“Surrey appealed to me because it promised to invest a lot of time and money in helping to develop me as a researcher.

There is a really nice community of postgraduate researchers and lots of support, meet-ups, groups and talks. There are also amazing free language classes and lots of workshops helping with grammar or how to manage your research – they’re really helpful and you can book easily online. My supervisors are very helpful, open and inspiring. From the start they made it clear that this is my research, my ideas and that they’re here to help, guide and support. They’ve set a great atmosphere of openness around the work – I’m very grateful for this.

In terms of general life at Surrey, I really love the lake. I also love eating and I love to cook, so when I found a great little place on campus that does homemade Ramen soups it made me very happy. Eating healthily and keeping fit is so important to me - when it tastes good and costs £5, that’s close to Nirvana.”

“A PhD is a rigorous endeavour; it’s important to stay on track. I have a great space to work and I have regular monthly supervision sessions with my PhD supervisor, who is one of the few people whose criticism I value as much as her encouragement.

My PhD examines a strand of contemporary environmental crisis fiction and is based in the field of environmental literary criticism. This is a relatively young research area within the UK, and I find having the chance to contribute to a developing area of scholarship very exciting.

I’m hoping to go on and secure a position in an academic department, and I’ve been making some steps towards that goal as I work through the PhD. As well as doing some teaching, I’ve had an article published on a chapter of my PhD and have presented at several conferences. Getting involved creates opportunities to network, and networking in turn creates more opportunities."

“I graduated from Sun Yat-Sen University in China with a BSc in International Business. After that I worked for an international company for two years. In 2016, I came to Surrey to study the MA Interpreting and then chose to study my PhD here too.

It’s very exciting to work in this dynamic institution. I really enjoy the multilingual and multinational composition of our faculty, and the postgraduate researchers and staff are all very friendly and helpful. I’ve been working with my supervisor since my MA. She has provided me with regular supervisor meetings, up-to-date suggestions on research and training resources to help me navigate through my study. The Doctoral College and Researcher Development Programme also provide training and development opportunities including workshops, tailored events, one-to-one coaching and other personal and professional development opportunities.

Coming to Surrey is one of the best choices I have ever made.”