Dr Max Lemprière – Doctoral Education Practitioner
Dr Max Lemprière
Doctoral Education Practitioner

Dr Max
Lemprière

Eight years supporting doctoral researchers
the institutions aren't reaching.

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About

Built outside the
institution. By design.

I founded The PhD People in 2017 after completing my own doctorate and spending time teaching at university level. What I observed was a structural gap: doctoral students were struggling not primarily with their research, but with isolation, stalled momentum, and the absence of peer community. Institutional support existed, but access to it was uneven. The PhD People was built to address that directly.

The organisation now works with around 500 doctoral researchers every year across the UK — through structured focus sessions, a membership community, intensive writing retreats, and editorial support. It runs independently of any single institution.

The presenting problem is always writing. The underlying condition, consistently, is isolation. Most provision is designed around the former. The evidence points to the latter.
Current Thinking

Questions I keep
returning to

Eight years of external provision has produced observations that are hard to square with how researcher development is typically designed.

01
Belonging cannot be scheduled
Universities run cohort events, writing groups, induction programmes. The question isn't whether community exists. It's whether a student who shows up because it's timetabled feels the same quality of belonging as one who found the room themselves and paid to be in it. The evidence suggests they don't.
02
The skills response may be a misdiagnosis
Students arrive describing a writing problem. When you remove the isolation, the writing happens — without fixing the methodology. Significant resource may be treating the symptom because the underlying condition is harder to address structurally.
03
Doctoral support is paywalled by institution
The institution is the unit of delivery, but the student's need doesn't respect institutional boundaries. A student elsewhere receives whatever their institution can afford. That is a structural equity problem the sector has not yet named.
04
Free provision may signal zero stakes
Paid sessions converted to membership at higher rates than free ones. Payment functions as a commitment device — a signal of genuine intention. Removing cost doesn't reliably increase the quality of engagement.
Background

Credentials

PhD
Political science at the University of Birmingham.
University teaching
Taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level following completion.
The PhD People
Founded 2017. Independent doctoral support organisation. ~500 researchers supported annually, UK-wide.
Revenue model
Membership community, focus sessions, writing bootcamps, and editorial services — operating without institutional funding.
Collaboration

Working together

The PhD People's provision maps directly to the Research Communities domain of the Vitae RDF 2025 — the sector's lowest-scoring PRES indicator. Institutions under Concordat obligations have a structural reason to address this layer. Most provision doesn't.

Speaking & keynotes
Talks on doctoral wellbeing, community, writing productivity, and what independent provision reveals about institutional gaps. Suitable for PGR events, staff development, and conferences.
PGR events · Staff development
Institutional partnerships
Structured arrangements for graduate schools wanting to offer researchers access to The PhD People's sessions and community. Mapped to RDF 2025 and designed to sit alongside existing provision.
Graduate schools · DTPs · CDTs
Workshops & retreats
Writing bootcamps and focus sessions, delivered independently or in collaboration. Sits under procurement thresholds. Produces measurable chapter-level output within four days.
Bootcamps · Focus sessions
By the numbers
0 doctoral researchers supported annually
0 years of independent operation
0 NPS aggregate across surveys
Get in touch

Speaking, partnerships,
or collaboration.

If you're looking to discuss a speaking invitation, a partnership with your graduate school, or anything else — email or book a call directly.

[email protected] Book a call →