Alastair Smith

PhD in Fair Trade, Public Procurement and Sustainable Development
School of City and Regional Planning
UK Student

The quality of my supervision at Cardiff has been excellent! My supervisors have provided me with a tremendous level of support both in the quality and the availability of their advice. The scope of personal development opportunities for postgraduates at Cardiff is also exceptional. The Graduate Centre runs a huge variety of courses that cover all aspects of academic training  (from learning advanced methodological techniques, to how to submit journal articles and employ appreciate research governance) and more general skills (such as dealing with stress, improving your memory and carrying out real world project management).

With a strong interest in maintaining academia as the core element in my career I have been very grateful for the professional development opportunities that have been opened to me. As my research has developed I have been encouraged and supported in learning how to communicate my findings to the wider world, and even invited to become involved in teaching other students learning related issues in taught courses. The university hosts many high level conferences and workshops and given the strong reputation of my and other departments, attracts many well respected and successful academics from all over the world. I have used these opportunities to extend my personal network and this has been well complemented with access to improving my skills and enhancing my employment opportunities.