Advice to future Loughborough researchers
Loughborough University will give you a fantastically balanced student life. I jokingly tell people that you may not feel like you are in the UK because the image of the UK that everyone has is London, and Loughborough is very different. Nevertheless, it is the best. I love the quietness and feeling of safety. It is safe to bring family too, and the system has a way of supporting PhD students who are also parents.

During my studies, I worked with a number of Malawian organisations that gave me unimaginable support, providing me with the necessary data, directions and validations which reinforced the outputs of my thesis. It made me realise that social capital is vital to a researcher, as it connects you to decision-makers. The key thing is to be proactive and start making those relationships early in your PhD journey. I intend to nurture these partnerships going forwards, as there is a lot of potential for further research in the future.

What’s next?
Before starting my PhD, I was a lecturer in Energy Sciences at the Malawi University of Science and Technology. Now I’ve graduated, I will return home and continue from where I left off – my PhD will allow me to develop my academic career, and to better serve my country and my university. I also plan to monitor if the new policy statements will be implemented or funded. Improving resilience is expensive but worth the investment, and the fact that Malawi’s MoE has chosen to adopt my policy brief gives me hope for a better future.