Category: Wellbeing (Page 1 of 2)

Postgraduate Researcher Brunch and Learn: Neurodiversity in Higher Education

27/05/2025 /

Postgraduate Researcher Brunch and Learn: Neurodiversity in Higher Education

Alexandar Palmer, Postgraduate Researcher in Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences

In April 2025, as part of the project funded by King’s Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES) Research Culture grant, I (Alexander Palmer, NMES postgraduate researcher at King’s) organised an in-person postgraduate researcher (PGR) brunch on the topic of neurodiversity in Higher Education [1]. The event invited other doctoral researchers to learn more about the online KEATS (King’s E-Learning and Teaching Service) course Diverse Brains, Inclusive Education: Understanding Neurodiversity in HE, which I co-created (working with a diverse group of students and staff). PGRs were also encouraged to ask questions and share their experiences in a supportive environment. An NMES wellbeing advisor also attended the event to offer support, as some of the experience of being a neurodivergent PGR can be distressing and uncomfortable.

Why does the KEATS course exist?

Photo by Elisa Riva from Pixabay

The Diverse Brains course was developed following research on experiences of assessment and feedback for neurodivergent students at King’s. National Student Survey data identified that students reporting a non-learning disability had the lowest rates of satisfaction with their course overall, low rates of agreement with statements about clear marking criteria and helpful feedback, and were the least likely to feel part of a community.

We also know from ONS statistics on disability that neurodivergent people are disproportionately disadvantaged in education – for example, 18% of people with a mental illness and 20% of autistic people hold a de

gree as their highest qualification, compared with an overall average of 25% across all disabled people, and 43% of non-disabled people. [2] This aligns with literature on assessment and feedback, which suggests that disabled and marginalised students’ diverse needs are rarely met. [3,4]

 

In addition, the needs of PGRs are often not accommodated within university support systems. Multiple postgraduate researchers described trying to access accommodations, only to find that that supports were primarily designed for undergraduate students doing closed-book exams, with little relevance for research degrees.

How did the event go?

The Brunch event had a moderate-size audience, but that made it easier to have conversations as a whole group rather than lots of smaller discussions. Event facilitators shared their own experiences as part of the introduction to the event, which was positively received and acted as a successful conversation starter; students asked us about what had worked for us, what had not, whether we would do things differently, and from there discussed their own experiences or (in some instances) asked for advice.

Having the wellbeing advisor booked also had the unintended positive effect of advertising the course to a member of the wellbeing team, creating another space where the course can be advertised and recommended to students.

What’s next?

Students in attendance discussed supervision extensively, noting the importance of having confident staff who are familiar with support processes, because otherwise this becomes more work for disabled and/or neurodivergent PGR students. The need for sustainable training was also highlighted by attendees; having a one-off seminar or a training course may not be sustainable and is unlikely to lead to longer-term change. From this we are creating scenarios to be integrated into supervisor training that focus on the experiences of neurodivergent PGRs to improve support and supervision.

 

Useful resources

Diverse Brains course (hosted by King’s Doctoral College)

Staff Intro to Neurodiversity course (Workrite)

Creating a neuroinclusive workplace (EQU217, SkillsForge)

GTA – Inclusive Teaching Workshop: Towards a Liberated Classroom

GTA – Inclusion & Accessibility: Disabilities and Neurodiversities (SkillsForge)

References

  1. In this post, neurodivergent is used as defined by Dr Nick Walker, to mean having a mind that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of “normal.” Neurotypical is the antonym, or opposite, meaning someone who functions within dominant societal standards. Neurodivergence is the state of being neurodivergent. The terms neurodivergentand neurodivergence were coined in the year 2000 by Kassiane Asasumasu, a multiply neurodivergent neurodiversity activist. Not every individual who is autistic, or has ADHD, or has mental health conditions, will describe themself as neurodivergent, or as disabled; individuals’ language choices should be followed.
  2. Office for National Statistics. (2021). Outcomes for disabled people in the UK: 2021. In Office for National Statistics Report: Outcomes for disabled people in the UK
  3. McArthur, J. (2016). Assessment for social justice: the role of assessment in achieving social justice. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(7), 967–981. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1053429
  4. Nieminen, J. H. (2022). Assessment for Inclusion: rethinking inclusive assessment in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.2021395

