation research, work with the same excellent

supervisors and really branch out on the topic in novel, exciting

ways.

Not all PhDs start out like this, but for those of you master's

students, you may find that the work you do this year turns out

to be the foundation for a really cool PhD project, In any case,

however you start the PhD and however far along you are in

the process, there are always, inevitably, highs and lows. I'm

just going to give some brief tips about how I personally deal

with that.

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When I started my master's I had this specific area I really

wanted to go into, and it turns out that what I'm doing now is

completely different. I love what I'm doing now. I love the work

I'm doing. I find it really fulfilling and I'm really happy that I

ended up there and so I'm glad that I was flexible in that way.

Another thing that I think is important to know is that even in

late stages of doing your PhD, sometimes your experiments go

wonderfully and sometimes you find no interesting results.

Sometimes you have these great, brilliant ideas and other

times your ideas just completely fall flat. It's all part of the

process and as long as you're interested in the subject and

really open to new avenues, which I think is one of the most

interesting parts of the PhD because just the spontaneity of it

and just not knowing in which direction you're going to go and

following different leads, then you can really be successful with

it.

Again, it doesn't have to be what you set out to do. This could

be because maybe one day you're chatting with someone in

the department and you decide to collaborate on a project or

you work across disciplines or you meet someone from

another institution in another country and you pilot a study and

it gets you in another direction. It's all really fun and exciting

and so I definitely encourage you to be flexible with your

research goals.

Okay. My next tip is to take it one step at a time. I'm sure every

single person in this room has been in the situation where you

felt overwhelmed by big projects, deadlines, trying to get your

research out there, to the point where you feel paralysed and

you don't even know where to begin. My tip for that is just sit

down and try to jot something down, whether it be notes, ideas,

even if it's just one sentence vaguely related to your topic and

22

then you highlight the sentence and check your word count

and you have seven extra words, so you're slightly closer to

your goal. I think that really helps, so just try and jot something

down. You'll thank yourself later.

Okay. This one is a big one. Get involved in other activities.

Join a club, pick up a hobby, work out, learn a language. It

could be good for your cognitive functions, as my research has

shown. (Laughter) Do something completely unrelated to the

PhD. Make time for it. Do something you've never done before

or do something that you know you really enjoy because what

happens sometimes is your life revolves around your PhD and

you get trapped in this bubble. It's really important to have that

outside outlet because it gives you the perspective you need to

look at your PhD for what it is and it eases the stress that might

go along with the PhD.

My final tip is to have fun with it. I talked about stress and

being trapped in this bubble, but for many researchers, like

myself, the good definitely outweighs the bad. There's no

perfect path to a PhD. It's certainly not a straight line. It's all

over the place when you eventually get it. I encourage you to

be creative, step outside your comfort zone. Propose ideas to

your supervisors. Propose radical ideas to your supervisors.

Try something new related to your PhD, like the three-minute

thesis, for example, which I never thought I would end up

doing, but I ended up really liking. Yes, there's no perfect route

to the PhD, and trial and error is part of the process and it can

be really fun.

There are also some perks to doing a PhD, like discovering

new things, which is so exciting when you've discovered

something, or engaging with the public and maybe changing

misconceptions and learning things yourself from the public.

23

Travelling to exotic locations for conferences is always nice,

meeting new people from around the world who are interested

in the specific thing you're interested in and then collaborating

with them. There's a lot of really amazing benefits that go along

with it.

For those of you considering a PhD, I hope these tips help you,

and good luck with your studies. Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Kirstin Sargeant: Me again. Outside of this room we have 17 different services

that are here at the University of Edinburgh to support you over

the next year or years that you are with us. They all are ready

and willing and able to talk to you. They can't wait for you all to

massively hoard out of here and into them, but I have a few

things to tell you about each of these offices. Some might

seem like things that you know and others might be very

foreign or unusual to you.

Before we do that, you've heard a lot of people talk about the

diversity and getting out there and meeting new people, so just

by a show of hands, how many of you in this room are from

Scotland. Three. (Laughter) Really? Who up there? Excellent.

