Daily meetings

A relatively hot topic of discussion within the postgraduate "office" at the moment is the regularity of meetings a student has with their supervisor. It is normal practise for a student to meet with their supervisor once a week, perhaps sometimes more, occasionally a little less, and for that meeting to last around an hour. That is certainly the norm within our office — and from what I hear of other departments it is simliar there too; the exception, therefore, is me, because I meet with Dr Hydon every day.

Such an approach has its advantages and disadvantages. At this stage of a PhD — which is to say the start of one — such regular contact with a supervisor is certainly reassuring and means that if I get stuck, I don't have long to wait until Dr Hydon can help me out with it (certainly after a year away from study, there has been the odd intgeral that has slipped me by...).

A quick comparison with the other students that have started certainly shows that daily meetings offer more support to me in terms of keeping occupied and establishing a direction to my studies. Talking regularly with Dr Hydon and discussing any problems (or indeed miny 'triumphs') has certainly meant I know exactly where I am with my work, and more importantly where we are aiming to get to and within what sort of time we expect to get there.

As such, then, the first phase of my PhD (as discussed here) has been quite orientated. The discussion in the "office", though, is whether this direction has come at a price.

I do not mean to sound quite so dramatic when I speak of a "price"; instead I merely refer to the work ethic that is needed to keep up with daily meetings: it is like having an assignment to complete every day for a given time. (If this were the Real World, of course, then such demands would be considered customary — obligatory — but this is the world of academia and that means things are slightly different.) Working to 'deadlines' so regularly means that you cannot really have a bad day — if so, you have to be honest about it and just say so.

As such, then, the first few days of working have been a bit of a shock to the system, in terms of the amount of hours that need to be put in in order to have something to say in the daily meetings. At this stage of the proceedings, seeing Dr Hydon every day is certainly a very great positive; I think, though, that it will be a good sign of progress when the meetings become a little less regular over the coming months.