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I would like to thank the committee again for granting me £160 to assist in covering expenses for this course. ‘High-grade metamorphism and the generation and differentiation of Earth's crust’ short course at the Geocycles research centre, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. This short course was led by Prof. Mike Brown, Prof. Richard White and Dr Tim Johnson on 4 th-5th July, 2013, and included lecture- and tutorial-style elements that investigated the evidence for, links between, and methods of investigation of high-temperature metamorphism and associated partial melting in the Earth’s crust. Having studied a variety of migmatites in the past I was very excited to hear the opinions of Prof. Brown (in particular) on the aspects of their genesis, who is well-known to be a world expert in this field of study. As a result, I have re-evaluated some of my perspectives on the matter and the discussions have prompted me to re-investigate some of my samples with these new concepts in mind! The material presented by Prof. White involved applications of the program THERMOCALC to solve complex problems associated with the textural and compositional development of partially melted rocks, and I was very interested to learn more about these techniques. My postgraduate work has investigated the strengths and limitations of similar practices to the calculation of P–T data and, having attended this short course, I am now able to add these methods to my skillset for future works. In addition, Dr Johnson presented a case study of high-grade metamorphism in the Lewisian Complex of northwest Scotland, which was thoroughly enjoyable as I have had the opportunity to study these rocks first-hand on many occasions during my demonstrating on undergraduate fieldtrips at the University of Oxford. I was intrigued to hear about his work and his ideas on the evolution of the area, and I spoke with him afterwards and showed him some of my own samples, which has potentially set up a future collaborative research opportunity. These networking opportunities are of great benefit for my future academic career. Thus, for all of these reasons (and more!) this trip was a great success and I will endeavour to attend any similar events in the future.