Why Study a PhD in Development Economics at GDI?

Listen to a discussion between Dr Osman Ouattara and two of our current PhD researchers, Mahtab Uddin and Matilda Kabutey-Ongor.

In this episode they discuss their own research and the new pathway for development economics at GDI.

Learn more here: https://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/gdi...
Or here: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/stud...

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Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

Transcript

Osman Ouattara: 

Hi, my name is Osman Ouattara and I'm the PGR director at GDI.

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

Hi, my name is Matilda and I'm a second year PhD student at GDI.

Mahtab Uddin: 

Hi, everyone. My name is Mahtab Uddin.

I'm on my write-up period for my PhD in the GDI.

Osman Ouattara: 

Thank you very much.

I just want to give you some background on how the PhD in Development Economics actually came about.

We have around 100 PGRs at GDI, and about a third of them, their research focuses on development economics.

And the idea was to introduce a programme which reflects that degree.

So that when they go to the job market, they are able to compete with their peers studying economics.

So that's the reason why we kind of introduced the development economic PhD at GDI, which about a third of our PGRs are taking.

The next question would be, you know, to ask you what is your topics.

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

So I'm looking at mainly environmental economics and natural resource economics.

So the two in that.

So broadly, my topic and my PhD is part of two projects that is headed by Professor Johan Oldekop. So it's the Sustainable Forest Transitions Project and then the Observatory for Forest and Just Transitions project.

So those two projects are looking at how land rights and resource extraction rights impact some economic outcomes like socioeconomic outcomes like poverty,

inequality, and then some environmental outcomes like deforestation, reforestation and all of that.

So that is the broad idea of what my PhD is about. But I'm looking at that with a focus on Ghana.

So in that project, we have people looking at that with the focus of Brazil, Mexico and other countries.

But my PhD's looking at it in terms of Ghana.

So how has land rights tenure systems in Ghana impacted people in the community in terms, are they better off with

A secure tenure or worse off with the secure tenure, and how has this mining extractive that is being done in Ghana, So like mining of gold and all of that, how has that also impacted some outcomes?

So that is the broad question that I'm trying to answer for my PhD, but we have like different questions that we are trying to look at, like how there's a trade-off between cocoa production and the mining in Ghana, and how most of the cocoa farms have been converted to mining sites in Ghana.

And then looking at mining impact on health outcomes also is one topic or one area that we are trying to look at.

So for mine, I would say it's very broad, looking generally at forest and forest outcomes and also looking at it in terms of, like you said, development and how best we can help understand the mechanisms through which tenure and extractives can help the people that we're looking at for.

Mahtab Uddin: 

So I mostly work on poverty, inequality, migration, remittances. So I'm from Bangladesh.

So basically what I'm looking at is how the migration and remittances affect the poverty, inequality dynamics in the country.

The reason is Bangladesh is one of the, you know, most densely populated country in the world.

We have 170 million people in the country and we are also one of the highest number of remittance sender country in the world. So there are 16 million people who are working overseas. But one issue is the international migration is very highly costly in the country.

So not everyone can afford to go to the overseas market. This has a distributional effect.

So Bangladesh receives each month, receives billions of dollars from overseas in the country.

But if the people from the lower quartiles they do not get chance to participate in the you know this overseas market that can have distribution consequences.

In my PhD what I'm looking at how these migration dynamics affect the inequality in the country.

And also I'm looking at in one of my papers  how the COVID-19 pandemic affected these migrant and non-migrant households.

So basically looking at the distributional consequences in the household dynamics and also how the massive shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic  affects these dynamics.

Osman Ouattara: 

Thank you very much.

You both have a background in economics.

Could you tell me why you choose to come and study a PhD in development economics?

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

I can go first.

So, I have an undergraduate degree in economics with geography from the University of Ghana and a first master's degree also in economics but labour economics from the University of Ghana and then a second master's in economics, but environmental economics from the University of Montana in the US and then the PhD.

