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>> 31.05.04

Flexible bank holidays
The steady (as in stationary) flow of cars outside my house and by my side for almost half of my walk onto campus this morning looked very similar to the sort of traffic I would normally associate with the crowds beating a path to the town centre on a Saturday. Which is just as well, because today is a bank holiday. Being a research postgraduate student, however, means that I don't have to join the desperate hoards of worker bees trying to make the most of their weekday off -... {>>}

>> 28.05.04

Student seminar series
The second of the big changes within the maths department being considered at the moment is the remit of the informal seminar series on a Wednesday. Currently, the department has two seminars - one on Friday that acts a formal arena for staff at UniS and external mathematicians to discuss their work - and the informal series on a Wednesday. Although it is recommended that we attend, from a postgraduate perspective both seminar series prove to be more perplexing than rewarding and with this in mind, the department have suggested... {>>}

>> 26.05.04

MPhil(qual) is the new MPhil
Neophiles beware: the PhD system in the maths department at the University of Surrey is undergoing a small, but important change to its PhD research degree structure. Currently, at around the 12-18 month mark, students are required to prepare a transfer report such that their default registration on the MPhil course is 'automatically' upgraded to the PhD course. Bearing in mind the conclusions of the International Review of Mathematics, it was felt that such a system structure does not necessarily produce work of a sufficient standard and - what is... {>>}

>> 21.05.04

Asbestos cleaning
Just as the sun goes in, we all get shoved out of the "office" so that some folks from the university can come in and remove some asbestos that has been hanging around in amongst the pipework of the hitherto 'humming' cupboard that soothes us all as we work. Another relocation later and here I am in the library starting to write up the excellent progress of the last 10 days in the wonderful and in no way whatsoever frustrating LaTeX.... {>>}

>> 19.05.04

Sunny side up
A real change in fortunes today, despite the weather being exactly the same as it was yesterday (I'll have to remember not to blame the weather next time). The trials and jumbles of paper that accumulated on my desk finally produced something tangible and along the lines of what we were expecting and with great joy I have written up the 40 or so sheets into, erm, three sides of neat, structured argument. I was up early this morning to help invigilate and exam for my supervisor. It was a... {>>}

>> 18.05.04

The sun is shining
All day now I have had Finley Quaye's song Sunday Shining running through my head, because the weather is great and I am couped up in the "office". It is a familiar whinge of postgraduate students to moan about having to work whilst everyone else enjoys themselves (along with everyone that has a proper job for a living, I suppose) so I shall not indluge myself for too long, except that to say the work I am doing at present is very hard and I am getting precisely nowhere with... {>>}

>> 14.05.04

A serious hurdle
After handing me the preprint of a paper he will be submitting/has submitted to a journal recently, my supervisor asked me to come up with an equivalent analysis of another — though related — classification of problem we have been looking at. The last week has been spent trying to put together such an analysis and has led to many a moment of dispair as my understanding of the problem all came crashing down around me, only for me to spend literally hours slowly rebuilding it with fragments taken from... {>>}

>> 11.05.04

Improbable research
If proper research is getting you down — and there are plenty of reasons why that could be the case — then why not give thought to some improbable research? Following the link from an article in the education section of the Guardian brought me to The Annals of Improbable Research, a periodical that gave birth to the Ig Nobel Prizes. There is a blog documenting all the madness and, once you get used to it, the whole site proves to be an enjoyable read. Strange, though, nonetheless.... {>>}

>> 08.05.04

The Roberts review
Having spoken about it on more than one occasion recently, I have written a brief summary of the fourth chapter of the Roberts review, which looked specifically at the education and training of postgraduate students in the sciences. The review of the review is here and should keep you occupied for a good while if you are that way inclined.... {>>}

>> 07.05.04

Some humour for a Friday afternoon
It has been a long day of hard work so far, so to relieve some of the demands on my brain this afternoon, I thought I would bring a bit of humour to the diary with some of those dodgy/occasionally funny things you find on the wall in maths departments, as well as some PhD-based humour. First of all, why not play the PhD game? (You are asked why you started a PhD. Miss a turn finding a reason...). If comic strips are more your thing, then why not look... {>>}

>> 06.05.04

On the road to publishing a paper
The momentum gained from my attendance at the BAMC a couple of weeks ago has continued and my work has yielded many small victories. Currently, I am working on one of two cases concerning initial value problems; the other problem has been cracked by my supervisor and he is currently in the process of submitting a paper to a journal. He has given me a copy of the paper and asked me to perform a similar feat for the study that I am working on, which is proving to be... {>>}

All change?
Two interesting articles in the Guardian education today, both of which are loosely associated with postgradute study. The first article suggests that the current degree classification system could be axed altogether since it does not differentiate between attainment well enough. It looks like someone has a point: according to the article: "28,300 undergraduates were awarded firsts last year [2003] — an increase of 2,200 since 2002 and 7,600 since 1999." What is more, some 55% of students graduating in 2003 earned themselves a first or upper second-class degree. The knock-on... {>>}

>> 04.05.04

Overseas student fees
The expansion of the EU last weekend could cause some justified sense of aggravation for some new member-state postgraduate students. Since the move has occured halfway through the academic year 2003-4, the government has recommended that universities classify postgraduate students from new states as overseas students and not as home/EU students. Looking as an example at the fees charged by the University of Surrey, it is clear that such advice could potentially cost new EU students upwards of £2000. When undergraduate students from home start moaning about the costs of... {>>}

NPC online survey
Arriving at the most appropriate time imaginable, given that I have just completed my own six-month review, the National Postgraduate Committee have released an online survey intended to find how useful progress review procedures are for research students. The survey seems slightly — and I do mean slightly — biased towards the view that progress reports are somewhat bureaucractic, but is quite thorough in its questions. The first, and perhaps most informative question, asks the participant what they think the purpose of a review is; it is informative in the... {>>}

Lengthen the PhD?
A previous entry mentioned briefly the recent International Review of UK Research in Mathematics, a high profile review whose charge was to: "[A]ssess the standing and potential of mathematics research in UK universities and comparable institutions, in comparison with international work in the field. The Review should look at the width and quality of all aspects of research in mathematics and its applications, encompassing all of pure and applied mathematics, and statistics." The review made several recommendations, nearly all of which were received well by the UK mathematical community and... {>>}