Allá good

Allá good

No

As an Art History PhD student at the University of Essex, my experience has been very positive overall. The strongest aspect by far is the support from my School. There is dedicated funding for extra training (such as courses or summer schools) and for conferences, including attendance even if you’re not presenting. Over the course of the PhD, this covers travel, accommodation, and fees in the UK or abroad. I’ve also benefited from fieldwork funding and support for external academic events, which has been invaluable for my research. That said, there are some downsides. I’m not a big fan of the campus environment—the brutalist architecture feels more depressing than inspiring to me—and Colchester is quite quiet, although London being just an hour away helps a lot. I’m also not especially impressed by campus services, particularly the value for money in student housing and the limited affordable healthy food options. Overall, though, I’d rate my experience a strong 4+ out of 5. The academic support, funding opportunities, and supportive research culture more than make up for the negatives, and I feel taken seriously as an overseas student.

The teaching staff are open, friendly, and genuinely engaged with students’ work, and supervision feels collaborative rather than hierarchical. I’ve received constructive and encouraging guidance throughout, which has really helped my academic and professional development. I’m particularly grateful for the funding available to all PhD students. However, I would appreciate more partnership opportunities with other universities, especially in this area of the country. I think this could be a great collaboration and networking experience!

If I had not been extremely lucky with my floormates, this experience would have been much less pleasant. The building is quite old, and the rooms are small and rather dull, with a bit smelly carpets. The laundry is for an extra fee and located downstairs (not very nice as there's no lift). However, shared facilities such as ovens, stoves, fridges, etc, are well and rather new. Each floor is also cleaned every week and includes trash disposal, so you don't need to worry about that. However, overall, I think this is a rather poor quality-money balance.