Hey Guys,

After five posts, we have finally arrived at the PhD. Today, I will explain what a PhD is, how I decided to do a PhD and why.

First things first, what is a PhD? A PhD stands for ‘Doctor of Philosophy‘ and is a postgraduate doctoral degree. A student must finish an original and novel thesis that significantly contributes to knowledge in a specific subject. 

Figure 1: Visualising a PhD | Source: based on ZYFCCC (2020)

Look at Figure 1 and imagine a circle which contains all of the human knowledge. By finishing a Bachelor’s degree, you are specialising in some subject, and your Master’s degree will deepen your knowledge on that same subject. Now, by doing a PhD, you are trying to push the boundaries of the existing knowledge, towards making a significant contribution and make a dent in that circle.

If you are curious a PhD typically involves:

• “Carrying out a literature review (a survey of current scholarship in your field).
• Conducting original research and collecting your results.
• Producing a thesis that presents your conclusions.
• Writing up your thesis and submitting it as a dissertation.
• Defending your thesis in an oral viva voce exam” (FindAPhD 2020).

Now, the interesting part of how and why I decided to do a PhD. So, when I was finishing the first semester of my Master, one professor suggested I investigate the possibility of doing a PhD. The suggestion was to focus on the Olympic Games for my Master’s dissertation and to continue that subject in the PhD. 

Well, to be completely honest, my first thought was: “Nop, not really”. Because I really wanted to start working and to gain experience in the events industry, more specifically working with cars. But after a few months of discussions with a lot of people, I thought: “Why not? I love to study, I love events and really loved doing my dissertation. So, why not?”. In my opinion, if I was to do a PhD anytime in my life, that was the time, because I’m still very young (22 years old) and proactive.

The reason why I applied is essentially because I love to study, and it had crossed my mind a few times the possibility of being a researcher or professor at some point. And knowing that Portugal does not have any recognised degree in Events Management, I decided that this might be a good route to get all the necessary knowledge and capabilities to develop one.

Last year I applied to do a PhD at the Centre for Business in Society, at Coventry University. I am focusing on mega-events, stakeholder management and the Olympic Games. My dissertation is titled: “Privatisation of Public Spaces and Stakeholder Management in a Mega-Events Context: A Tokyo 2020 Olympic Host Community Perspective“.

And now, I am really really happy with my decision, even though it is a little bit tough. On my next post, I’ll explain how the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games postponement influenced my PhD, and how I’m dealing with everything.

See you next time!!

References

FindAPhD (2020) PhD Study – What Is A PhD?. [online] available from: <https://www.findaphd.com/advice/finding/what-is-a-phd.aspx> [8 August 2020].

ZYFCCC (2020) What Is A PhD About?. [online] available from: <http://zyfccc.net/2018/06/21/what-is-phd/> [8 August 2020].