The Coronavirus Pandemic

As conveyed to both EPSRC and CIWEM through the CDT’s annual reporting mechanisms, the Coronavirus pandemic years (2020-2022) considerably impacted students’ experience and progress. WISE had to adapt the programme during this period and recognises the significant challenges that its students faced in both their professional and personal lives.

During the pandemic the CDT’s primary focus was on supporting students and on maintaining the CDT in order to provide the best training and learning experience possible in the circumstances. The global public health situation impacted students in a variety of ways. Direct impacts on PhD research projects included cancellation of fieldwork, data collection and research visits and closure or restricted access to laboratories and facilities. Personal impacts on students encompassed increased caring responsibilities, unsuitable homeworking environments, social isolation and wellbeing and mental health challenges - including for some the resurgence of historical conditions or onset of long-term illness.

While throughout the pandemic the WISE training programme continued without detriment to academic standards, delivery primarily had to be online. CDT meetings similarly moved online. The CDT Programme Management Group met regularly to consider strategy and operational matters, with events planning, scheduling and delivery methods being reviewed frequently with student representatives. Academic supervision and research group meetings also took place online and students’ access to university offices and facilities had to be managed in accordance with COVID-19 safety measures, which included extended periods of campus closures.

Students’ experience during the pandemic was therefore contrary to the philosophy behind CDTs in offering ‘an innovative, supportive and engaging student experience gained through training as a cohort’. The loss of these collaborative elements - together with the inability to travel overseas for research visits or international conferences - was keenly felt and means that students’ CDT experience was inevitably vastly different because of Coronavirus. The CDT was also aware from student feedback during the pandemic that - because their working lives were totally ‘virtual’ - there was little appetite for participating in additional non-mandatory online events, even if these were designed to promote engagement and socialising.

Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic WISE engaged with UKRI and university colleagues on support for students whose projects and progress had been impacted by COVID-19. This support included the provision of funded extensions for those students needing additional time to complete their research projects to a doctoral level. In accordance with UKRI policy, in the latter stages of the pandemic WISE managed new requests for funded extensions as part of its ‘business as usual’, using this process and other university mechanisms to support students whose academic progress continued to be impacted.

Happily, the 2021-22 academic year onwards brought a gradual return to normality for universities following the disruption, delays and uncertainties posed by the pandemic. For WISE students this meant a welcome return to campus working and a resumption of in-person supervisory meetings, laboratory work, engagement with research groups and participation in events. WISE students were also able to travel once more, presenting at international conferences and embarking on overseas research visits. Student feedback has highlighted how much these experiences have been appreciated since the pandemic.

Nevertheless, the CDT knows from our interactions with students that some continued to be affected - physically and mentally - and that their experience of doing a PhD has been different from cohorts graduating before the pandemic. One key difference is the impact on the cohort experience. Pre-COVID-19, when students in a cohort generally had the same funding end date and were at the same stage of progress, the group could encourage and support each other in the months leading up to thesis submission. However, with a diverse range of funding end dates within a single cohort, students have been at different stages of their PhD journey. Those unable to submit before their funding end date have then had to juggle employment alongside finalising their PhD thesis, causing further delay. An additional impact on the cohort experience is that people’s working patterns and time on campus has changed since the pandemic, meaning less opportunity for casual interaction than previously.