6 minute read
graduated Interview: Get yourself out there
Chanou Peeters European Studies Alumna used a VSBfonds grant to go to Glasgow to do the Global Migrations & Social Justice Master
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So there I was. Totally alone, my suitcases weighed a ton, and my room was on the sixth floor. Would’ve been fine if the lift had been working. I couldn’t really have known – I was organizing everything from the Netherlands – but I hadn’t exactly ended up in the nicest part of Glasgow. Nice start.
Chanou completed her study in January. She’s currently living back in Maastricht and is working as trainee at the Province of Limburg.
Chanou is anything but your average student: she graduated from Zuyd in European Studies at the age of nineteen (‘I skipped two years in primary school’). She was born in Korea and, after graduating in July 2018, planned to go on to migration studies.
‘I’ve never had any bad experiences myself; everybody was always super friendly. So why are Muslims treated so badly? Why are the Polish accused of stealing jobs? That’s what I wanted to understand, and that’s what I’m learning now.’ Chanou completed a Master’s in Global Migrations & Social Justice at the University of Glasgow. ‘The university has a good reputation and takes a fairly practical approach (for a research university). Plus, after my student exchange in Canada, I really wanted to stay in Europe this time.’
After the somewhat shaky start, Glasgow proved to be tremendous. ‘It’s a really international city.’ Chanou thought her English was good, but she needed time to adjust to the academic vocabulary. The shift in study culture was also a big one. ‘At Zuyd, everyone starts studying hard right before exams, but here they study hard all the time. They’re in the library every day. So you just follow suit, and before you know it, you’re in the library every day too.’ Does she have any tips for students who want to study abroad? Yes:
Start preparing early! ‘You might have a good idea of what you want to do, but there are loads of unexpected things you’ll need to organize such as enrolment, money, and accommodation. You might even need a visa, and all while you’re busy writing your final thesis. I was super stressed doing it all. I started organizing things in January, but if I had to do it again, I would start in November.’
Get yourself out there ‘Being alone in a foreign country might be scary, but you need to open yourself up and just dive in. Get yourself out there! Do stuff – play sport, even go along to things you don’t particularly like: you might meet some nice people. I met my best friend at the highland games, and bagpipes are seriously not my thing.’
Writing your thesis? How do you approach this?
We asked Annelies Falk, graduation supervisor and founder of the graduation lab the most frequently asked questions about writing a thesis. In the graduation lab, Annelies helps long-term students graduate, partly by helping them finish their theses. She shares her best tips with us.
How do I choose a topic that’s worthwhile for me and my internship or client?
According to Annelies it all starts with a cup of coffee. Well, not really the actual coffee. But just chatting with a lecturer, co-student, client, or internship representative. You don’t need to do it all alone. Bouncing ideas off someone can really help. It’s also important to work out where your interests lie first and then start building on that. But also talk to your client: what are they involved in?
Another tip is: Read through your previous work. What work have you produced over the past few years? You might find a really interesting assignment that you can build on.
Research
What should I watch out for when conducting research?
Annelies admits that this differs per study programme. But there are some general things you need to do. It’s extremely important that your research questions are clear. Because: how can you do research if you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for? There’s also a general rule: think about your target group. And, again, make sure you chat with someone! It’s so incredibly important to talk to others about this. Who is better placed to help you than hands-on practitioners and experts? You don’t need to sit with your nose in books the whole day.
Planning
How much time do I need to spend on my thesis?
You should spend most of your time on the research, as writing your thesis is only part of that process. But let’s admit it: writing a thesis involves a huge amount of work. However, you can make things a lot easier on yourself. Many students start writing without having a plan. It’s so much
easier if you draw up a framework first. Produce a layout of the main chapters and what you want to say in those chapters. That will help you fit your research into your thesis.
How can I stick to my plan?
Make sure you don’t take on too much in one go. Research shows that we can only do intensive cognitive work for ‘just’ five or six hours per day. Outside of those hours, you can do less intensive work, such as checking for typing errors. According to Annelies, if you work intensively on your thesis for five hours a day, you’ll easily hand in your thesis on time.
Setting interim deadlines for yourself can also help. Set these on Fridays, for example, so you can enjoy a wellearned rest at the weekend. Reward yourself when you’ve finished something, too. Even if it’s just one chapter.
Useful tips
Language use
Annelies notices that students often find it hard to express things on paper, while they can explain it to her. It’s absolutely fine writing something in your own, ‘normal’ language first. After all, this is all about your own thought processes. You can always take out any errors later or rewrite sentences. A golden tip from Annelies: ‘Explain things exactly as you would to someone in the pub. Imagine you’ve had a couple of beers and someone asks you what your thesis is about.’
Feedback
It can sometimes be difficult to get focused feedback. So make sure you’re asking clear questions: what do you want to know? And the rule applies here too: you only get out what you put in. If you put effort and time into your thesis, someone else will do that for you too.
Obstacles and pitfalls
At some point, maybe more than once, you’ll be extremely frustrated and you’ll not be able to see a way forward with your thesis. That’s unavoidable, unfortunately, but it’s not the end of the world. Make sure that your thesis keeps ‘developing’. Keep asking questions, keep trying things out and above all, don’t let your thesis come to a standstill. That only makes it more difficult to get started again. OK, last time, I swear: drink. coffee. with. someone. A new approach sometimes works wonders, and it can never do any harm to talk with someone about it.
