The Claverton Rooms was buzzing on Wednesday afternoon as new doctoral researchers gathered together for the annual Doctoral Welcome Reception.
The packed event provided a great opportunity for researchers representing every Faculty and School to network with fellow students and staff while enjoying food, drinks and music.
Doctoral Engagement Ambassadors, a group of existing doctoral researchers, were on hand to answer questions, share their own experiences and encourage students to get to know each other. Throughout the evening, a doctoral 'wall of research' was created, using polaroids and postcards to provide an insight into the breadth of research areas chosen by the new starters. At the end of the event, researchers selected a random postcard created by another researcher, providing an opportunity for them to meet up for a coffee to learn more about each other’s research.
Professor Jonathan Knight, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) opened the event to officially welcome everyone to the university:
I’m really pleased that you have come to do your doctoral study at the University of Bath. We are very proud of our teaching here at the university, but also our research. What is really obvious to me through having supervised doctoral students, is that doctoral students are the innovation within our research programmes. You may think that there are people at the university who know everything. The truth is they don’t. If they knew everything, there would be nothing left for the doctoral students; but actually there is more research that needs to be done than ever before.
Before leaving, researchers were treated to performances from this year's Three Minute Thesis® finalists Peter King and Bath's winner, and national 3MT® finalist, Rob Edinburgh. They also enjoyed an interview with our Chancellor, His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex, which celebrates the wonderful research environment we have here at Bath.