Academic retreat for postgraduate research students
In April 2025, a group of enthusiastic students, along with staff participants, attended the inaugural academic retreat for the University of St Andrews Business School’s postgraduate researchers. The Burn, historic retreat centre surrounded by gardens, rolling hills and woodland, was the venue.
The event was planned as a community-building exercise for students across the three departments of Management, Finance, and Economics, and featured both academic and non-academic activities. The sun shone, everyone survived the treacherous hike and “Fergus’s impossible music quiz”, and nobody fell out while playing tennis or table tennis – dubbed macro- and micro-tennis by the Economists.
Aparna Bose, second year PhD student, noted that “we don’t often get much time to socialise with other PhD students because of different schedules. Our study space is also a quiet study space. So I really appreciated a chance to get to know other colleagues.”
First year PhD student Jonas Franzen explained:
“When I was back in the office the following Monday, I could genuinely feel a new sense of community, a real esprit de corps, among the postgraduate research students. As a team-building activity, the retreat was a complete success!”
Many thanks to Dr Fergus Neville, Dr Mahmoud Elmarzouky, Dr Margaret Leighton and Dr Frank Siedlok for attending as staff members, and to Sumit Bains for helping to organise the event.