So in deciding where I wanted to do my PhD, I was looking for a programme that focused specifically on environmental economics, natural resource economics, and development economics.

It's quite hard to find a programme that does all three in one.

It's mostly, you'd either find a programme where they're either focusing on, for instance, health economics or environmental economics or other aspects.

You hardly find a programmes that focuses on development economics, so when I was approached, so I actually applied for the programme via the project route

So, Johan's Sustainable Forest Transition Project was looking for a PhD student.

To look at the development aspect of the things they were looking at.

So I thought it would be quite good to combine all the different aspects of economics that I know, which is the environmental and natural resource economics, and then adding that to the development economics angle as well, so that I'm not cut off with just saying that I am just an environmental economist or a natural resource economist, because development economics kind of cuts across every way, even if you are studying health economics, labour economics, there's always that aspect of development in there.

So, Johan mentioned that the development economics programme was going to be launched when I come in.

So I was like, okay, then that's a good programme for me.

Then since I was trying to get a programme that captures development economics or has the angle of development economics that I could use.

So I wouldn't necessarily have to say I'm an environmental economist or a natural resource economist.

When I say development economist, you can think of literally any angle that you want and it will still capture.

Me being an economist, so that was what brought me to the programme and made me apply for it.

Osman Ouattara: 

So if I understand what you are trying to say, the programme, the PhD in Development Economics here at GDI University of Manchester kind of

allowed you to learn in an interdisciplinary environment and on issues that are relevant to developing countries.

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

Yes.

So I, and I feel like for this programme, in fact, when you get into GDI, you see most of the PhD students doing so many different things.

And I'm mostly very surprised when I hear of what my colleagues are doing.

You can find someone doing something on health, like he's doing migration.

It's so diverse and at the centre of it all is development in its way.

We are all trying to look for studies or try to do studies to better the countries that we are looking at.

And most of these countries that most of the researchers in GDI look at are developing countries.

So it's just I feel like it was a good idea to bring development economics since GDI was already doing most of their research around development anyway.

So yeah, the fact that I can have three different areas of economics all in one for my PhD sounded very good for me.

So I just decided to come into the programme for that.

Mahtab Uddin: 

So I did my undergrad and masters in economics from the University of Dhaka and then I joined the University as a lecturer of economics.

I taught there for five years.

One of the reasons why I chose GDI is particularly several of my colleagues, they did their PhD in the GDI and they are doing so good in Bangladesh.

One of them I would like to mention is Professor Saleem Rahan.

He is considered one of the top economists in South Asia

So he did his PhD when it was IDPM before GDI became GDI.

So he did a PhD around 2005 or 2006 and then he went back to Bangladesh and he is the work he's doing with leading economists from around the world and he applies international trade, compatible general equilibrium and DG modelling and also poverty analysis.

So I had the opportunity to work with him and I was his student as well.

What motivated me is the profile of the GDI. So particularly when you look at the GDI it has so diverse you know group of scholars.

So you have in the GDI we have you know people who are expert in macro, who are experts in poverty, unequal dynamics, who are also we have also diverse group who are looking at environment.

So that gives you kind of a broader understanding.

So when we talk about development, development is not unifocal.

You cannot look at it just from one angle.

It has to be holistic.

It has two observe the phenomena from as many angles as possible.

And that gives kind of you know GDI a competitive edge over other departments because if you need an insight from.

The perspective of, say, environmental perspective, we have that, you know, scientists who are working here.

If you want a perspective from, say political economic perspective, because that is also very relevant in development.

So there are very good researchers, amazing researchers in the GDI who are working on those fields.

So you get to have that you know, cross perspective

Interdisciplinary feedback when you're working on your on your thesis.

So and all of my colleagues who did their PhD in the GDI they talked so highly about the department.

So that motivated me because one of my colleagues told me that you know GDI is one of the largest institutes in the Europe who are working on development studies.