Being enabled in academia – sharing PGRs experiences at King’s

06/07/2022 /
Photo of Lienkie Diedericks

Lienkie Diedericks

Hi there! I’m Lienkie Diedericks, a PGR at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and I’m also currently a part-time Disability Project Support Officer at the Centre for Doctoral Studies (CDS). I’d like to introduce you to the project I’m working on currently, which focuses on PGR disability issues.

I’d like to better understand what disabled, chronically ill and/or neurodiverse PGR experiences are at King’s: what works for you and what doesn’t?

My mission is to create a central online hub where important information relevant to disabled PGRs is streamlined and easily accessible, including topics around extensions, interruptions, adjustments, and best practice. Other than that, I’d like to create awareness and cultural change around disability, chronic illness and/or neurodiversity within our research communities and the institution more broadly.

What prompted you to take on this project?

My own experience as a disabled PGR at King’s made me realise how few conversations and real change is happening in our research environment. Disability is very much still an unspoken topic.

I decided to create a podcast – which was funded by the CDS Wellbeing Fund – to address often neglected disability issues. The podcast is called ‘Enabled in Academia’. Off the back of this podcast, I was asked to join the PGR Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Task and Finish Group at King’s to co-write a paper of recommendations on PGR disability issues. This project aims to action some of these recommendations.

What are your focus areas in this project?

There are a few things I want to achieve. The first is to create a central online space as a reference point for information on PGR disability-related topics, including information on exemptions and interruptions, best practices, and a glossary of accommodations with accompanying case studies.

Importantly, I want to provide a resource for PGRs outlining your rights as a disabled person. And if you don’t identity as disabled? Not to worry, the Equalities Act 2010 covers any persons with a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. For more on this, see the Equalities Act Technical Guidance for Further and Higher Education.

Then, together with my colleagues at the CDS, we’re planning on launching a new online PGR Disabilities ‘Hub’ along with a series of events and seminars in September of the new academic year.

This will include an online open forum Q&A with key institutional stakeholder, disabled, chronically ill and/or neurodiverse PGRs and faculty, followed by an in-person ‘meet and greet’ (snacks included!). We’re also planning a series of short webinars on topics including supervision, and building your support network as a disabled, chronically ill and/or neurodiverse PGR.

How can PGRs get involved in this project?

I’m compiling a guidance document on best practices for disabled PGRs, which will be based around a series of case studies. It would be great if these case studies reflected the wide variety of PGRs and their disciplines at King’s currently.

Please get in touch if you’d like to share your experience – even if it’s not a positive one.

You can share your experience completely anonymously using this Google Form –  PGR disability hub form (google.com)

I’d also love for anyone to be involved in the communications campaign, whether that’s attending the events, co-hosting a webinar or feeding back to me on topics you’d like to be highlighted. Any suggestions are welcome! You can get in touch with me at: heilien.diedericks@kcl.ac.uk.

In the meantime, what resources are currently available for PGRs?

I’d strongly recommend becoming part of Access King’s, the staff disability inclusion network at King’s College London. As a PGR you can join this network, which hosts a wealth of resources and events. Other useful resources can be found on the Disability Inclusion Hub and the PGR Wellbeing Hub.

Research Reflections from Yanqing Wang, Part-Time PGR Student in the King’s Business School

01/04/2022 /

Hello, I am Yanqing and also known as Callie. I am a part-time PhD student in Banking and Finance Research Group in the King’s Business School. My research interest lies in financial technology, risk management, macroprudential policy and financial stability. I am passionate about applying research-based learning to solving real business problems.

It is my pleasure to be invited to write a blog for the Centre for Doctoral Studies. Inspired by my PhD peer, who kindly shared his reflections on his adventures as a lifelong learner, I thought it would be a good idea to share my part-time PhD journey over the first few months. So far, my journey can be summarised in two words: “balance” and “impact”.

