Today is one of those rare days in my career when I say goodbye to one of my PhD students because they are done - finished writing their PhD and about to go off to pastures new. Phil - my student in the picture - has finished writing his PhD, and his only task for his last day tomorrow is to take the version he has printed this evening to the binders and then to the postgraduate office to hand it in. He's starting a job on Monday, but will be back to defend his thesis in due course.
This leaves me with no PhD students (at least not as principal supervisor) so please do tell all eligible candidates to come my way, and that they too can look mildly pleased in the future to have completed their PhD.
I think, for a PhD student, Phil has a pretty respectable publication record - see here (and that doesn't cover his main thesis results). Too bad he has realised that there are some good opportunities in non-academic life. If only I had, all those years ago... It's A-level results day today. I got my results 22 years ago, and they took me to University. The peers of mine who did not go to University now have a much better standard of living than I do thanks (among other things) to getting on the UK housing market, which is constantly propped up by recent conservative governments whether Conservative or Labour. It's not necessarily a terrible injustice that this is the case, but it's certainly one way in which government policy has (probably) unintended consequences. I'd rather be able to tell students a more positive story.