So that kind of gave me a thing like no well, that owed the shot, right?

So I had my admissions in the US. I had a couple of funding in the U.S. Universities.

But when I looked at the profile of the professors here, so I found some of the professor who were working on India and Bangladesh context.

So you see, when you are working with a supervisor, if the supervisor has a very vast knowledge on the country context, that makes your work much easier and more in depth.

So, and then I started my PhD journey.

Osman Ouattara: 

Yes, it's quite interesting what you both said, particularly in terms of the interdisciplinary nature of GDI and also the development economic project.

And like you, I have a background in economics. I got my PhD in economics, in fact, from the University of Manchester.

And I left to actually work in an economics department. And then something was missing.

I wanted to do something related to development economics, so that's why I came to GDI.

In terms of the development economic programme itself, in what ways do you think it can help you to kind of develop your career and help you in achieving your goals?

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

I think I would go back to what you said about it being interdisciplinary.

Just the fact that it's interdisciplinary alone positions most of us to branch into whatever area we want to branch in to in future.

So I'm in my second year, it's quite difficult to have a set plan or a set goal of where I want to be.

Initially I wanted to venture into purely economics, I don't want any development economics, environmental economics.

I remember when Johan was trying to convince me to come for this programme, I was like...I want a PhD in economics. I don't want a PhD in development economics, a PhD in that, but I feel like that positions you better in terms of you are not closed off in  terms of your title.

So you have a PhD development economics. Development economics could mean so many things.

It could mean you are looking at it in terms the health of the country, you are look at it in terms of the environment like I'm looking at.

It could mean so many things.

You could even venture into the finance section based on your development economics knowledge.

So for me, the immediate plan after the PhD is mostly to not hit the direct economics pathway where you find people that have a PhD in economics, which is go either into teaching or research, but try to maybe do a postdoc also in development economics, if it's a different branch of development economics, because I have a PhD in development economics a PhD in environmental economics or anything.

I could do a postdoc in something that is not even related to my PhD, but I have the qualification because I did a PhD in that.

So that alone makes me, or broadens my prospect and what I want to do in the future in terms of where I want go to.

So if I get a post-doc in future that is focusing maybe on like health economics, because one aspect of my PhD is looking at how mining affects health, I could easily fit into the health background.

If I want to look at how, if I wanted to enter into a PhD that looks specifically at less poverty, inequality, I could easily do that because I've looked at that.

It just makes me better off than most people that have a PhD in a particular niche area that they mostly look at.

So I would say for me, my future is bright.

In terms of I have so many options when I'm done with it to decide from.

So depending on the offers that come, I feel like I can venture into any other thing that I want to do.

Because of the PhD in that programme.

Osman Ouattara: 

Yeah, it's interesting you say that because we have a student who kind of area focus on development economics and they kind of want to do either lectureship or postdoc in health, either went to environment, either went into other kind of areas.

It looked like, you know, the PhD in development economics actually.

You know, many opportunities once you complete your study.

Mahtab Uddin: 

So as I was saying, one of my motivations of choosing the GDI was like in GDI, many of the professors, they work for the Global South.

GDI itself stands for Global Development Institute. So all the works that we see here, most of them are working for the global south.

So they have a very good understanding what is happening there, the country context, the situation analysis, and everything.

So one of the motivations that worked for me to come to the GDI was that I want to go back to my country after I finish my PhD.

I have my job in the University of Dhaka, so when I finish PhD here, I will go back the University of Dhaka and resume my work there.

You know, makes me think like, you know, here I would be able to get what made me think that, you know, GDI would be to give me better training than the US universities was the focus of the works.

Like the at the outset, when you when you talk about development, development is country specific.

There is no one shoe that fits all.

It has to be the policy perception that I'm saying for Bangladesh that would be very different than Ghana or any other country.

So when you work on any particular thesis, you are, you know, in depth, you're going in depth looking at what are the things that are happening there, how things are evolving and what are factors that affect because the same factor in Ghana can work very differently in Bangladesh or in Mexico.

