Who here is a product of the Polytechnics?

[ColinJ]

......I guess I'll have to think about getting a job someday ...............or perhaps not.

When I was young, I thought I would really like to do a PhD. I had fantasies about spending all my time in a lab doing exciting research work, but what I found out later was that it isn't really like that.

I know several people who have dropped out of their PhDs, saying that they could not stand academic backstabbing, university politics, having to teach lazy/stupid/uninterested/bored students, and never-ending funding battles.

If I had enough money to not have to ever earn any more, I would probably do something interesting, just for the sake of it. A maths degree, perhaps? Or maybe something practical like the Musical Instruments BSc at CASS.

 

[craigwend]

Applied to Humberside College of Higher Education
Arrived at Humberside Polytechnic
Left Humberside University 3 years later

(Later became / relocated .University of Lincolnshire and Humberside.., then The University of Lincoln )

 

[stephec]

I did Biochemistry at Kings College London, and MBA at the London Business School and a PhD at the University of Surrey. I'm currently doing an OU degree in PPE.



And with all that I still struggle to dress myself in the morning

Is that quite a safe course?

 

[Speicher]

Is that quite a safe course?

Does it include some PEEPS?

 

[slowmotion]

I spent five years being a research fellow at The Polytechnic of Central London, subsequently re-branded The University of Westminister. Thankfully my escape bid was successful.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I did Biochemistry at Kings College London, and MBA at the London Business School and a PhD at the University of Surrey. I'm currently doing an OU degree in PPE.



And with all that I still struggle to dress myself in the morning

you mean you managed to complete at PhD at uni of surrey - in what? (I quit my PhD there (organic chemistry) after 2 1/2 years! It was <can't type that here>...

 

[Yellow Fang]

I started a Mathematical Science degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic but dropped out. Then I did a Software Engineering HND at Brighton College of Technology before the course was taken over by Brighton Polytechnic, which then became the University of Brighton. Me and a friend once took the train 5 miles to Falmer to look at some books in the Sussex University library. I felt like an intruder. I was concerned a klaxon might go off and we would be escorted off the premises.

 

[guitarpete247]

Sunderland Poly. BA (Hons) Fine Art. Got a Desmond. Then onto South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, Cycoed for a PGCE.

 

[tony111]

Went to Leeds Poly in the 70s to see Tangerine Dream, does that count?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I was working in the School of Management for the Service Sector and did my research on the organisational development of general practices in the UK. I was also doing quite a lot of work on health service management at the time. I was based on the fifth floor of the AZ Building - which was right above the chemistry department as I recall - I started in 2001 and finished it in 2005. I had an awful supervisor who I largely ignored and was very lucky to get my support from a professor of organisational behaviour in my department and from my wife (who was at that time a professor at UCL). I seem to remember having three supervision sessions over the period of my research all of which were focused on the dog breeding activities of my supervisor.

Chemistry was going through a bad time during the late 1990s and early 2000s as I recall. Ever thought about finishing your doctorate? I've just been watching a programme on Queen on Sky Arts.....Brian May finished his after a 25 year gap.

Guess when I was there? 1995-1997. I had a really bad supervisor as well not helped by a cultural gap, but I was also struggling to come to terms with my disability (with no NHS or Uni support at the time). I also think the field I was studying was a dead end as well. It wasn't going anywhere and I haven't seen or heard anything about my area of research since I left the uni. I don't really know about going back to it tbh and my career path took me down a completely different field...
Right should really pack for today's overnight tour... coming home tomorrow (heading north) is looking interesting!

 

[thecube]

you mean you managed to complete at PhD at uni of surrey - in what? (I quit my PhD there (organic chemistry) after 2 1/2 years! It was <can't type that here>...

Only 1/2 a year to go (well in theory), what a shame you quit. But it is very common for organic chemists to drop out of their PhD's, I know loads, my missus for one! I did complete mine for what it's worth! But even without the PhD my missus earns loads more than me. I don't think organic chemistry was the best career move.

 

[TVC]

B.Eng (Hons) Engineering Technology, Leicester Poly 1987.

Another Desmond as it happens.

Never had the urge to do anything Academic after that, I was made to do a Management course with the OU, hated every minute of the trite, middle management waffle.

 

[G3CWI]

HND in electrical/electronic engineering at Lancashire Polytechnic, now a university I think.

Same here. Leicester Poly.

 

[400bhp]

Polytechnic scum

 

[Fab Foodie]

Polytechnic scum

... and proud ....