# So you're thinking of doing a PhD at Roehampton? When my professor asked me to write a six hundred word piece with this brief, my first thought was to copy the word "*don't*" another 757 times and call it a day. Which in turn, prompted me to reflect on why I *did*. Or, as they call it here, *"deconstruct my positionality"* . So let me use this as a guiding thread for this essay: line up the pre-emptive objections anyone interested in a PhD is raising to themselves, explicitly or not, and see if we can resolve them satisfactorily. Or maybe not, maybe this will be the text I attach to the email announcing I'm dropping out. Let's see. > "*I kinda want to do a PhD at Roehampton..."* ## *"...but it's a lot of work!"* Well, yes, sure. *Obviously.* But it's kinda the point, isn't it? This is what "Doctor" means - learned. They don't hand out doctorates off the back of a thirty second TikTok dance. Completing a PhD involves *writing an actual book*. And not even the kind you could gift as a Christmas present. No small order. But there is at least one thing to be said for spending three years filling your mind with a huge amount of highly-specific knowledge: it doesn't leave much space nor bandwidth for the never-ending cataract of horrors coming down the media pipe. So there's that. Really, what you mean is probably: ## *"...but I'm worried I will fail!"* So am I, friend, so am I. The overall completion rate for PhDs in the UK [is above 80%](https://www.discoverphds.com/advice/doing/phd-failure-rate). Although this number is misleading, because if, like me - and a quarter of entrants into UK doctoral programmes, you are a "mature", part-time student, you are looking at 72%. ([Post, 2023](https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2023/09/04/universities-continue-to-fail-the-non-traditional-part-time-mature-phd-student/)). Those are not fanciable odds on the surface. Then again, if you were to look at, say, teaching, within a year of qualifying, only 88.7% of teachers are still practicing, dropping to 74.1%, then 67.5% after three, then five years, respectively ([DFE, 2023](https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england/2023)). Even in the much vaulted private sector, if 93.7% of startups in the UK are still active one year after formation, this drops to 72.8% at two years, then 56.1% and 39.6% at three and five ([Yurday, 2024](https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/uk-startup-statistics-top-industries-and-regions)). Even as a mature, part-time student, **you are 56% more likely to succeed after starting a PhD than a company**[^1]. And the loan regimes are much more favourable! ## *"...but I don't know if I can do it!"* Then there's only one way to find out. The university will certainly support it as much as it can, even if at times it feels it is by forcing you to support yourself. Still, there isn't much challenge, and even less joy, in only trying things that are sure to succeed. It's a proverb that has not aged well in the post-`#metoo` era, but there's some truth to *"Faint heart never won fair maiden"* ## *"... but ... at* Roehampton *?"* Other universities are available. Other London universities are available, even. But no other London university with an actual (residential) campus is available. You may argue this matters little to the grad student who doesn't work on campus, but it does mean that at the times you are there, it does feel like a living community, even during the day. It's nice and leafy, but relatively well connected: just the right spot on the gradient of suburbia. But do choose your university carefully. Roehampton is very good for certain research topics, with experienced scholars producing high-quality research. For others... well, you can get to be the proverbial '*first in your village*'. ## *"... but do they really use words like* 'deconstruct' *or* 'positionality' *?"* Okay, I have nothing for this one. Aside from the fact you'll get used to it. And consider yourself lucky it's not "rhizomatic" or "problematise". [^1]: And a PhD will give you the perspective and tools to not accept those kind of abuse-of-statistics comparison at face value. The critique is left as an exercise to the reader.