Writing references for students

When we educate our students, we are only a transitory stage in their lives. The idea is that they go onwards from there. And sometimes, the place they go to wants to know what they get themselves into. So it is not unusual for us to write references for our students.

I recently had to write two within a short space of time. One student who had done a BSc with us now wanted to do an MSc in Oxford. Quite a glamorous place to go! And another one of our students, who has already done an MSc with us, was applying for a PhD in Cambridge. Also quite a glamorous place to go!

One of these students had been my personal tutee, and the other one had been my dissertation student. They are both people that I enjoyed working with. It was really good to be able to make a positive contribution to their further career. And they both said they would let me know if their application was successful. Sometimes the writing of references can be a bit of a chore; you might have students that never engaged much, so you don't really know them very well, and you can only write a very vague reference. And sometimes they only ask you just before the deadline, when you are ready completely off your feet with other work. And, of course, sometimes both. So it's not all good. But it can be one of the more rewarding parts of the job. I hope they both get in! And that their careers will be stellar…