So most of the works I see in the context of, you know, the work I'm working on poverty and equality.

There are a lot of work that happens in Mexico, in other developed developed countries.

But in the GDI, what gave me the opportunity is I had the supervisors who worked in the in the South Asian context, in the Bangladesh context.

And then the - So here what I  felt like you know the opportunity to get in depth in the country context for my country where I'll go back.

So you see I thought that it will make me more or better prepared for for my future career.

And also I want to do a postdoc definitely.

And as Matilda was saying you know when you do work on development it is a vast area.

And you choose one particular area, right?

Like I'm choosing the poverty and unequal distribution consequences, Matilda is choosing environment.

So we have the opportunity to, in the postdoc, in a more focused where we want to go.

And also the, just to say the facts, like nearly one fifth of the global population, they live in poverty at this moment.

If you look at the situations in India or in Bangladesh, in Bangladesh right now, we have around 8% extreme poor people.

If you take 870 million and around 10%, 8% is living extreme poverty, that is almost 1.7 million.

It's a huge population who are living in extreme poverty.

So, all the development works we are talking about today, that has to mean something for this vast population.

And so when we talk about opportunity, development economics, I think, is a very relevant course, and it has to, you know, it has to emphasise more on the, you know, the developing country context.

Last but not least, not the least is that, you know, when development economics is not only for the Global South, if you just see the current situation in the UK, the you know the child poverty the housing issues and the so many things that you that we see all actually comes under this broad development  economics umbrella.

So this is actually - developing economies is very much relevant for the developed countries as well in the USA for say the housing issue is a major major issue.

There is this huge poverty and everything.

The bottom line I would be saying is that, you know, development economics gives you that training.

With a more focused way in these perspectives.

And you have the opportunity to work with the development partners like World Bank, IMF or any leading organisations.

You also have the opportunities to work with the NGOs, INGOs like ILO and others.

And you also get the opportunity to do definitely in the academia.

So I would say that the field is very vast.

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

Just to add on Osman, like he said, I think what makes this programme very, very different for most PhD programme is the fact that it's not just academic based.

It's more of the academia expert is there, but then it's more what can you offer after your PhD, not just in terms of academia, but to the industry.

So for instance, for my PhD, I'm just in my second year, and I'm already writing policy briefs for Ghana.

That is going to inform the gold board that is being set up for Ghana and all of that.

And I feel like most PhD programmes don't give that angle where you get to work and experience where you are working or where you're researching on on the ground.

So I don't just have to go and then run my models and do all the big econometrics model and then bring it out there.

I need, after that, I go back to understand is this really what is happening on the ground?

Is it different from what I found?

Where am I finding this?

Which I feel like it's mostly very different from most programmes.

And I think the professors in this programme are mostly not just academic professors.

There are also professors that want to work and also understand what impact their research is being made on.

So for instance, my advisor, Johan, it's not just about the methods and the results we see.

After I present to him a particular analysis, he's like, is that what is happening in Ghana?

Maybe that's not what is happening in Ghana.

So why am I finding this?

Okay, let's tweak this to change this in terms of the Ghanaian context.

So we are not just running or doing research just because we want to do the research, but we are applying the research to real life scenarios and then making sure the research informs policy and not just any research that you can just get up and do.

Because if it's just a basic research or a basic analogy, my professor in Ghana would say if it is just research, of course you can go and run a regression of how.

Stones impact buildings.

It's not, what is the impact of that?

What is the use of that.

So I feel like the development economics programme, aside the fact that you have, it has great professors, like Mahtab said, excellent professors that you can work with.

It also makes you understand the impact of what your research is doing and not just you organising or doing research and running models.

Osman Ouattara: 

Thank you.

You both raise important issues.

Development economics is not just about learning economic theory.

It's training you to deal with real-world challenges and for providing guidance to policymakers to promote inclusive growth and sustainability.