How many of you are from the EU? Very good. This is just

going to include the entire rest of the world. Anyone else from

an international location, not the EU? Wonderful. I realise I just

forgot a very important group. Anybody from the rest of the UK,

so England, Wales or Northern Ireland? (Laughter) You're also

very important to us, I promise. As you can see, lots of different

places from around.

24

How many of you are studying in the College of Arts,

Humanities or Social sciences? Wonderful. It is our biggest

college. Anybody from science or engineering.

Audience Member: Whoa.

Kirstin Sargeant: I liked the "Whoa." Somebody is excited back there. (Laughter)

Anybody from medicine or veterinary medicine? Wonderful. It's

a pleasure to see you all. As you heard Professor Bownes say,

we do encourage you to get out there and meet people that are

from a different country than you are or who are studying

something different. Now you know there's plenty of people to

choose from.

If I get back to what I'm being told to tell you, all of these

services are here. The first of them is the office of

Development and Alumni. They work to engage with alumni,

friends and companies with the life of the university. I know

that it seems like it might be a far time away for your master's

students, but you will find, as you've heard from other people,

that this year goes by very, very fast and before you know it

you will be graduating and becoming an alum yourself. Our

alumni network here at the University of Edinburgh spans the

world and they provide you a professional and social network

that can give you a lifetime of support, so we encourage you to

make the most of the opportunities that they provide. These of

course include things like discounts, participating in the events

that they host, reunions, volunteer opportunities and of course

career support and just connecting you with other alumni.

The office of Development and Alumni also oversee - and I

can't say this straight - but the Innovation Initiative Grant. Go

25

ahead, try that 10 times fast. These grants are funded by

donors to the Edinburgh Fund and they could provide you with

the kick-start that you need. The Innovation Initiative Grants

provide new initiatives in teaching and in research and the

student experience. Now, here's the catch. Applications are

open to all of you as postgraduates, as well as your student

societies or your sports clubs, but the applications are open for

2 6-week periods, which conclude in October, which is right

around the corner, or March. If you're interested, make sure

that you don't miss the deadline because, after all, there's up to

£5,000 per project available to you.

The Careers Service is also here to support you, whether

you're a taught or a research PG student, throughout your time

at the university, not just when you finish, which is when many

people start to think about the career services, after you've

graduated. They're here to encourage and support you to

make the most of the opportunities available to you, to gain

experiences, to develop your skills, earn money, which is

helpful, and make good decisions so that you move towards a

satisfying and rewarding future. They do have two offices, one

in the central area and one at the King's Buildings campus.

They have events going on later this week so that you can

drop in and see exactly what they have, so do go along and

see them.

Now, there are a few things that you need to do in order to

have the Career Service help you. Those of you who are on

your taught programmes and you're studying full time, you're

going to be with us for about a year. You need to be aware that

just as you're getting started, so right about now, you will also

need to be preparing for what happens at the end, not to put

any pressure on you at all. Deadlines for jobs and further study

26

and for funding that helps you with that further study for

September 2017 are coming up now, so those deadlines are

fast approaching. Again, nobody panic. It'll fine, but you might

want to start looking. Many employers that are offering

graduate jobs recruit almost a year in advance, so they will be

advertising now and over the coming months so you can start

a job with them next September. Now, don't panic. Not

everybody does this. There will be graduate jobs advertised

throughout the year. It might be too soon for you to think about

it right now, but it's important to be aware of the fact that some

companies do have very early deadlines for applications into

their graduate training schemes.

Then of course, some of you on master's, this might just be a

step for you towards your PhD. Many funded PhD positions are

also advertised over the next coming months, so you want to

make sure that you're looking at all of those. You might say,

"That is way too much for me to be thinking about right now.

What do I do?" It's a good thing that you can go back and look

at the careers website to advise you on this whenever you

have the chance.

The Careers Service, just so you know - I'll say one more thing

about them - they do advertise jobs. They provide opportunities

for you to meet employers at graduate fairs. They do individual

career consultations, which are bookable, so you can actually

come in and talk to them about what you want to be doing, and

so much more. Do make sure that you stop at their table today

to talk about not only what you need to do, but what they can

do to help you.

