Tag Archives: PhD

Jimmy Savile student beater (Rousse)

Posted on September 2, 2019 by Dreamaticus

It was with horror that I discovered that my new PhD student’s second supervisor was Jimmy Savile. The student had already suffered his first beating at the hands of this fiend. How on earth could I protect him? My only … Continue reading →

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Mrs May thesis caretaker (Rousse)

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Dreamaticus

I plonked my PhD thesis on the top table, muttered an apology to Theresa May, and returned to my own seat. Although she had a lot on her plate, I was confident that she would still have time to take … Continue reading →

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A PhD bigamist (Rousse)

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Dreamaticus

I married one of my PhD students in a secret ceremony. Indeed it was so secret that I didn’t even attend the wedding. Several years later I was finally facing up to this misdemeanour. Soon I would confess all to … Continue reading →

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Escaped astronauts (Rousse)

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Dreamaticus

I asked the students to dress up for the tutorial according to the theme of ‘outer space’, so was delighted when the six of them turned up as astronauts in bulky all-in-one ski suits. Forty-five minutes into our discussion AA … Continue reading →

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A PhD plagiarist (Rousse)

Posted on August 14, 2018 by Dreamaticus

My suspicions were raised when I spotted the phrase ‘this doctoral study’ in LC’s honours project submission. It did not take long to confirm that ‘her’ dissertation was, in fact, a patchwork of text stitched together from sections of an … Continue reading →

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A winning sausage conference submission, with citation indexes (Rousse)

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Dreamaticus

EH and I felt obliged to attend the University research conference, even though much of the content was of little interest to us. On our arrival we could tell that many of our colleagues had ignored the event. This was … Continue reading →

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The PhD cheat (Rousse)

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Dreamaticus

‘Why have you recently made so much progress on writing up your PhD?’ barked the professor at the cowering student, as if this was a terrible crime. The student looked at me from across the table, and I turned to … Continue reading →

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Spotted on campus (Rousse)

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Dreamaticus

My return to campus was very confusing. I couldn’t even locate my office. In the end I gave up and met the PhD students in the photocopier room instead. Then I ran into EH. She was curious about my scars … Continue reading →

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PhD in Middle Eastern history: the mock viva experience (Rousse)

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Dreamaticus

I was completely unqualified to serve as an examiner at this mock PhD viva. What on earth did I know about Middle Eastern history? I had been persuaded to participate on the grounds that I could ask all the standard … Continue reading →

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Distracted by next season’s fashion must-haves and Harry Potter in French (Rousse)

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Dreamaticus

At the height of summer I was living in North Berwick and working in Edinburgh, desperate to finish the data analysis and write-up of my second PhD. On the days that I couldn’t cadge a lift along the by-pass with … Continue reading →

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