Thought for the Week

If you want to receive future editions of the “Thought for the Week” by email every Monday morning, please subscribe below

10 August 2026 – The Boring Essentials: Structure and Discipline

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. Here’s a rude wake-up call on a Monday morning: there are only three months left before the final exams. But … breathe out, relax, it is very…

3 August 2026 – Understanding is like building a puzzle

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. In your coursework, you are often confronted with big, intimidating blocks of information. Especially if you’re not a great reader, it may feel overwhelming…

27 July 2026 – Setting Realistic Expectations

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. Early in this second semester I want to give you something to stick up above your desk to think about every time things feel…

20 July 2026 – Your Phone can be a Career Roadblock

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. At the beginning of this new term I want to make a rather startling point: your phone, without which you feel so lost and…

13 July 2026 – Back to School

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. One of these days you will be returning to university after the winter break. It may feel daunting! Take a deep breath and acknowledge how…

06 July 2026 – A Recipe for Coping with Stress

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. You’re on holiday at the moment, blissfully free of all the tensions and stresses of campus life, but soon you will be going back…

29 June 2026 – With Time to Spare: Clearing a Tangle and Thinking about Goals

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. A reminder: Tomorrow 30 June is the closing date of the GRAD – your guide to university success quiz. Please follow this link to answer the quiz…

22 June 2026 – Going Home

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. (This one is slightly different from the usual, more personal and emotional. Try listening.) It’s holiday time, and many of you are going home for…

15 June 2026 – GRIT

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. You’re halfway through your exams, and you’re exhausted. You must find the strength and the energy – the GRIT – to keep going in…

08 June 2026 – Writing Exams with Confidence

If you’d rather listen to this newsletter, click here. It’s exam time, often a time of stress and tension. Next week we’ll give you some support in dealing with that stress and finding…
1 2 9 10

GRAD - Copyright terms and usage

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)


Attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.


NonCommercial – You may not use the material for commercial purposes.


ShareAlike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same licence as the original.


No additional restrictions – You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.

GRADnext - Copyright terms and usage

All images © Shutterstock

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)


Attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.


NonCommercial – You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
ShareAlike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same licence as the original.


No additional restrictions – You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.