BU Research Blog

Four PhD students, whom I had the pleasure of supervising, graduated yesterday with a Ph.D.  I never had so many Ph.D. students graduating at the same time.  Not all of these four students started at the same time.  Moreover, two I was invited as a supervisor after the student had started, and for most I was not the lead/first supervisor .  All four students have an internationally focused thesis:

Alice Ladur with her Ph.D. focusing on: Male involvement in facilitating the uptake of maternal health services by women in Uganda.

Peter Wolfensberger with his Ph.D.: Creating meaning- Understanding the experiences of people living with mental illness in Switzerland- A Qualitative Study.

Shaqaieq AShrafi Dost with her thesis: Factors that affect the management capacity, leadership and employee performance in the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Afghanistan: A single embedded single-case study.

Orlanda Harvey with her Ph.D. study under the title: Male anabolic androgenic steroid-users: A mixed-methods study -The voice of the AAS-user.

Orlanda is a good ambassador for Bournemouth University’s PhD Integrated Thesis.  The newly introduced Integrated Thesis allows Ph.D. candidates to incorporate papers in their thesis (e.g. instead of a chapter).  Papers can be included that have been published or submitted for publication to an academic peer-reviewed journal. As the first BU student to submit an Integrated Thesis Orlanda paved the way with BU library staff to sort out the finer details around, for example, copyright issues and thesis formatting (https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2020/08/27/supporting-integrated-theses-at-bu/ ).

In this COVID-19 year the graduation was on ZOOM, something I didn’t think would work as well as it did.   I love the British-style graduation with the big audience, the ceremony, the gowns, the band, etc.  In previous years I had always looked forward to ceremony in the BIC, the Bournemouth International Centre.  This year because it was on ZOOM the event was smaller, shorter and more personal.  This offered the opportunity to talk to students and colleagues which is otherwise nearly impossible in the hustle and bustle of thousands of people in the BIC.

Being a graduation it is also the end of an era for the student and the supervisor, and the beginning of a new one.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)