And the fact that you see it.

You want to do research, which has an impact is quite important.

It's not just about doing research.

Okay.

Because the research you do it, you can put it in the library or somewhere else.

But this one at GDI, we want to see a research which impacts on the life of people.

And what we also do at GDI, you talk about writing a policy briefing.

We kind of encourage our students.

In fact, there's a prize for people who write policy briefing and blogs related to their PhD.

And also we encourage our PhDs to publish their work and that they get a prize.

And something I want to say, we have, you also mentioned, you know, the professors.

And one thing that really works well in GDI is not just professors who sit here at Manchester.

We all visit developing countries.

Okay, because it's very difficult to understand development economies, development without being in the developing world.

And most of my colleagues here have links in the developing world, whether it's Africa, Asia, Latin America, and so on.

And they tend to share this experience, bring this experience to their supervision, to their research, which kind of spill over to the student.

But one thing I would like to ask, we- I kind of have introduced a new course to help students acquaint themselves to advance research technique and also as part of the programme, you'll have a professor come in to present empirical work.

What is your view on this module?

What do you think it will offer you?

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

I think the model is quite good because I'm comparing this PhD to my background in economics from the U.S. and from Ghana.

Ideally, most PhDs start with coursework and then you do your comprehensive exam, which you might not pass or fail and then your life is all over the place.

But the fact that in the UK you don't have to start with the coursework then write of your comprehensive, which I think...

Well, this is a disclaimer that I think I need to make.

People actually think a PhD in the UK is quite easy because we don't have the comprehensive exam.

But I also had that notion before coming here.

But in this PhD, I don't know for other schools in the U.K., but we do have mid-year review, annual review, which is as intensive as your comprehensive exam, it's even more intensive than your comprehensive exam, because you know in the next six months, I need to show something.

If I don't show that I'm doing something, I'll be let out.

So I feel like that is just to put it out there that it's quite intensive, but very good and it keeps you on your toes compared to the PhDs in the US and other places where you just do like a coursework and then you continue with that.

So with that, I think the course that is being introduced for development economics is quite good because all those, so for me, for instance, I come from a background where I've done so many econometrics, rigorous analysis, and all of that.

I see most of my colleagues don't have those basic understanding of this econometrics model or maybe to run advanced model that you mostly need for your PhD.

So I feel that the course is going to really help most of the people, especially my cohort, the second year PhD cohort where most of them are trying to move away or not move away but combine qualitative research with quantitative research, at least having the basic idea of the regressions,

what do you mean when you say endogeneity, what does it mean?

Where you should look out for that and all of those, it's quite great and it would be good, especially for my cohort to have that course set up for us so that we can at least know when to use some models, when not to use models and other things.

And I also feel like it's going to also reduce the workload of our supervisors because they mostly have to suggest to us, oh, look at this method, it's done this way and that way.

But if I go for the course and I do the course, I'll be the one to suggest to my supervisor, oh, I learned this method.

Do you think it applies to my case study?

Or do you think I can use it for my model and that even expands whatever analysis you are trying to create?

So yeah, it is a good course that is being introduced, although it's not going to be graded, I think, but it's still quite intensive because at the end of the six months, you have annual review, a mid-year review to do, so.

Mahtab Uddin: 

I think the advantage of introducing this course is that, you know, it adds more it makes your training more diversified and it makes you more capable of, you know, doing research in development economics.

The reason I'm saying is that you know when we talk about development or developing economics research, we should not be think about quantitive research alone only.

So in the GDI, we have the, you know, very good training in the GDI Ph.D.

That, you also learn about the qualitative training tools.

You learn about how to do a focus group discussion, how to do KIIs, Key Informant Interviews.

So what happens with those qualitative training is that that also gives you additional, like how to, when you go to the, go to any developed countries, you don't have a survey data, you go for a KII or a FGD, you have that added element.

So now this course, what is it is going to do is it is also going to give an extra, you know, quantitative training to the researchers.