The Chaplaincy is a centre on campus for those of all faiths

and none, and that's what makes our chaplaincy so special. It's

a place of welcome no matter where you're from or what your

27

belief systems are. It's also a quiet space in the centre of the

university when everything else can be so busy and

overwhelming. They offer opportunities for personal and

spiritual development, meeting spaces for societies and

religion and belief groups and a wealth of volunteering

opportunities. They regularly hold events, such as social

gatherings, fundraisers, discussions, volunteering fairs, and the

very popular, "What is university for?" Hopefully we all know

that, but it's really good to have conversations and see where

that actually leads you to. They host weekly events, like

medication, prayer, lunches, when you need just a food

session, to go in and see, yoga, Tai Chi, and meetings for

numerous societies, so lots of things going into the Chaplaincy.

You will probably not be surprised to hear that we have a

Student Counselling Service, not that you all need it in any

way. Our Student Counselling Service offers counselling to

help you work through your difficult times or to just understand

yourself better and help you find ways to manage your

situations when they might get a little bit stressful. All of our

students, both those of you who are studying with us here on

campus- is anybody here on campus for today but is studying

with us online? We have a number of online students.

Wonderful. Well, you may have noticed that we're videoing, so

I will say hello to our online distance learners. All of you can

participate with our student counselling service.

In addition to their one-on-one counselling, they provide self-

help resources online. They enable you to work your own way

through difficulties or to help a friend. That might be a reason

to want to look them up. They also run regular workshops to

help you develop useful skills for your health and wellbeing,

which you've heard so much about from our students. They are

28

here. You can visit them today in the stall in the foyer, but they

also have offices at the main university library building in

George Square, the Weir Building at King's Buildings campus,

the main building at the Edinburgh College of Art campus, the

veterinary school in Easter Bush and down at the Holyrood

campus where the Moray House School of Education is. No

matter where you're studying in the city there's one nearby to

you.

Hand in hand sometimes, the university's Student Disability

Service supports our undergraduate and all of our

postgraduate services- or students, I'm sorry. They are the

most wonderful set of human beings you will ever meet and

they're here to support you, whether you're studying with us full

time or part time or, again, if you're an online distance learner

or a student studying with us at the Centre for Open Learning.

They support students with a range of impairments or

disabilities, many of which are listed here on the screen. If

you're unsure of whether you're eligible for support or even

what that support might be, do go talk to them.

Again, they're here this afternoon and are willing to answer any

questions or just have a lovely chat with you. You might ask,

"What do you think they can do for you?" The disability service

provides a variety of support, including what's highlighted here.

If you have any questions about any of these provisions or

wonder if it might be something that may be useful to you,

please do stop and talk to them. If you decide that right now

you think you're fine, but a few months in you might have

questions for them, there's three ways that you can contact the

student disability service. That's online, in person - you can just

stop into their office over at the main university library in

29

George Square - or by telephone. Really there's no reason not

to stop and chat with them.

Now, this next service is one that you may not have heard

about before. It's the Centre for Open learning, often referred

to just as the COL. You will learn very quickly here at the

university that we love abbreviations, love, love, love them.

This is the COL or the Centre for Open Learning. In broad

terms, the Centre for Open Learning is comprised of short

courses that you can take, the university's international

foundation programme, as well as English language education.

The most common way for our new students and

postgraduates to get involved with the COL is via their short

courses. You'll be very happy to know that they offer a student

discount of 25% off on a variety of courses if you book them

through MyEd.

Now, what courses do they have, you may be asking? Last

year, the Centre of Open Learning taught over 9,000 students

from across Scotland. Many were from within our university

community, but many are also just community members of

Edinburgh and the larger region. You can see some of the

examples of those courses here on the screen. Short courses

can be studied across a wide range of subjects, including art

and design, creative writing, literature, music, philosophy,

science and nature, social and political and legal studies, just

to name a few. You can study for credit or just for your general

interest, so lots of things to try if you are so inclined.

