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Should I give gifts for my phd supervisors at the beginning of the PhD?

Hi there, I am going to start my PhD soon. I am wondering if it would be appropriate to give small gifts to my supervisors for the first meeting?
It would be a cultural thing to do in where I am from to show appreciation but I am not sure if it is in the UK.

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

@gjd800 / @The_Lonely_Goatherd / @PhoenixFortune may be able to give some insight into how that would be perceived culturally in the UK. I suspect doing that at the beginning of the PhD might be a little unusual (perhaps less so at the end after defending your thesis or something?).

Reply 2

Mr Wednesday

Original post by aaaaaaccccccc

You might be better served by bringing something along to a research team meeting with your supervisor and other PhDs and RAs to share, cake or a tray of doughnuts for example.

Reply 3

gjd800

Not expected but I know that Asian students like to do this, a portion of my lot do it every time they come in to see me.

So yeah, not expected but it won't cause any grief either.