So, all the PhD students who come here in the GDI, they have their undergrad and master's in economics or who are doing their PhD in development economics.

They have their undergraduate and master in economics, right?

So, they have at least the master's level econometrics already taught.

So the course that is being introduced here is that gives the hands on how to see, how to run the particular, where to look how to look at the data.

So that is I'd say you know the advantage part of this in a new course like you will be you will be working in the lab you'll be guided by a professor who will share their work or their you know how they approach the particular issue, whether it's endogeneity, whether it is any bias, attrition, anything that you see in survey data.

So as I was saying in the beginning, it makes you more competitive.

So you have knowledge on how to do qualitative, like FGDKI and other stuff, and you also have the knowledge on how do the quantitative, how to work with the endogeneities, how to address that one, how to choose the IV or.

You know, other DID or PSM that we do.

So that will give you the, I must say, you know that will make this training holistic because at the beginning of the discussion, we're saying like, you know, the development is not something that you can always quantify.

It's always about quality as well.

So that needs, when you look at the development, that needs multifocal lens, not the unifocal lens.

Adding this in our course makes it multifocal so that all PhD researchers have both qualitative training as well as quantitative training.

So that makes it very strong.

Osman Ouattara: 

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, it's important that you kind of raise this point because the way the course is designed, it combines every aspect of the research skills required by a PhD in development economics and also in development to kind of undertake a rigorous PhD programme.

And now my next question will be if you want to advise a student on applying for development economics, what would be the advice you give them?

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

For me, I would say you first have to know what exactly you want to do or what exactly you are passionate about.

You at least get that angle or understand what you want to do.

It makes everything easier because you first of all have to reach out to professors that are in whichever area.

So if you are not certain on what you want to do, there's that confusion of you reaching out to multiple professors and it's not giving you any result.

So I feel like the first thing is to know what exactly you want do.

What exactly do you want getting a PhD?

What impact do you want it to do?

Are you looking at maybe poverty?

Are you looking at migration like Mahtab is?

Are you are looking at, what are you looking at?

Then you can at least look for professors in the areas that you are interested in.

And our department itself has so many professors that know so many things in different diverse areas.

You would probably find a professor is doing something that you thought no one is doing in GDI.

So at least knowing what exactly you want to do would make it easier for you to reach out to these professors.

And I feel like you reaching out to most professors should not be done like the way most people do by just writing a cold email and saying, oh, I saw this paper, that paper, and I'm interested.

From the moment where you know what exactly you want to do for your PhD, you can start researching about the professor, reading things that a professor do.

If you know that a Professor maybe attends this kind of conference, try to present yourself there.

That alone makes you or puts you in a better position compared to other people that are reaching out to their professors via email,

because most professors are quite busy and most of them would not even get a chance to read your cold email.

So it's about how you make yourself stand out amongst the many applicants that are sending these professors the same kind of email.

You can do that by doing so many things.

Like I mentioned the conference, which for me, I felt like that helped my case because in Montana, we, they encourage even master's students to attend conferences and present whatever it is you are doing.

So it could be your undergraduate research, it could any research, but trying to go for these conferences or engaging yourself with not just the academia world, the outside world, would also position you better compared to other applicants.

And then I also think one thing is to be certain of when exactly or what exactly you are going to research on for your PhD.

So unlike the US based PhD and a Canada based PhD, where you have to do, like I said, the coursework before you decide.

For this PhD, you go straight to the point, first day research.

So if you don't know what you're doing, then you would waste your first year doing so many things that are not needed, and you have just three and a half years to complete a full PhD.

So if we don't know what you are doing from the get-go, you get to your annual review, and then you are still confused on what you doing.

You don't have anything substantial to contribute for that, and that could lead you to even losing the programme or regaining admission

So I think the main idea and the main thing is to know what exactly you're going to do.