 

How to balance work and life, and how to balance what you want to do versus what you can do?

Personally, I don’t think there is a single agreed recipe to get this right. For me, it usually involves lots of planning ahead and prioritisation, among other things. I have done a lot of learning and knowledge refreshing over the last few months on many training modules. Although it is hard to fully grasp all of the content if it is a new domain to me, I still try to follow it and at least build my awareness of what is feasible and available if needed for my future research project, so that I can revisit it when necessary. In addition, I strongly feel that research is different from learning, although we continue self-learning during research projects. Sometimes I have found that doing research can be a lonely journey, as you won’t always be sure what you will find out; much thinking is involved in defining your questions before considering ways to resolve it (or providing insights into the puzzles).

 

What impact do you want to have?

I first came across this question in the research training module for all new PhDs; it appears to be a straightforward question but it is not easy to answer on the spot. Luckily, I had the opportunity to write a blog for my university on climate change before COP26, looking back on the impact of previous climate change accords and what we should consider in the future. It was a good experience for me to realise that the impact of any research goes far beyond academic citations. It is critical to demonstrate the benefit or changes caused, or contributed to, by the specific study in society, the economy and the environment. From my point of view, the research impact pathway is non-linear. We need to plan for impact, engage with stakeholders and consider active communication. As a PhD candidate, how we create a long-lasting impact for research studies is a key question that I need to continue revisiting.

 

From industry back to academia, what to prepare?

You need to prepare yourself physically and mentally for the challenge in front of you. For example, you need to work with your supervisors to set up reasonable expectations with continuous reality checking (even saying ‘no’ to tasks, as there is no need to satisfy everyone, at least not all in one go). I think we do not need to be perfect and ‘good enough’ is fine (be comfortable, at least don’t panic, when you feel you are lost and unsure where to go next). Given part-time PhDs are also likely to be working full-time or have other life commitments, it is important to set up a boundary and retain a balance between work and life. I hope my insights will debunk some common myths you might have on the PhD journey.

 

Do you need some help?

Doing a part-time PhD is a life-changing experience with many considerations and commitments. My personal experience told me that the application journey is not always easy, so we may all benefit from being able to ask a few questions or sense-checking a few things with people who have just gone through the process.

You are not alone in your part-time PhD journey. There is now a Teams channel set up for KCL PT PGRs. Everyone is welcome to join this group (you can request to join via MS Teams).

Please come and join this growing part-time PhD community. We all need to have a safe place to discuss concerns or ask for advice.

Let’s enjoy our part-time PhD journey.  All the best!

 

 

 

Meet the King’s Doctoral Students’ Association Board for 2021/22

12/11/2021 /

The King’s Doctoral Students’ Association (KDSA) is the recognised representative body of the Postgraduate Research Student community. It is an autonomous body within the KCLSU representative structure and drives for the changes that doctoral students want to see.

Aim & Mission

KDSA is independent of King’s and works with the university to drive the changes doctoral students want.

  • Uphold, extend and defend the rights of doctoral/ postgraduate research students at King’s.
  • Establish a Peer Support Network for both academic and non-academic issues.
  • Promote student-led activity amongst new and existing PGR communities to build professional skills, share research ideas & network.

Watch the KDSA introductory video and meet the board members below:

 

Dionysios Malas, President 

Dionysios graduated with an MEng Mechatronic Engineering degree from the University of Manchester in 2020. He realised what is the preferred professional career he would like to pursue from a young age and after a patellar dislocation for which, due to surgical error, he had to be operated on several times. The incident intrigued him to become a Medical Robotics researcher to help in the development of innovative solutions to precision surgical procedures.

His research interest includes the lack of tactile feedback in medical robotics systems and tool, which is a widely cited disadvantage associated with robotics. Currently he is a PhD student trying to develop a novel technique to enable real-time force and shape sensing of an endoscopic tool called, MorphGI.

