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Comic Creations

22 April 2013

Jorge Cham with two of the PhD students who attended his talk

Cardiff University and its University Graduate College have welcomed Jorge Cham, Times Higher columnist and man behind the hugely popular PhD Comics, to Cardiff.

Over 400 students and members of staff from across the University packed into the Julian Hodge Lecture Theatre to listen to Jorge discuss his experiences of bringing humour into the lives of stressed out PhD students, in a talk entitled ‘The Power of Procrastination’.

The talk was both entertaining and thought-provoking, with Jorge extolling the virtues of procrastination and encouraging students to let go of the guilt associated with it. Using famous procrastinators such as Albert Einstein as examples, Jorge emphasised that procrastination is not the same as laziness, and can even help students to be more productive in the long-run.

PhD Comics 3_web

Jorge Cham has visited over 300 universities and research centres around the world, lecturing and hearing graduate students from all walks of life share their stories of academic anxiety and de-motivation.

Professor Ken Wann, Deputy Dean of the University Graduate College said: "Jorge Cham is a popular speaker who has talked in many universities worldwide.. The University Graduate College agenda includes rolling out events that will bring the University’s wider postgraduate community together and this event certainly fitted that bill.

"The talk was enthusiastically received, bringing home to postgraduate students the fact that the highs and lows or speed bumps of their PhD years are universal, being shared by the postgraduate community worldwide. There were some memorable exchanges in the Q and A session that followed."

Prof Ken Wann, Deputy Dean of the University Graduate College, welcomes Jorge Cham

After the talk, Jorge took the opportunity to take questions from members of the audience. The evening concluded with a chance for PhD students and supervisors from across the University to network and share their experiences of postgraduate life at Cardiff.

The talk was part of the University Graduate College’s programme of events which aims to enhance the experience of postgraduate research students during their time at Cardiff University.

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