Petition for bookable PGR desks - foster mental well-being, create community and a place to leave your mug

I find it impossible to work at home and yet I have a large stack of books and papers that I would prefer to keep at my UEA desk. It would make me feel more like I belonged at UEA.

Providing more suitable space for PGR students to work in is essential in securing thier engagement with and contribution to the academic community. I hope this issue is given the attention it deserves

As a PhD supervisor, I have repeatedly heard the complaint from supervisees that there was a lack of a sense of a learning community exacerbated by overcrowding. I give my wholehearted support to my students' concerns.

As a Phd student, I find the lack of designated space for hum pgrs a source of distress. Having a guaranteed space, in which one can leave the personal effects which make a comfortable work environment is necessary- and having a designated area for pgrs to mix is also essential for healthy and productive research. We are not computers! As it is the pgr room has disturbing levels of ambient noise and very bad lighting, on top of lack of designated space. The strange sense of isolation by the fact that philosophy doesn't even have a specific physical space. For all these reasons I work from home- despite the lonliness and isolation it inevitably entails. I simply don't have a sense of belonging on campus.

Doctoral students are part of a university's research community, and the basis for the continuity of research. They should be treated accordingly.

Lack of space provision combined with lack of teaching opportunities turns PhDs into non-entities in the school. UEA management should realise how counter-productive this is if the university is to continue fostering research careers into the future.

I live in that pgr room on 01. I eat there , work there, and yes have even slept there. I leave my books there bc carting them to and fro is unrealistic. Still, I come into the room everyday with the fear that all my stuff--mugs, books, notes, etc, will have been moved bc I'm not meant to leave stuff there for extended period of time. The ability to book the space might assuage these fears and make it easier for me to nest in a space that should be designed for pgr students to do just that.

I believe more self-controlled spaces would go a long way in improving our individual and collective research experiences. A key success requirement, however, would be the guarantee that each PGR student, despite the arrangement, would at all times have access to a dedicated and unencumbered space.

I wholeheartedly support this petition: we need to create the conditions to achieve a stronger sense of community between staff and PGR's and among PGR students.

Signing as a PhD supervisor. We should look at further solutions too. In particular, to foster a sense of belonging and help new researchers find their way in academia, we need social spaces where PGR students, researchers and academic staff come together regularly. Good luck - I hope you see progress very soon!

I am a PhD student too with a lot of books and papers... working in the university with this actual condition is very hard bring out so many papers and books. I work at home.

I agree with this petition, and I am happy to support it.

I am doing a PhD. I need a lot of books. I need somewhere reliable to work. I need a PC profile that meets my needs - I work in the Arabic script and transliteration system and I have to set things up on different computers depending on where I am working. I need to see other people who are also writing their PhD. When we have had opportunities to work and study together as PGRs and ATs I have felt great benefits - ad hoc ideas, advice, discussion, and so on. The normal stuff that research students on other campuses do. Please can we try to really listen and act on what PhD students at UEA are saying.

I have been at UEA for four years now, and every year this problem gets worse. At the start of my PhD I tried working in the hot-desking area, but I was ordered to remove the books that I needed in order to do my work. It is not physically possible to transport 10-20 large books to and from campus every day by bicycle. Therefore I was forced to write the rest of my PhD at home. This is probably the main reason why the hot-desking area is so empty. There must be over 100 lonely PhD students working from home every year scattered around in rented accommodation across Norwich. A university like UEA should aspire to develop a vibrant and thriving community of early career researchers with all the advantages that brings; not condemn PhD students to four years of solitary writing with sporadic trips to campus for the odd seminar. At the moment, doing a humanities PhD at UEA is pretty much like doing an online degree. Let's raise the standard.

I tend to work at home because i dislike the hushed and crowded work space of the library and the impersonal space of the PGR Arts hot desk room. When i had to use those facilities for a couple of weeks due to my computer breaking, i found them claustrophobic and impractical (I had to install vital software each time i logged on). I think such a space outlined in this petition would create a stimulating research community and might encourage me to spend more time on campus.

PGR Director, LDC

PGR Director, School of AMA

PGR Director, School of PPL

I have only recently started my PhD at UEA, but the lack of space and, as a result, community, has been the single biggest problem to my integration so far. If this problem is allowed to continue, it will most certainly impede on my intellectual development and the quality of my final PhD thesis.

Many PGR students need a space they can use on an ongoing basis in order to effectively carry out their research, undertake other activities that make vital contributions to the professional life of the Faculty, and build a community that supports the development of research and researchers' wellbeing. Others need access to hot desks. This is a supremely sensible suggestion for meeting those divergent needs, given current space constraints.