It’s official…

You may have noticed that things have been a bit slow around the Corral lately. Primary reason being that I have been involved in numerous applications and interviews; both academic and private sector.

And so, after much consideration and classic Stickman-esque stalling...

Looks like I'll be doing a PhD after all :)

Yup, I'll be heading back to the Nordics in August to begin my doctorate in economics, where I am the grateful recipient of a very generous research scholarship.[*] My focus will remain on environmental and resource issues, although I am very much interested in development, as well as behavioural and institutional aspects of economics too. In that spirit, the overarching theme of my research proposal will be the water-energy nexus and I hope to build on the work that I've started during my Master's. (More on that at a later stage.)

My (modest) belief is that this will become an increasingly important topic in the years to come and hopefully I can provide some relevant research to help address the issue. At the least, I'm hoping to get a little more respect than this guy.

Stickman, out!

[*] For those of you interested in advanced studies, I strongly recommend investigating options in the Nordic/Scandinavian region. A PhD is considered as a legitimate job over here and, as with most forms of employment, you are very well compensated. Indeed, the irony is that I stand to earn more doing my doctorate in Norway than I almost certainly would expect from private sector work back in South Africa. Of course, you need to consider living costs and so forth, but even then it's a close-run thing on a relative scale. (Say nothing of long-term prospects after graduation... Well, that's what I'm telling myself at least! Still, much better than the suffocating burden of student debt engulfing the UK and elsewhere.)