Their staff are very talented, just like most of our university

staff here, but they are award-winning staff who are engaged

with their subjects. Here again are some examples. Having

staff who are engaged with their subject area and who are,

most importantly, excellent teachers is crucial to students'

30

success and 98% of those students who study with them would

recommend the course to someone else. Alongside their

teachers, they also have a number of organisations whose

resources they count on and provide exclusive access to

things like museum collections and facilities which are normally

not open to the public. If you're interested in any of those,

again, these courses are a great way to get it done.

The next one, as you see here, is languages for all. They offer

the widest range of language courses in Scotland and they

deliver around 160 classes every week and up to 24 different

languages, from Japanese to British sign language, at a wide

variety of levels. If there's ever a language that you were

interested in, this might be the way to get introduced to it. You

can learn how to book on their website. Again, 98% of their

students would recommend these short language opportunities

to a friend.

Speaking of languages, the last part of the Centre of Open

Learning that's here to talk to you today is English Language

Education. Again, we abbreviate it, generally, to ELE. Our

English Language Education team have over 30 years of

experience in providing a wide range of academic and

specialist English for international students. A number of you in

this room are international students and all of you will have a

very high level of English in order to be studying here with us,

but academic English is no one's first language. Trust me on

this. When you are trying to write your dissertation, academic

English just does not come naturally to anyone.

If that is something that you as an international student are

hoping to improve, do talk to the English Language Education

team today to see what they can offer to you. Here's a list of

examples of some of the support courses that they do offer,

31

and there is no charge for these courses. Their aim is to help

students whose first language is not English achieve your full

academic potential while you are here. If you think you would

benefit from any of these, please do stop and talk to a member

of the English Language Education Service that is here today.

One group that you will hear quite often because they are such

a vibrant part of the university's community is the Edinburgh

University Students' Association, and they're your students'

union. Has everybody heard of the Students' Association in the

past few days? I get it. Yes. Excellent. This is them. The

Students' Association is an autonomous student-led

campaigning organisation which provides services,

representation and welfare support on behalf of all of you, its

members, the 35,000 students here at the university.

They have 4 venues. What you see here on the screen is TV at

Row House, which is the oldest purpose-built students' union in

the entire country. It open its doors back in 1889. It has 6 bars,

including the ever-popular library bar. Many of my friends used

to just tell their parents they were at the library, and that's

where they really were. It has a variety of restaurants and

cafés and regularly hosts a number of the meetings and the

activities, live music performances and sports screenings that

you may be interested in. If you're studying in science and

engineering and will be at the KB campus or King's Buildings

campus, they have King's Building House. The Potterrow

Dome is where their main office is here on central campus,

where the advice place is as well.

The Students' Association is home to over 280 societies and

volunteering groups. They have everything from acapella to

zoology and everything in between. Go to their website to see

the full list, but the way I would think that it's best for you to get

32

to know what they have is to go to the activities fair, which is

happening today and tomorrow, and just see the variety of

Students' Association clubs and organisations that are there.

They're all open to postgraduate students, and I think that's

sometimes a misconception that we hear from our postgrads,

is that they thought all of the Students' Association activities

were for undergrads. It's not. Get out there, participate, show

yourselves. You're a huge part of our community here, so do

engage with the variety of societies and activities that there

are. If there isn't something that interests you, it's very easy for

you to make up your own group, so please do.

They also offer peer proof reading, which will be opening in

mid-October. This scheme is designed for non-native English

speakers who want help in proof reading their assignments or

their papers. It's powered by reliable student volunteers. If

you're interested in becoming a peer proof reader they would

welcome your application to do so. We also really encourage

our postgraduates to engage with our peer learning and

support services. They give you an opportunity to work with

one and other and learn from those who've experienced

university here before.

Postgraduate Buddies is a new scheme for 2016/'17 and

they're hosting an event during welcome week to allow you to

meet up with other postgraduates from across the university

and explore ways that you can link up for academic and social

opportunities. If you're interested in taking part with that, come

along to the lounge in Teviot, which is on the main campus, at

5:00pm this evening. Please do come see them.