Check out Dio’s LinkedIn, Surgical & Interventional Engineering CDT

 

Mauro Bonavita, Vice President 

Mauro is a second year Ph.D. student in International Relations, based at the King’s India Institute and War Studies. Mauro’s research focuses on Indian foreign and maritime policy in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as great power competition taking part in the Indo-Pacific. He obtained a Master’s degree in Geopolitics and Strategic Studies from University Carlos III of Madrid, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Genova. He is currently affiliated with the Centre for Grand Strategy at King’s College London. In the KDSA board for the academic year 2021-2022, he is the Vice President.

 

 

Davide Ferrari, Secretary & Treasurer

I am Davide Ferrari, scientist, blogger, and learner.

In 2021 I started my PhD at King’s College London, at the King’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Data-Driven Health.

After a Master’s in Musical Arts and a Master’s in Computer Science, I decided to devote my strengths to medical application of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

Check out Davide’s YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter

 

Katie White, Representative for the part-time PGR community

I am a 2nd year PhD student in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. My research explores how and why people engage with remote measurement technologies (wearables, smartphone apps) for symptom tracking in major depressive disorder. I am completing my PhD part-time whilst also working as a research assistant on the RADAR-CNS Public Private Partnership study. Before joining King’s, I completed a Psychology BSc at the University of Bath. I am thrilled to be the first part-time PhD rep on the KSDA board and look forward to ensuring that part-time students’ voices are heard and championed during their PGR journey.

Check out Katie’s LinkedIn, KCL Pure, Twitter

 

Roger Carles Fontana, Event Coordinator and Wellbeing Lead

I am a second-year PhD student at King’s College London studying the role of miRNA present in extracellular vesicles in cancer metabolism at the Roger Williams Institute of Hepatology (School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences). My working PhD title is “ExomiR resetting of the energy profile in HCC via the mitochondrial proteome”. I am the KDSA Event Coordinator and Wellbeing Leader, from where I hope to implement measures aimed at improving PGR students wellbeing by addressing issues concerning burnout, work-life balance, PGR sense of community and student-supervisor relationships. Prior to my PhD, I conducted research projects in cancer and extracellular vesicles in the United States and the Netherlands in the context of his master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences, awarded with cum laude. I also worked as a research assistant at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, where my work focused on the potential adverse effects of ionising radiation from medical procedures.

Check out Roger’s LinkedIn, Research Gate, Twitter

 

Chiara Mignani, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Co-Lead

I am a cultural manager and a Ph.D. candidate in lacemaking and Data Visualization. I am investigating the social and economic impact of cultural institutions within the urban environment. I use digital semantic mapping and analysis to understand and map urban dynamics. Particularly, my work focuses on the city of Venice and aims to contribute to the maintenance of the city as a center for artistic production and engagement.

Prior to my PhD I have worked as Marketing Manager in Istanbul and Venice, and helped start-ups in the field of urban development and sustainability to develop their marketing strategy.

I am Diversity and Inclusion co-lead and I want to contribute to design inclusive policies and work hard to demonstrate how much an inclusive approach can be a powerful asset for the university and its students and staff.

Check out Chiara’s LinkedIn, Twitter

 

Zeynep Sahin, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Co-Lead

Zeynep is the Diversity and Inclusion co-lead for KDSA. She is a first-year PhD candidate at the Department of Old Age Psychiatry where her work uses retinal imaging and artificial intelligence to detect and diagnose neurodegenerative diseases at the earliest point possible. Prior to joining KCL, Zeynep was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge.

Check out Zeynep’s Twitter.

 

 

 

Sangeeta Bhagawati, Social Media Coordinator

Sangeeta joined King’s College as a PhD student in 2019. She is based in the Department of Comparative Literature and her research project is titled ‘Literature about and from the periphery: Identity and Belonging in Assam’.

Sangeeta has previously worked as a Communications Assistant at King’s Arts and Humanities Research Institute, and she is the current social media coordinator for King’s Doctoral Students’ Association.

