Thesis Writing Retreat

The Thesis Writing Retreat will run in-person from 29 July to 31 July 2025

Please note that this event will run alongside the Dissertation Writing Retreat (formerly Dissertation Boot Camp). If you are a Masters student interested in attending this event, more information can be found here.

• Are you nearing the end of your PhD and would like some support with writing up your thesis?
• Do you put off writing tasks until ‘tomorrow’?
• Are you finding it tough ‘going it alone’? 

We have just what you need – the Thesis Writing Retreat! Dedicated solely to getting words down on paper (or a computer screen), this once-a-year event is designed to help late-stage doctoral students get over that final hurdle or to kick-start their writing progress if it has stalled.  

Sign up to join other postgraduate students in a supportive, structured, intensive writing environment. With the help of your peers and an experienced facilitator, Thesis Writing retreat participants will power through final-year blues, writer’s block, and thesis fatigue to achieve significant progress on their dissertation. 

You are eligible to apply for the Thesis Writing Retreat if you are a research student at the University of St Andrews and are in the final stages of completing your degree, i.e. you have completed your data collection/archival research and are ready to ‘write up’. This event is not for reading articles, taking notes, editing, or polishing existing material. It is also not designed to offer in-depth advice and support in terms of language and writing style. 

What it is designed for is to support and motivate you in moving past writers’ block and procrastination to getting words down on the page. The ultimate aim of the Thesis Writing Retreat is to write a significant amount of first draft material. 

Dates and Times

The Thesis Writing Retreat will run in-person at the Gateway building from Tuesday 29 July-Thursday 31 July 2025, 9.15am-5.00pm each day. Participants are expected to attend the entirety of the event.  

Important Information

The Thesis Writing Retreat is a free event provided by GRADskills which aims to build a writing community based on peer support with access to one-to-one support for each participant when required. As such, spaces are limited and will be allocated based on your eligibility and your completed application form (see below). We cannot guarantee participation for all eligible applicants.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply you must be:

• A current Postgraduate Researcher (PhD/MPhil/MSt(Res)MSc(Res)/MRes) at the University of St Andrews
• Have told your supervisor you plan to attend
• Be able to attend in person for all three days of the event
• Have completed the majority of your research or data collection for the material you are focusing on and be ready to write at the start of the event
• Be able to complete pre-work to prepare for the event

When completing the application form, please bear in mind the following key points: 

• Priority will be given to students in the final stages of completing their degree and those who have not attended Thesis Marathon/Thesis Boot Camp previously. The Thesis Writing Retreat is run annually so please consider applying next year if you are currently in the first or second year of your PhD. 
• The ultimate aim of the Thesis Writing Retreat is to meet ambitious writing goals: we encourage participants to think in terms of approximately 20,000 words of first draft material if you are an Arts and Humanities researcher, or 10,000 if you are in the Sciences. You must be able to identify the chapter or chapter(s) of your thesis that you will specifically work on for your Thesis Marathon goal. 

I am up for the challenge, where do I sign up?

Request a place on PDMS. Please note that we will contact you 3 weeks before the event, and you will need to confirm your place.

In the event there is more interest than places, these will be offered on a first come basis.