It might be a lot and it might put pressure on you to like try to decide it now, but I think if you decide it now it makes everything easy and it makes your whole PhD journey very easy because at the get go you know exactly what you want to do, you know what you exactly want to see. 

So yeah, I think that's what I would say for those who are looking to apply for the PhD programme.

Even not in development economics, any other PhD programme.

Mahtab Uddin:

I would suggest, you know, a couple of things, I completely agree with Matilda what she was saying is, you know, plan early.

So from the, I would say, you know, if the programme deadline is January, you should start planning from one year ahead.

So you know that your programme deadline is January 2027, then you should start from January 2026.

The reason is you will have to think about what is such question you're going to formulate, it takes some time to look at the literature, find the gap.

So, you know, think about where you want to contribute and also think about the papers, who tried a similar thing, but failed to, you now, come up with the solution.

And then also look at data that you're, the possible data that you will be using.

So when, by the time, take a couple of months because when you will be applying for the PhD, it will, you need to be very much prepared, right?

So in January 2026, I would say start with the, think about the idea, what you're going to do work, the places you're going to apply, if you want to apply in the GDI, you can look at the professors whose research interest aligns with your proposal, and then take a couple of months to formulate the proposal, and try to reach out to the professors early, like September, October, around that time.

When you reach out to the professors in September 2026, you have a very clear idea like, you know

What I'm proposing so when you meet the professor you have a very clear

Idea like, uh, you know what you are proposing , how you are going to do - how we're going to do the research and what data you are going to use

And another thing is that in the discussion, it came again and again is that, one very good thing about GDI is that the diverse set of people, the researchers that we have here.

Just to say one thing is, my wife is also a PhD researcher in the GDI.

She started after me, but she is looking at environmental economics.

So one of her supervisors is Johan Oldekop, environmental scientist.

And then another supervisor is Upasak Das, who is an economist.

So it gives her a very good blend of researcher.

From Johan, she gets the completely environmental perspective, like what could be the driving forces on the dynamics in Bangladesh.

And from Upasak, she get the feedback on the econometric perspective.

Do this, do that.

You know, this identification is not working.

Look at it from that angle.

So that blend gives her a very holistic vision.

That is, and I must say that that is, you know, preparing her very, very much from a multi-perspective, you know giving her more wider vision.

But it took her some time to find the supervisors, right?

So it gives and takes some time to find other people.

And if you are looking at a particular project where you think your ideal commission would be one pure economist and one who is political economist or political scientist, then reach out to those.

In the GDI, one advantage is we have leading authorities.

In political economy, in political science, in economics, geography, and other areas.

So I would suggest when you identify your research, potential research area, then think about the supervisors you're willing to work with and reach out to them with a concrete idea, the data that you are going to use, the gaps that you have identified.

Osman Ouattara: 

Thank you.

You both kind of touched on an important point, which is, it's a good idea to contact a potential supervisor before you apply.

Because some of the applications that we have seen, people will put Osman Ouattara without actually contacting the potential supervisor before applying.

And this is not a good strategy because in most cases then no.

And the application will be unsuccessful.

First of all, identify a topic, look at academic research focus, contact them, and they may ask you to share your research proposal.

And in some case, they want to check your background.

They may ask to provide your undergraduate and master transcripts so that they can see if it fit well and this kind of thing.

But it's important to do some background work.

Before you apply.

We talk about the research side, we talk about the work side, but what about in terms of wellbeing and then also, something I always look forward to every year is a cultural night, right?

Yeah which will be coming soon.

So we kind of do a lot of activities to help our students sail through this PhD journey.

If we can quickly say something about this, starting from you again.

Matilda Kabutey-Ongor:

Well, I think GDI has quite a number of activities, well, compared to other department.

I don't know for other department, but we do have the coffee time with where we, with the PGRs just sit and discuss something or if we have an alumni coming in and that is not academic in nature.

It's more of like a relaxing situation, hearing from people that have passed through where you're going to and then the cultural nights, which is there's lots of food from different world.

