The Essential Guide to Postgraduate Study

Citation

Walmsley, A. (2006), "The Essential Guide to Postgraduate Study", Education + Training, Vol. 48 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2006.00448dae.001

The Essential Guide to Postgraduate Study

The Essential Guide to Postgraduate Study

David Wilkinson,SAGE Publications,London,Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi2005ISBN 1-4129-0063-8,330 pp.,

Being somewhere in the middle of my own doctoral studies, it may have seemed an odd time to pick up David Wilkinson’s guide to postgraduate study. However, the clear structure of this book which follows the so-called “postgraduate journey” results in a text that can either be read from cover to cover as an initial insight into the world of the postgraduate, or, equally, dipped into for specific information depending on the reader’s needs.

The book’s coverage of themes is comprehensive, not only dealing with the perennial issues of working with supervisors, or how to search for information, but also addressing contextual matters such as recent developments in postgraduate study, and the culture of academia. Thus chapter five provides a useful overview of the structure of universities, even including tables on pay scales and the role of various university staff, from academic librarian through to vice chancellor. In a similar manner, chapter three presents information on where to study and apply for funding which is backed up with a lengthy appendices of tables on institutions by research income and subject area. Other chapters assume a more directly advice-giving role. The more specific nature of advice given in chapter six, for example, covers making note of library opening hours or how best to deal with university support staff. Nonetheless, the breadth of coverage occasionally gives the impression that depth of focus has been sacrificed on the grounds of scope. Take chapter seven, which addresses the related and yet most would agree fairly distinct themes of managing time, academic writing and presenting work. It is not clear why these themes, rather than others, should be bundled in one chapter. Nonetheless, the text’s overriding purpose is clearly to guide, and as such the list of “references, bibliography and websites” that accompanies each chapter is not only welcome, but also essential for readers who feel inclined to seek further information on a particular topic, as is the annotated bibliography at the end of the book.

Sufficiently detailed information is provided on working with supervisors, and usefully, an entire chapter is devoted to working with other researchers, thereby providing a transition to the last two chapters which address career planning and publishing opportunities. The advice given in the final sections of the book appears to be orientated slightly more towards PhD candidates than postgraduates in general. Indeed, I wonder how relevant discussion of joining the editorial board of a journal or becoming involved in the production of a new journal will be to most PhD researchers, let alone postgraduate students more generally. There is also one important omission. There is no discussion of the thesis submission process or the viva for that matter.

Apart from the currency of the material, which can be considered critical within the ever-changing context of higher education, how does this book differ from previous work? There are after all numerous books available on how to undertake postgraduate study that are appropriately referred to in the text. According to the author, previous guides have failed to “unpack some of the unique peculiarities of the typical postgraduate experience”. To do justice to the postgraduate journey as experienced by the students, quotations and anecdotes from the author’s own research into postgraduate student experiences are drawn upon. These anecdotes provide vivid insights into the postgraduate experience, thereby livening up the text and probably providing some solace to those facing similar issues in their postgraduate existence. This approach, of course, is not unique; Phillips and Pugh’s (2003) guide to getting a PhD for example is similarly interspersed with verbatim student comments.

Overall, I would recommend this book on the basis of the relevance of the material it covers. Indeed, no student should embark on the “postgraduate journey” without an initial understanding of the themes presented herein. In this sense the book’s content does justice to its title and serves its purpose well. Nevertheless, given the book’s scope, the interested reader may well have to turn to other work for more detailed understanding of specific topics.

Andreas WalmsleyTourism, Hospitality and Events School, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK