Blog
Welcome to the Thomas J. Graduate School Blog, which will be regularly updated with thoughts, opinions and experiences from Graduate School students, staff and community assistants, covering everything from academia to student wellbeing. If you have an idea for a blog you'd like to share, contact: andrew.maguire@qub.ac.uk
At a ceremony during the Agreement 25 conference in April 2023, The Graduate School at Queen’s University Belfast was officially renamed The Thomas J Moran Graduate School.
The postgraduate journey can be both exciting and overwhelming, and at the Thomas J. Moran Graduate School, we understand the importance of tailored support to ensure the holistic development of all our postgraduate students.
Tianpeng Yao is a PhD candidate in Film Studies at Queen's University Belfast, focusing his research on the audio-visual representation of Eastern philosophical symbols. He founded the Eutopia Arthouse Film Festival (1-2 May 2024 at the QFT).
The Thomas J. Moran Graduate School plays host to many cultural celebrations, given its diverse postgraduate community, like Dwali and Chinese New Year. This gives postgraduate students an opportunity to share their culture with their peers.
Hear from a few members of the international postgraduate community about how they make the most of the festive season.
Gulnahar Begum describes her role as a Graduate School Community Assistant and gives an insight into what the Thomas J. Moran Graduate School has to offer to students.
Megan Kelly has experienced the Thomas J. Moran Graduate School as a student, a Community Assistant and a Graduate Intern. She shares her experiences.
Md Salah Uddin explains the benefits he’s enjoyed during previous Welcome Weeks, both from his perspective as a student and a Graduate School Community Assistant.
We can't wait for our very first Gradstonbury on August 10th at the Wee Bar in the SU and are delighted to be able to announce our first three performers.
Today, as we celebrate the Belfast Pride Parade, we're looking at how, the recently created LGBTQ+ Postgraduate Group at Queen's, have availed of the PGLI programme throughout the last year, and how other students can do the same.
Much of the life cycle of a PhD is occupied with deep research, but at the end of the journey there lies the ‘Viva voce’ - an oral exam where the PhD student discusses and defends their thesis to an independent, internal and external examiner.
Caitlin Trainor will soon leave her role as a Community Assistant, as she moves on to a career in Law. As she prepares to leave, she shares a few thoughts on what she's learned in her time here.
Harry McGuigan talks to The Graduate School about his journey with Queen's, his PhD, and his new career.
A proud group of participants from The Fostering Network’s Step Up Step Down programme celebrated their achievements at Queen’s University Belfast on Monday 12th June, after completing the The Impact Programme delivered by The Graduate School.
Welcome to Postgraduate Pen Pals, a blog series which pairs together two PGR students and invites them to have a conversation via MS Teams Chat Box about their studies, their research, and their postgraduate experience.
Welcome to Postgraduate Pen Pals, a blog series which pairs together two PGR students and invites them to have a conversation via MS Teams Chat Box about their studies, their research, and their postgraduate experience.
Welcome to Postgraduate Pen Pals, a blog series which pairs together two PGR students and invites them to have a conversation via MS Teams Chat Box about their studies, their research, and their postgraduate experience.
Research and Culture is on the horizon, and as always one of the main aspects of this years celebration is the three minute thesis competition. In our latest blog, recent PhD Graduate, Megan Kelly describes her 3MT experience.
For international PhD students needing to collect data from interviews for linguistic research, preparing for fieldwork outside the UK can be complicated and time-consuming. Here, Graduate School Community Assistant, Sijie Mou shares her experience.
As a student, it can be easy to get caught up in the demands of academic work and extracurricular activities. With so many responsibilities to juggle, it can feel like there's no time to take a break and look after your own wellbeing.
Every story written by PhD students can be colourful, messy, or a mixture or the two. As an international student, I came to QUB full of passion and expectations. Of course, as every story goes, I have encountered various challenges...
As LGBTQ+ History Month comes to a close, Kerry Campbell, one of the founders of PLUS (an LGBTQ+ group for postgraduates at QUB) provides a brief snapshot of LGBTQ+ history and initiatives and communities at Queen’s.
Every postgraduate has experienced conversations where friends or family ask annoying questions about their degree. They usually go something like this...