Why I prefer my Scottish Uni to my French Uni (unpatriotic post ahead)
I spent the first 5 years of my University education in France, and you might not know this, but universities in France are VERY different from the British ones.
Not that there are no feelings of belonging or of community, but in France the students’ University identity is not quite as strong. In my former Uni there was no overall student union (though a few French Universities have one), just a couple of teeny tiny ones (that I registered with only in my first year, simply to get a discount on my lab and dissection equipment). A couple of sports teams, a couple of art related clubs, and that’s pretty much it. In France your relationship with your Uni is only “where you go for your classes” and … that’s it. It is more similar to the relationship you would have with your workplace. The whole idea about University is that to succeed you need to be independent, resourceful, self-driven. If you need any sort of support, even if it’s just having a tutor giving you deadlines to help you stay on top of things, then you don’t belong there. Sink or swim.
Having spent 5 years in this community-free, support-free system, I had come to consider the British University system as a cute fantasy, packed with non-essential comfort. With this in mind, as I was preparing for my new British PhD Adventure, I obviously expected not to engage much with or rely on this University Love-and-Support community. I’d gone through an Undergrad and a Master’s that way, so as a grown-up PhD girl, I’d be even more detached from my Uni, right? Well wasn’t I as wrong as always!
The University of Edinburgh has an incredible range of clubs and groups and activities, and even though I’ve only engaged with a few of them, just their existence meant that if I ever needed to try something new to get my mind of the PhD, I could. This University has such a strong feeling of community and acceptance, in the lonely and less fun days of the PhD, I knew I was still part of a wider community. More importantly, Edinburgh Uni also offers loads of different services or support for any issue you might encounter.
Once I had a flat lease issue, and while in France my main option to find a solution would have been Google, here I could just pop by the appropriate Uni service and they dealt with my problem! Because a PhD is extremely challenging, being able to rely on my University for anything I might need has taken an incredible weight off my shoulders, and allowed me to focus on the essential, while trusting the University for the rest. Doctor’s appointment? Uni! Accommodation advice? Uni! Mental health support? Uni! Need to exercise to get the stress out? Uni! Free sanitary product? Uni! (Yes people, Scotland is the best). Fed up with the office and want to work in a café? Uni! Nachos? Uni! Jazz? Uni! (Ok that one might really just be me…).
As a prospecting / early stage PhD student you might feel like you don’t need any of these services and opportunities. If you’ve had the chance to benefit from these schemes as an undergrad, indeed you might be over them. If like me you’ve never had them in the first place, you might honestly find them ridiculous at first. Yet, in my experience, being a real grown-up student does not mean you don’t need support and community, especially when you go through the toughest degree that exists. Actually, when you think about it, your PhD years might be (hopefully) your last few years of having this sort of support available for you, so my advice is: Make the most of it (even if it means joining a group with people a full decade younger than you), and don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it!
Best,
Bérengère, a proud University of Edinburgh’s student
