Can anyone estimate when UK universities will reopen?

So essentially the main question here is:

I've no idea what else I can do, seriously.

What have you tried to do?

If an experimental graduate student asked me, I would say that there are always possible directions:

  1. Literature survey? What are some state-of-the-art publications that you have not read, that open doors to different directions? Might any of them be investigated?

  2. What are some branching investigations that you have considered? Have you done the groundwork (non-experimental) for that? What are things you can do to push that along without requiring experiments --- this includes everything from reading papers, to doing theoretical analysis, to doing computational analysis, to contacting other people in the field and pursuing discussions.

  3. Dissemination: if you are finished writing up, what are opportunities to work towards disseminating research? How about organising an online seminar with fellow graduate students and staff? How about a journal club? How about creating a video showing off your work and publishing to YouTube? How about creating posters?

  4. Have you considered the structure of your thesis? How might it be impacted by the change? If it requires a new Chapter 6 or similar that would not have experimental data, what might go into this chapter?

  5. Furthering your knowledge in a domain outside of your current specialisation. In most PhDs, there are always opportunities for students to learn about alternative methodologies or techniques that go beyond experiments (for example). Are you truly an expert in every single approach that is used? If not, then what can you do to further your education in this respect? How might this be incorporated into your thesis?

The above might sustain a deep investigation on the order of years, not weeks.

/r/AskAcademiaUK Thread Parent