The Advice Place is the Student Association's free, confident

and impartial advice service. It's confidential, meaning that they

33

won't tell anyone that you've been in to see them, and that

includes the university. They don't tell the university that you've

come in and asked a question. They only break that

confidentiality if they are concerned that you or someone else

is in imminent danger. Impartial means that they can offer you

independent and unbiased advice, and they're here to support

you specifically. They are part of the Students' Association

rather than the university, so it is a slightly different take.

If you are concerned about anything, they really can offer really

good, impartial advice. They are open to all students,

postgraduates, taught students, research students,

undergraduates, online distance learners. Everything that they

offer is here for you. They can offer advice on a range of

topics. The common ones are here on the screen. If you don't

know where to go or if you're getting the run-around, which

sadly sometimes happens, and you're just not getting an

answer, go to them and they will find that answer for you.

Lastly from the Students' Association, they're here to represent

your views and your interests to the university. They have

elected 4 sabbatical officers to lead the organisation each year.

This year you can see Jenna, Alec, Jess and Patrick on the

screen. Last year they trained over 2,000 class reps. The role

of a class rep is to represent the views of students on your

course and in your programme to the staff in your school. As a

class rep, you can gather feedback from your peers and pass

this onto the staff in order to improve the experience as you're

having it. It's not just, "Give us feedback and next year we'll fix

it." It's, "Tell us now what's going on so that we can make a

difference for you."

If you're interested in this role then please listen out for your

course or programme director asking for volunteers. They'll do

34

so in the next few weeks. There are a number of elected

positions that you can hold in the Students' Association.

Specifically, we would like for you to consider standing for the

postgraduate vice convener role. There's one for each school

and they would represent the views of all postgraduates in your

school to the university and the Students' Association. Keep an

eye out for that opportunity as well.

Again, with the acronyms, we love the IAD or the Institute for

Academic Development. The goal of the IAD is to provide

university-level support for teaching, learning and research

development. They do this through leadership and innovation

and collaboration with your schools and workshops that they

run themselves. The website that you can see on the screen

has all of these resources and they provide online and on-

campus workshops. They do specific things for taught students

as well as research students, so depending on what you're

studying and how you're doing it, there are specific training

sessions just for you. Ways for you to keep in touch, this

PowerPoint will be available to you on the website, so you

don't need to try to remember all of these things. It will be

posted after for you.

The International Student Advisory Service provide a

professional advice service to our international students. Their

services include delivering the university's special immigration

advice. Congratulations, you're all here right now, but you

might have immigration questions going forward. They also

host a number of the orientation and welcome activities for our

international students. If anybody saw a welcome team at the

airport when they arrived over the weekend or if you went to

International Day on Sunday, that was all of their office.

They're located about five minutes away from here.

35

LAUNCH.ed is another one that you may not have heard

about, but are very excited to be here for the first time ever to

talk to you all. LAUNCH.ed helps the university inspire, launch

and grow businesses. They give free one-to-one appointments

with business advisors to discuss your business ideas. They

also offer workshops, boot camps and competitions throughout

the year to help you take your idea for business straight

through from idea to actuality.

Here's a really good example of one. I don't know if anybody

has heard of Two Big Ears. On the screen is Abesh and Varun.

They formed Two Big Ears, which is - and I don't know what

this actually means, but maybe some of you do - a hyper-

realistic audio technology for total emersion. 3Dception is a

spatial audio platform for developing fast, efficient and scalable

virtual augmented reality experiences, which actually sounds

like something I'll do, but I have no idea how they do that.

Basically, they do the maths so that their clients can focus on

being awesome. They met one and other while they were

studying here. They did a project together and soon realised

that what they were working on actually had really good

commercial opportunities, so they went to LAUNCH.ed. They

started to work on their company and their concept. They went

to the boot camps. They built up a good proposition and were

given an SE SMART award and an enterprise fellowship. Since

then they've grown their company from just the two of them to

six people. Recently it has just been announced that this wee

start-up from Scotland has joined Facebook and is set to

enhance the future of virtual reality for all of us. That could be

you in the next year.

