Derek Chambers DSocSci.mp4
Channel: Imogen Bertin
Date: 08/06/2012

Derek Chambers, Participant, Doctor of Social Science Programme, UCC

I studied Sociology in the past, and I went back into the working world for about ten years, and maybe I was getting a little bit stuck in a rut, so it was an opportunity to pick up my studies again, and it seemed just like the perfect offering in terms of the structure, because it allowed you to continue you working, continue to get a salary, and also get back into studies.

I'm studying in the area of mental health, my work is in the area of youth mental health and sometimes I try and bring the ideas that I'm learning, and reading about and studying to the more practical day-to-day work setting and sometimes I think my colleagues are looking at me and thinking, "What's he on about now?". It's a challenge from that point of view, but ultimately they will be do-able, they will complement each other. 

I have three major prioritiies in terms of my life. The first is my family, the second is my work and the third is the DSocSc. It is a challenge - I won't say that it's not. Any advice would be to timetable whatever time you can, realize you have to make some sacrifices, you might lose a weekend here and there, you might lose an evening here and there when you'd rather be doing something else, so there is a sacrifice involved - think carefully about your time and you do have to put a bit of time management around it.

We are all from very different backgrounds and our subjects are all quite different but we're all in the same process so we can definitely relate to each other and where we are, in terms of whether we've started data collection or not. It's fantastic to have that peer support and peer group. It's not just within your own year either - over twenty people have registered or graduated throughout the programme. So it's having that sense of a bigger community is really reassuring more than anything - if so many other people are doing it, then why can't you?