Nithicha's Planet Harper Experience

I am Nithicha Thamthanakoon and I come from Thailand. I am a final year PhD student in Land, Farm and Agri-business Management. I just submitted my thesis at the end of September 2018 and now I am waiting for the viva. My project is about factors affecting the marketing channels selection by rice farmers in Thailand.

Since 2014, when I started my PhD at Harper Adams University (HAU), I've realised this was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. Staff are superb, friendly, attentive, and very helpful. HAU is distinctive and fascinating.

There's not only the excellent support from my supervisors (Dr Iona Huang, Dr Jane Eastham and Prof Shane Ward), HAU also provides and offers a wide range of social activities. The fantastic society which I have been involved is Planet Harper.

From the first day that I came into HAU, I have been involved in the Planet Harper group's on and off campus activities. For example, weekend trips to many places in the UK, visiting local historic buildings, pumpkin crafting, chocolate Easter egg decoration, falconry talk and demo. As an international student, I've participated in most of the weekend trips and very much enjoyed these trips to different places in the UK. I was always looking forward to visiting new areas with other members in the Planet Harper group.

During the academic year 2014/15, Planet Harper was organised by the International Office which provided the social activities which students of all nationalities, including British, can meet up, socialise and learn about each other’s cultures.

In September 2016, the first Planet Harper Committee was established which was run by students.

I was the chairperson of Planet Harper Society during the academic year 2016/17. I was honoured and delighted to take on responsibilities and work with a group of students, Student Services (Kai Ma) and the Students' Union to organise activities and social trips to help bring together the multicultural face of HAU.

Last academic year (2017/18), we organised activities on campus, such as One World Cafe’, pumpkin carving, decorating Easter eggs, and weekend trips to York, Chester, Birmingham (Birmingham's Frankfurt-style Christmas market), Cardiff, Liverpool, Cambridge, Windermere (Lake District) and Oxford including Bicester village. I've met many friends from these activities. We enjoyed spending time together in social events.

Recently, I joined the first trip in the academic year 2018/19 to Bath, it was a fantastic place to visit. The information of activities and the photos from the previous activities can be seen in the https://www.facebook.com/planet.harper.uk/

We come from different cultures and countries, but we are not alone.

The new Planet Harper committee will do their very best to organise and support a variety of social and cultural events on and off campus.

All students are welcome to join Planet Harper Society and enjoy their time with us while at HAU.