PhD Survival: 1st year (Part 1)

Seventeen months and nineteen days ago I registered as a postgraduate student at the University College London. There is  approximately another 19 months to complete this 3-year programme, insyaAllah. This entry is about my experience surviving year one of a PhD course.   I do not have the best experience of all. However, I believe little information does make a big difference to some if not many.  What I am about to share does not necessarily apply to post graduate students, it may be applicable to you or anyone..afterall it is a story of life.

The focus of this article has nothing to do with  the technicality of conducting literature review, research methodology, thesis writing and the whole bundle of tasks expected from a PhD course...there are loads of excellent references out there thus I shall not dwell in any of them. I would like to share what I learned about putting my life in order from day one as a PhD candidate. Trust me, do not underestimate the stress level in going through the initial 12 months of  a PhD...some people are in luck to sail smoothly from the start to the end. Few get into that lucky boat, more often than not there will be rough waves and for the majority of students, the first wave hits in the first 12 months.

When studying abroad, the first challenge is to assimilate into the new environment (far from home, out from the comfort zone), new role (spouse+parent+employee to spouse+parent+student+housemaid+supervisee), new situation (coupled to be singled or vice versa) new community, new culture, new commitments and expectations. As the assimilation process takes place, the PhD timeline starts ticking. I learned that the first 12 month is crucial because it determines the speed and pathway of the next 24 months. The point is, whatever students have to do in the preliminary 12 months - do it fast smartly and do it right the first time!  Most students are on a 3-year scholarship; this means from the 37th months onwards pocket money comes from personal savings, no more scholarships. The average cost of living in London per person is approximately £1000/month. Some individuals manage to squeeze in £700/month, but honestly...I find it very challenging.

For discussion purposes let's say £750 for accommodation, utilities and transportation plus another £250 for food and, etc. Convert this to MYR, it  is approximately RM5000/month! Unless you have (or make) time for a part-time job, say bye-bye to your savings. So, if you are wondering why I wrote this article...it is because I want to help fellow friends to be on track in the first 12 months. I am comfortable writing this because I manage to do it right (Alhamdulillah), and I want others to benefit from it. Thanks to my supervisors and colleagues at the research centre and most of all my supportive husband, family and friends.  

To help you engage to my story, allow me to briefly explain about myself. I am a pharmacist by profession, and my area of research is medication safety in children with kidney problem - to keep it simple, health sciences. After eight years practicing as a hospital pharmacist, I decided to pursue postgraduate study, and yes my area of research is very closely related to what I have been doing at work. You will understand later, the relevance of  my self introductory. My experiences are broken down into three topics as listed below. Whether or not will there be more topics remain unknown for now.

(1) The unexpected:

'..going through PhD is not an immunity towards the unexpected..'

(2) Eagle eye view:

'..use the spot light..not the torch light..'

(3) Take control

'..this is your game..your way..but not entirely your rules..'

1. The unexpected

Be prepared for the unexpected...accidental pregnancy, sudden sickness, marital problems, lose of loved ones and the list can go on forever. The unforeseen happen because we are alive. One thing we have to understand is that, going through PhD does not give us the immunity towards the unexpected. I pointed this out because some people have the perception that they can control or put a control of what is to happen during this period...when the unexpected hit the boat... they drown helplessly. 

In normal living, the unexpected events come and go; we deal with them then move on to the next - some bring happiness and joy; some bring sadness and sorrow. I said normal living because life is not normal in the process of obtaining PhD - you will be sort of chased by (or chasing) submission dates within in a very limited time frame and obligated to sacrifice the usual comfort either willingly or unwillingly. When we are not ready for the unexpected sadness and sorrows, they can really drown us on air. 

When I first came, the plan was my husband will join me after he sorts out his work in the next couple of months. As he was preparing to come over, my father-in-law fell sick and passed away three months later. This was his late father who has been healthy-never-sick-or-ill. This unexpected event took place between the second to the fifth month of my course. Basically, my first 6 month was in pieces - I flew back and forth four times within that period and the longest I managed to stay in London during the ordeal was 10 days. Not long but sufficient to have the draft proposal submitted. Somehow, I subconsciously did what I had to do and of course with Allah's blessing I manage to stay on track.  Despite of  being 6 months behind time and having emotional stress from what had happened, I manage to obtain ethics aproval for my research in month 8, conduct a pilot study untill month 10, submit an article for publication and passed the first year viva one month earlier than scheduled. That was definitely not a coincidence. Oh...I must also mention that on top of the above, my professor moved on to another university outside the UK.

After the ordeal, due to some unforeseen circumstances, my husband was not able to join me. It was very upsetting for us as we were so focused on Plan A and were not mentally prepared for a 36-month long-distance relationship! We initially thought the longest would be 12  months. God is ever loving. The unexpected must have given us extra courage to take up the challenge with strong faith in HIM.

I was very sad (of course) until I heard the news about another student, who was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. I was dumbfounded and numb hearted. Suddenly, my sadness was like almost nothing compared to the suffering of battle for life, chemotherapy, financial restriction, kids to feed, accommodation and the etc the unfortunate couple had to go through. It was unexpected.  Another was a student who got into a vehicle accident while on holiday visiting family back home, he passed away. That was too, unexpected. A new student had ectopic pregnancy and had to deal with what it took to go through a miscarriage. Some students had to go through panic attack when academic supervisors changed to another university (I was one of them) - this means they have to either settle down with a new supervisor or transfer to the new university. The second option usually applies to students who are dependent on their supervisor's research grant (that was not me..phew!). Some individuals had to unwillingly go through a divorce because of personal reasons which none of us can actually understand. Two of my colleagues terminated their study half way through. A few selected ones faced more than one of these challenges simultaneously - may Allah reward them great patience. Well...not all the unexpected are melancholies. I mentioned the difficult ones because these are the types of challenges that have high potential to slow you down and drain all your energy - mentally and physically.   Only those who have been in this situation would understand.

It is unfair and not sensible to think that those who exceeded their timeline were purposely doing it for a hidden agenda - everyone wants to finish on time and longing to be back to their normal life as soon as possible. The examples above are the common day-to-day stories, yes nothing new. However, to handle them in an isolated place far away from the usual loving comfort requires triple or more of the standard effort. 

Therefore, always have Plan B, C and D - this applies to how we plan our (a) personal life throughout PhD as well as (b) research-related tasks. Never take things for granted. Even though (a) and (b) should be well separated; in most situation they twined, the solutions come from the very same head - yours! It is beyond my rights and capability to interfere with how one should handle the unexpected that hits their personal life i.e (a). Some how or rather, having one part sorted is far better than having both unsorted. I will share what I learned about having more than just Plan A for research-related tasks for year 1 and how I managed to stay on track despite of all the 'unexpected' in the Part 2.