Study facilities

Hello all,

I hope you had a nice Easter break and are refreshed and raring to go with the summer term. I know prospective students will be considering their university choices so I thought it would be good to highlight some to the teaching facilities that are available to me as a PhD student.

What is available to me may differ to other university students because the nature of my degree is different to both undergraduate and post-graduate students but it still highlights what facilities are available to me as a student.

1. Work space

(N.B.- my desk is not as nice or as tidy as the picture above).

One of the facilities that I make the most use of and appreciate is having my own workspace. This isn’t always offered by universities but I am very lucky that Swansea University has given me a designated desk and research room. This is immensely helpful because a PhD often entails long hours and at times the library can get extremely busy so finding somewhere to work can be difficult, so having a designated work space is very beneficial. Additionally, due to the nature of my PhD I need to be able to store confidential information securely which I am able to do because the college and the university have given me my own workspace.

2. 24 hour access to facilities

The university library is open 24 hours a day for most of the year; however in addition to this I have 24 hour access to my office workspace. As I mentioned previously a PhD can entail long work hours so being able to access my office at any time is extremely beneficial. While I have not yet undertaken an all-nighter, I have heard that this is a common occurrence for many PhD students, so if and when I have to complete one I have the space to be able to do it.

3. Pastoral support

One of the factors that influenced my decision to study on any university course is the level of pastoral support that is given to the students by the staff. I can say that the support given to me from both my supervisory team and other members of staff has been second to none. Whether it has been help for the purposes of work or not, the staff at Swansea seem genuinely interested in your progress and well-being so the level of support is fantastic (I know that this isn’t strictly speaking a facility but as something that is available to students at Swansea, I think it is important).

4. Funding

In my position as a PhD student, I do have access to a study bursary to off-set some of the costs associated with conducting research. This has been immensely helpful, and has enabled me to be able to go to conferences, conduct seminars and teach which I may not have been able to do without the grant. I am not sure what pots of funding are available to other students but it is worth noting that there may be some form of help available to you should you require it.

5. Friendly staff

In all my dealings with different staff at Swansea whether they are administrators, librarians, lecturers, everyone has been very friendly and helpful.

I know strictly speaking this list does not really cover facilities but I wanted to let you all know about the assets that are available to me as a PhD student. Some of them are transferable to other students but for those of you who may be considering Swansea University as a university choice some of these aspects may help to inform your choice.

Thanks for reading