{"id":702,"date":"2017-09-27T16:19:13","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/?p=702"},"modified":"2017-09-27T16:19:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:19:13","slug":"professor-andrew-mcrae-shares-his-reflections-on-the-doctoral-journey-as-incoming-dean-of-postgraduate-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2017\/09\/27\/professor-andrew-mcrae-shares-his-reflections-on-the-doctoral-journey-as-incoming-dean-of-postgraduate-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Andrew McRae shares his reflections on the doctoral journey as incoming Dean of Postgraduate Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/299\/2017\/09\/McRae2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-703 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/299\/2017\/09\/McRae2-173x300.jpg\" alt=\"Professor Andrew McRae\" width=\"101\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Andrew McRae is Professor of Renaissance Studies in the Department of English; and\u00a0 Dean of Postgraduate Research and the Exeter Doctoral College.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>One hundred years of solitude \u2026.?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Those students beginning their journeys towards a PhD this year are doing so precisely one hundred years after the first students enrolled for this degree (or, specifically, the \u2018DPhil\u2019) at the University of Oxford. Britain was late to the PhD: Germany had already been offering these higher research degrees since the early nineteenth century, and the United States since the 1860s.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of this degree had not necessarily stunted the pursuit of knowledge in Britain. Charles Darwin, for one, never wrote a PhD dissertation. But perhaps for every Darwin there was an Edward Casaubon: the character in George Eliot\u2019s magnificent Victorian novel, <em>Middlemarch<\/em>, who ruins not only his own life but years of his young wife\u2019s through his unfinishable study of a key to all mythologies.<\/p>\n<p>It seems to me that Casaubon should have done a PhD. That man <em>needed<\/em> the PhD: not as an excuse for his pomposity and overblown ambition, but as a way of directing and organizing the pursuit of knowledge. For the PhD, at its best, teaches researchers how to construct research projects that are at once ambitious yet realistic, pushing at the bounds of knowledge yet situated in the context of existing fields of research.<\/p>\n<p>We have also got much better, especially in recent years, at thinking about a PhD as a piece of research that can be completed within a discrete period of time. It is never \u2018perfect\u2019, rarely \u2018complete\u2019, but always makes a contribution to its field. For the doctoral student, the PhD is an opportunity to pursue a passion while developing high-level skills that may prove valuable across a wide range of possible careers.<\/p>\n<p>In the University of Exeter Doctoral College, we\u2019re proud to be supporting over 1500 students on their paths towards a number of different research degrees, as well as early career researchers (ECRs) making subsequent, post-doctoral steps in their careers. And I\u2019m delighted to have taken over as Dean this academic year from Professor Michelle Ryan, who did so much to establish the Doctoral College. I think we\u2019re improving our provision of supervision, training and support all the time, but we\u2019re always keen to hear suggestions for what we might do next. Please do contact us with any thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>And when you take a break from your research \u2013 as you must \u2013 there is no better novel for any researcher to read than <em>Middlemarch<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Written by: Professor Andrew McRae<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Andrew McRae is Professor of Renaissance Studies in the Department of English; and\u00a0 Dean of Postgraduate Research and the Exeter Doctoral College. &nbsp; &nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Professor Andrew McRae shares his reflections on the doctoral journey as incoming Dean of Postgraduate Research - Doctoral College<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2017\/09\/27\/professor-andrew-mcrae-shares-his-reflections-on-the-doctoral-journey-as-incoming-dean-of-postgraduate-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Professor Andrew McRae shares his reflections on the doctoral journey as incoming Dean of Postgraduate Research - Doctoral College\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Andrew McRae is Professor of Renaissance Studies in the Department of English; and\u00a0 Dean of Postgraduate Research and the Exeter Doctoral College. &nbsp; &nbsp; [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2017\/09\/27\/professor-andrew-mcrae-shares-his-reflections-on-the-doctoral-journey-as-incoming-dean-of-postgraduate-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doctoral College\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-27T15:19:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/299\/2017\/09\/McRae2-173x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2017\/09\/27\/professor-andrew-mcrae-shares-his-reflections-on-the-doctoral-journey-as-incoming-dean-of-postgraduate-research\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/doctoralcollege\/2017\/09\/27\/professor-andrew-mcrae-shares-his-reflections-on-the-doctoral-journey-as-incoming-dean-of-postgraduate-research\/\",\"name\":\"Professor Andrew McRae shares his reflections on the doctoral journey as incoming Dean of Postgraduate Research - 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