Discover Barbara Duffek’s PhD experience at Imperial College Business School

Barbara Duffek is a 2023 Doctoral candidate at Imperial College Business School. Find out more about her PhD experience:

“I wanted to do my PhD in a university that values research, but also innovation, and has the facilities to provide support to its PhD students. Imperial gives us access to other departments of the College, so we can always take some modules from the wider college, rather than just the Business School. Furthermore, Imperial offers an MRes program, which equips students with the necessary skills to progress onto the PhD. The quality of this MRes programme and the module availability also contributed to my decision in coming to Imperial.

During the MRes year, we had opportunities to take various research methods classes which are of great help when it comes to doing research. By having the ability to choose classes that equip you with invaluable skills, you are getting ready to do research, and it also helps greatly in the understanding of methods-based research papers.

Furthermore, we were not only learning about different methods, but the professors were keen to share with us their PhD experiences, their advice on publications and doing research, and research best practices. I think hearing these tips from professors working in various fields also prepared me enormously for doctoral research.

The best thing about the Doctoral programme is working with my supervisors and academics from other universities on topics that interest me. I feel lucky every day that I can work on something that is truly my passion, and that I get all the support from my supervisors to do so.

The greatest opportunity I received so far is going to a marketing conference in my MRes year! It is not common for PhD students to attend a conference in their first year of study, however, with the support of my supervisors, and the Business School, I was able to attend the American Marketing Association’s Winter academic conference in San Diego in February 2020 and present our research there. It was an amazing experience; meeting some of the top scholars in the world and being able to get feedback on our research at such an early stage – I will never forget it.”

Find out more