PhD Inspiration - Professor Angie Hobbs, University of Sheffield

Considering a PhD, but wondering what you'll actually get out of it? We've sat down with some of the UK's top academics to hear their experiences and thoughts on postgraduate study. Angie Hobbs is Professor of Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Here she shares some advice for new students.

Video Transcript

Why did you do a PhD?

I initially resisted this, I got my degree from university in Classics and I ran away, I ran away from studying and went and taught English as a foreign language in Naples, but I found I was really missing Plato above all. I kept going into the Biblioteca Nazionale to study Plato and then when I got the offer of studying for a PhD with one of the most famous Plato scholars and teachers in the whole world I leapt at the chance..

What did you get out of doing a PhD?

So, out of my PhD I got a huge intellectual satisfaction and creative fulfilment and it was just a fabulous chance to meet a lot of experts in the field form great friendships so again, this sense of intellectual excitement.

What was the biggest challenge during your PhD?

I think I would name two. One was with three weeks to go until my deadline and my supervisor said he thought I needed a new chapter at the end so I had to write a completely new chapter from scratch in three weeks. I really didn’t sleep for those weeks, there’s photos of me looking absolutely like I had slept under a bush, I probably had slept under a bush. The other challenge of course is that I didn’t have a lot of money. Most PhD students don’t have a lot of money. I took on an enormous amount of teaching at various Cambridge colleges and one of my chief memories is frantically cycling around in the rain to get to my next supervision that I was giving.

Why should people do a PhD?

Just for the sheer intellectual enjoyment of it, to satisfy your curiosity, to stretch yourself and that will also hugely increase your confidence in what you can do. And then of course there are increasing numbers of jobs that really do require a PhD or where having a PhD will enormously help you. So not just the academia but other forms of teaching - arts administration, the civil services - all sorts of jobs where having a PhD can really help.

What is your top PhD tip?

Again, I give two tips. Absolutely make the most of all the opportunities you have, to go and hear every visiting speaker from around the world, to meet other people of like interests. I mean, that is something you will never get again in quite the same way with the time to explore those friendships and relationships. The second tip is to take on a hobby that has nothing to do with academia which just takes you away completely. I did Egyptian Dance, I went along to the women’s resource centre in my university and I was going to sign up for Car Maintenance but Egyptian Dance, slightly below it on the list, looked more alluring and it was fabulous having a chance each week to meet a group of people who knew nothing about my subject and nothing about the university. That was fantastic.