Sangeeta holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature (Gauhati University, India), an MA (First Class) in English Literature (Gauhati University, India), an MPhil (First Class) in English Literature (Gauhati University, India) and an MA (First Class) in Postcolonial Studies (SOAS).

 

James Rowland, Representative for Faculty of Arts & Humanities

I am a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of History at King’s College London. My research utilises contemporary newspapers and periodicals, parliamentary debates, works of political philosophy and travel literature to explore the influence of America on nineteenth-century British political reform debates leading up to the Second Reform Act. Prior to my PhD, I was a master’s student at King’s where I completed my thesis examining the impact of the American Civil War on the British Press. I am the representative for the Faculty of Arts & Humanities on the KDSA and look forward to working with the board to promote student welfare and strengthen the research community this year.

Check out James’ LinkedIn, KCL Pure, Twitter

 

Natalie Sanford, Representative for Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care

Natalie is a third-year PhD student at King’s College London studying resilient healthcare and interprofessional teamwork. She is the KDSA representative for the Florence Nightingale faculty of Nursing, Midwifery, and Palliative Care, where she also serves as the Research Executive PhD representative, chairs the faculty Journal Club, and teaches as a GTA. Outside of her faculty, Natalie is involved with a number of projects through King’s Centre for Team Based Practice, including the Simulated Home Environment project, the When Harm Happens pilot, and the implementation of Student Schwartz Rounds. She also works with King’s Academic Skills for Learning as an Academic Skills Tutor. Natalie was a 2021 KCLSU Laurel Award Recipient and was also shortlisted for 2021 Student Representative of the Year. Prior to her PhD, Natalie worked clinically in the U.S. with internal medicine and cardiology patients and taught medical-surgical and high-acuity nursing at the University of Maine. She was an original participant in the development and trial of the Interprofessional Partnership to Advance Care and Education model in collaboration with Maine Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, and the ACGME. She completed her master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh in 2016. Her working PhD thesis title is: “Resilience and Adaptive Capacity in Hospital Teams in England.” In 2021, she presented her preliminary PhD findings at multiple international conferences, where she won an award for Best Paper (EHF 2021) and was selected as an Emerging Talent in Resilience Engineering (NDM & REA 2021).

Check out Natalie’s LinkedIn, Research Gate, Twitter

 

 Sinuhé Perea, Representative for Faculty of Natural & Mathematical Sciences

Hello there! I’m a PhD student in the Photonics and Nanotechnology Group, literally trying to see (with light) what is hidden. I like to solve problems, but since I rarely find any solution, preferring to learn and ask. I graduated in Physics and in Mathematics at University of Oviedo (Spain) where I was also a Computational Assistant and participated in European Exposcience and being awarded as best young researcher for CEULAJ & ICMAT (CSIC). Currently, I am GTA in the Physics Department while researching in near-field and topological photonics systems, algebraic Number Theory (OPN) and skyrmions.

And remember, even primes are odd.

 

Lina Kramer, Representative for Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy 

Lina is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Economy based in the School of Politics and Economics. In addition, she is a recipient of the London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (LISS-DTP) studentship award which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Lina’s research focuses on how AI can be used to design and improve tax policy. For this, she developed the AI Government, a deep reinforcement learning framework that allows her to run dynamic simulations and improve political and economic modelling.

Next to her PhD, Lina is the KDSA representative for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Public Policy (SSPP) and she is committed to enhancing the PGR student experience in SSPP. She is working closely with the Associate Dean for Doctoral Studies to ensure effective representation within the faculty and to strengthen the PGR community across the faculty.

Prior to her PhD, Lina worked for several years as a consultant on promoting the digitalisation of the German government and public sector. She further holds an MSc. in Economics from the University of Cologne and a BA. in Public Management and Governance from Zeppelin University.

Check out Lina’s LinkedIn.