I'm sure that you have no doubt already used libraries in all of

your previous experiences, so the university's library here will

36

be one that you will also get to know very well. We have a

number of them, so find the library that is closest to you and

relates to your coursework. Most information is available

electronically. Here on the screen you can see DiscoverEd,

which you can use to find books and eBooks, but of course if

they don't have it they can also get it in for you. It's not just

about books. The library provides a tonne of different study

spaces that suit all different needs. At some point it is most

likely that you will need to know how to print your dissertation

or do lots of photocopying, and they're the people that can help

you with that.

Our librarians are very customer service focused and they are

outstanding at assisting students. Each of your subject areas

will have an academic support librarian who works closely with

your subject area. Do not be afraid, as Connor said, to ask

them for help. They will know what you have been searching

for and be able to find it very, very quickly for you.

Scholarships and student funding is always something that

everybody has questions about. You can see what they can

help you with here, financial support, loans, scholarships and

trusts and charities. Of course, they also have graduate and

alumni discounts on tuition fees, confirming your attendance to

your funding bodies and ensuring that your invoices go to the

correct person. If you have any questions, they are outside for

us.

Security, a lot of our new students ask, "Is it a safe city?" It is,

but you need to be safe while you are in it. The thing that I hear

from our security office quite often is, "Everybody feels so safe

here. That's great, but then they leave their mobile phone, their

laptop, everything in the library just sitting there when they go

to grab a coffee or a tea." Don't be that person. Be smart about

37

what you're doing, but do talk to our security officers, who can

give you good advice and tips on that.

If you're not from around here, 2222 from a university landline

will connect you directly to university security, but our

emergency services number in the UK is 999. That's a good

one to make sure that you do remember if you're international.

If it's not an emergency, 101 from your mobile will connect you

to the police department, who can assist you with anything else

that you might need. Our security team are always wearing

those fabulous red jackets, so they are very visible onsite.

They're also some of the most friendly people on campus, so

do stop and talk to them if you have any questions.

Our superb sport and exercise facilities are ranked among the

very best, and I'm sure you've heard that numerous times.

They offer a diverse range of users, from occasional exercisers

to international athletes. They are split into 4 different areas.

We have the Pleasance Sports Centre, Peffermill playing

fields, the Firbush outdoor centre and FASIC physiotherapy.

With 63 sports clubs, there's something for everyone, whether

you are new or just getting started. They have fabulous

facilities. You can see some of them here, a new spin studio,

which really has put me into shape. The student membership is

only £111, which would last you all year long.

Now, how do you get involved? They have a sports fair on

Wednesday and Thursday, today and tomorrow, so do go by.

Stop and see what sports activities are there. Try something

new or continue on doing what you have always done. We all

would invite you to the world's oldest varsity match. The

University of St. Andrews versus the University of Edinburgh

are taking up for rugby on 24th September. Tickets are free for

all of our students, and it is the most fabulous day out. Whether

38

you understand rugby or not, it is an amazing day to come out

and see, so do join us for that.

You will be thrilled to know that that is the last of the services

that I need to get through for you, so that's enough of me

talking. I invite you now to go out into the foyer, have a cup of

tea, have a cup of coffee, mix and mingle with one and other

and go talk to those services that are out there.

You may have also seen the photo props that we have for you,

and you were given a pledge card. One minute, I swear I'll let

you out in one minute. Do utilise that pledge card. It is a really

important part of the university. Just write down one thing that

you want to achieve while you are here with us, whether that's

meeting five different people or actually getting your first in

your degree. There will be staff out there to collect your pledge

card. Do drop it off. It'll be returned to you in the darkest days

of February when you need a pick-me-up about what you've

been studying.

Do come out and join us for tea and coffee. It'll be available on

two levels. You may notice that you fill this entire room, so if

the first floor is full, go to the second floor. Tea and coffee will

be available up there, but do join us, do go see the services.

They have been waiting to see you. Have a lovely day.

(Applause)

END AUDIO