Catherine decided to found “The Lonely Postgrad Club” in 2024, as she was reflecting on her MPhil research in Early Christianity and New Testament Theology at Cambridge (2021-2022), and prior to starting her PhD in Classics at Durham University.

Punctuated both by Covid, and Catherine’s diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes, studying for her MPhil was characterised by an overwhelming sense of loneliness. Living alone, and being one of only two students studying her course, she had very little contact with anyone other than her supervisor, and the other students she passed in Sainsbury’s. Only being in Cambridge for a year, she struggled to make connections and friendships. She has no doubt that her studies suffered from this, as did her confidence and self-belief.

Catherine then moved to Dorset to teach Classics and Theology full time. However, when exploring whether to undertake a PhD, Catherine experienced a second period of feeling isolated, as she struggled to access resources whilst working full time, and did not know where to turn to in order to get advice on applying for funding grants, or the realities of undertaking part-time research on a distance-learning basis. What she did remember of the PhD students in her college in Undergraduate days was their mention of loneliness and isolation. As a result, she was very close to not applying altogether!

But instead of giving up, Catherine decided to make a change. There are thousands of people in this country right now, and across the world, who are taking postgraduate courses, either as full-time students in a university context, or on a distance-learning basis, from home. Isolation is a pervasive problem, and students are deterred from applying, or struggle through their studies alone. Things have to change.

So that leads us to today. Catherine decided to set up The Lonely Postgrad Club, a forum for Postgraduate Students to connect with each other, organise social meet-ups, share advice and to share resources that Catherine wishes she had had access to as a first-timer. You are so welcome here, and, whilst you give back so much to the world through your research, we hope this small area of the internet is a safe space for you to get to know others and find some support for you. You matter too!