 

Mikel De Iturrate Reyzabal, Representative for Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine

I am a 2nd year PhD student in the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences in the Department of Surgical & Interventional Engineering. My research analyses different ways of combining visual and haptic information to create a reliable low-latency data transmission using mobile networks for telesurgery.  My focus now is on the use of GANs and other Deep Learning methods to compress the data and reconstruct it using the less amount of information possible, ensuring maximum performance at the same time. Before joining the PhD program at King’s, I studied my BSc in Biomedical Engineering in Universidad Carlos III in Madrid and the MSc in Healthcare Technologies here at King’s. I am thrilled to be the representative of the FoLSM on the KDSA board and look forward to helping every faculty PhD student.

Check out Mikel’s Linkedin, SIE Bio

 

Juliette Giacobbe, Representative for Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

Juliette is a 2nd-year PhD student at King’s College London. Her project is part of the H2020 EarlyCause project and focusses on the interactions between inflammation, stress, and hippocampal neurogenesis as pathophysiological mechanisms of depression. She is the KDSA representative for the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She completed a BSc in Psychology and Education at the University of Mons, Belgium, and a MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience specialised in Fundamental Neuroscience at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Check out Juliette’s Twitter.

 

KDSA represents all postgraduate research students at King’s, and they are keen to hear from you! If you’ve got feedback to share or would like to find out about PGR events, get in touch via kdsa@kclsu.org, Twitter, or Instagram.

PhDeets Podcast – Talking about all things PhD

04/05/2021 /

Blog post by Carolin Oetzmann, Katie White & Nicol Bergou.

The PhD Journey can be a turbulent one – from finding the right program to navigating supervisor struggles, and all the madness in between! PhDeets is a podcast aimed at current and prospective PhD students to share experiences and help those trying to figure it out.

About the hosts

Carolin

We are three researchers working and studying at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.  Each of us are in a different stage of our PhD journey. Katie is in her second year of a part-time PhD, alongside a research assistant role. Nicol is in her first year of a 1+3 programme funded by the Medical Research Council. Carolin is due to start her MRC funded PhD in September 2021, after contemplating whether doing a PhD was the right next step for her.

 

 

Nicol

All three of us are the first in our families to do a PhD and we struggled to make sense of the different PhD programmes, funding options, application processes, career pathways and other things that are difficult to figure out without having a friend or relative who can answer your questions along the way. There is information online, but we wanted to create a platform where diverse student voices could be heard. Being avid podcast listeners, we decided to start a podcast ourselves.

 

 

 

Katie

About PhDeets

PhDeets is the podcast we wish we had when we were applying for our PhDs. Its target audience is current PhD students at all stages, as well as people who are deciding whether or not to apply, or those currently going through the ups and downs of the application process. We interview current PhD students, postdocs, lecturers, professors, people who left academia during or after their PhDs, those who are recruiting people with PhDs into industry positions, career advisers and really anyone who has any useful insights into the academic journey.

 

Previous episodes

We use our experiences to inform the topics we cover, but we also reach out to people to ask what topics they’d like to hear about. Some of our previous episodes are:

  • Neurodiversity at university – Panel discussion of neurodivergent researchers Claire, Katrina and Sheila about what being neurodivergent means to them, how it impacts their university life, what support they find helpful, diagnosis and labels, and more.
  • Luke’s journey to becoming a lecturer – We interviewed Luke Devereux, a lecturer at Middlesex University about his journey from PhD to becoming a lecturer, changing topics between undergrad ad postgrad, getting teaching experience, and balancing teaching and research responsibilities.
  • More than one way to do a PhD – Another panel discussion with PhD students Jaya, Shaheim, Victoria and Fiyory about the differences and similarities between their PhD programmes, including a partnership with the industry, self-funded PhD, 1+3 programmes, student versus supervisor driven applications, our reasons for doing a PhD, and applying for funding as an international student in the UK.

 

If you’d like to propose a topic for a future episode, or get in touch about anything to do with the podcast, you can message us on Twitter @PhDeets_podcast or you can email us at podcast@phdeets.com

 

 

 

You can find the podcast on our website phdeets.com or wherever you get your podcast.

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