[The proposition] Mandatory courses

For PhD candidates, their thesis propositions are an opportunity to air their professional and personal convictions about science and society. In this feature they explain their most thought-provoking proposition. This time, a proposition from Jochem Bronkhorst, Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter, who defended his thesis on 20 September 2022.

‘Everybody needs their personal anchors, something you can always fall back on and that makes you feel peaceful. Something that can be relied on, so you know: if I do that, I will feel better afterwards. Something that takes care of your mental hygiene. For me, it’s playing music. I only found this out when I fell into a depression at the start of my PhD research. The topic was tricky and wasn’t right for me. So you struggle to make it work, but it was just no good. My supervisor Joris Sprakel said, “I can see that you’re struggling. But you have so much more in you; take your time.”

‘I was depressed and I had a lot of therapy. That taught me what my anchors are. I have been making music all my life, playing the trumpet in an orchestra, but I was never particularly aware of what effect that had on my emotions. We live in a very uncertain world and we don’t know what the future will bring. When you start a PhD, there is a lot of new stuff to deal with: all things that can be very stressful. And you just have to cope with it. That’s why my proposition is: make it compulsory for people to identify their anchors, and make time for that. I see a lot of people around me struggling. Don’t wait until it’s too late; you’ve got to have your coping mechanisms ready before the moment you need them.’

Also read:

[The Proposition] ‘Change in attitude regarding the environment starts with the education of the youngest generations.’

Limelight

[The proposition] ‘The Dutch school system would benefit from switching from numerical scores to binary assessments’