Uchegbu: As a Single Parent with 3 Kids, Getting a PhD in UK was Hard

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Nigerian-born professor of pharmaceutical nanoscience, Ijeoma Uchegbu, who was recently elected president of Wolfson College, one of the 31 colleges of the University of Cambridge, has narrated how she survived the gruelling task of getting a PhD, even as a single parent with three children in the UK.

Speaking on Arise Television yesterday, Uchegbu, renowned for her innovative work on nanoparticle drug delivery, stressed that developing some coping mechanisms helped her surmount the challenges at the time.

She noted the situation was further compounded because she wasn’t from a rich background and had to, as it were, cope by cancelling one form of stress with another.

“Talking about proudest moments, it had to be when I became a professor. So, I joined the university in 1997. That was a university in Glasgow and Strathclyde. And I actually started my PhD quite late. When I started my PhD, I was 30 years old, so I was quite a mature student, and I was a single parent of three young children doing a PhD, which was quite unusual.

“And when I finished my pitch, I had no belief that I would possibly become a successful academic. And so when I became a professor after five and a half years, which  was quite fast in the UK, I felt really proud then, and actually, when I got the news that my application for promotion had been successful, I burst into tears.

“I was so moved by that. So, that for me was  something I was I was incredibly proud of, that I had made it in a very short order because I felt I had to really rush and keep up with my peers who were about six or seven years younger than me,” she narrated.

Although she admitted that some close relations helped to douse the stress in those early days, she described the period as “difficult”.

“So, it was hard. We were very poor. We didn’t have any money. We really had to scrape by and try and get by with the little student stipend that I had. But the key thing is that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being a scientist, I love going to the lab.

“I love doing my experiments. And actually the fact that you’re a single parent means that when your experiments don’t go so well in the lab, you’ve got something else to worry about. You’re worrying about buying your children shoes and cooking them dinner that night.

“And so, because you had two forms of stress, they kind of cancel each other out. I know that sounds quite strange, but that’s how I’ve managed my life,” she added.

Noting that she had been working in the field for about 30 years, she pointed out that the new leadership position gives her  an opportunity to give back to the society and create an environment where other people can thrive.

Raised in South-east Nigeria and Hackney, UK, Uchegbu who completed her pharmacy studies at the University of Benin in 1981 before attending the University of Lagos to obtain her master’s degree,  said she came to Nigeria as a teenager, arriving in the 1970s in Owerri, just about three years after the brutal civil war.

Uchegbu drew a comparison between the issue of access to needed research infrastructure in Nigeria and the UK, explaining that she was immensely proud of the job she and her team had done in the field of severe pain relief.

“After doing my master’s degree, I did hit an infrastructure wall, and I realised that I had to move away if I wanted to advance my career,” she added during the interview.

Yet, she explained that having completed secondary school and universities in Nigeria, she thoroughly enjoyed being in the country at the time, made great friends and had great lecturers as well as visible role models.