Which is fun.

And I also think most of the advisors or the professors that you are paired with are very, very good in terms of maintaining like a personal relationship.

I can speak for Johan and Sophie, who is my other advisor.

Anytime we start our meetings, we are mostly talking about general staff.

Oh, how is your apartment?

like general staff that you wouldn't even think an advisor would even ask because it's not just a teacher-student relationship anymore, it's more of like a mentorship.

So yeah.

They are invested in your well-being and not just you meeting them and producing results.

They want to ask, how are you doing?

Are you feeling okay?

Should we change the meeting to next two weeks?

What do you have for us?

Yeah, it's rather a calm environment for a PhD compared to other PhDs where it's like a teacher-student relationship with most of the advisors.

And you are mostly scared to even approach them or talk to them about your ideas.

I feel like GDI makes it very easy to approach any professor or any supervisor.

Mahtab Uddin: 

No, there are a couple of things I'd like to say on this issue is that first of all is that, you know, in the GDI, we have so many activities and the opportunity to arrange them.

So I'm very proud to say, the cultural night was my brainchild.

So when I, you, know, when I reached out to Tanja, Tanja was the director at the time with the idea like, no, Tanja, we want to arrange this cultural night where we will.

Dress up in our traditional dress and everyone will bring their one traditional dish from their country and Tanja was very excited and she gave us the funds to arrange the cultural night and then what happened is that you know

in the cultural nights we wore our you know traditional dress we had our traditional music we danced together everyone brought their food from their country so we had literally 30 40 country foods there and so you get to see and you know, experience the food, the culture, the music in one night.

And that gave you kind of we usually arrange it in December, like towards the end of the  year before Christmas.

So it's kind of, you know breaking the year.

And it gives a very good, good bonding.

And the one very amazing thing about the cultural night is that, you know, when you when you see people and the researchers from around the world.

You feel like you are not only talking about academic stuff, you're sharing the culture, you're showing the values.

And that's what I want the develop, right?

You share your struggle together, you share your bonding together.

So in the GDI, we also organise a couple of other things.

We had GDI game night.

So it was usually arranged towards the Halloween.

And we also organised a couple of times the GDI football matches where the PGRs versus professors, we had those matches.

And one thing I would say, in the GDI we have the fund for any PGR can apply for a fund for arranging any activity, last January we applied and we arrange, paint your pain away.

So basically the idea was like, you know, everyone will come and paint something.

Uh, and then, you just you know relax.

And we got the fund  from the from the school, right?

So the thing is that, you know, there are funding available that you can arrange.

If you want to add in something that is very, that is relevant to the wellbeing of the, on the other PGRs that scope is also available on top of the variety of things that we have in the department.

And on top of it, I would like to add is that, you know, the there is also another fund called the GDI Innovation Fund, which allows up to five thousand pound.

If you want to arrange anything, we organised a conference.

The PGR students  organised a conference in in October just last month with  that fund.

For the, for the PGRs who want to, you know, get involved in arranging, you know, other wellbeing sessions, whether it is, you know, painting sessions, whether it's a cultural night or a conference, we have that fund from the department as well.

So that, that I think is an amazing opportunity for the PhD researchers that you can go beyond your studies.

All overlapping: 

Okay.

I won't mention your singing on the beach.

Of course.

Yeah.

That was in North Wales.

Yeah, I still have the video.

That's amazing.

We could add it to this video.

So, you know, they move everything.

Yeah yeah yeah.

Osman Ouattara: 

But yeah, thank you for, you know, kind of mentioning that then you raise an important point.

At GDI, the relationship between the supervisor and the PGR is that of colleagues.

We see our PGRs as colleagues, not students.

And you'll see that we don't really use the word student very much, you know, we are colleagues, and that's the way we kind of work with PGR.

Okay, so yeah, so if anybody's interested in applying for the PhD in development economics, the admission website offers valuable information, and if you want further information, and you can contact me via email (see link below)