Inspired by the world-famous Dance your PhD competition, some universities are now holding a spin-off competition called Bake Your PhD, Bake Your Thesis, or Bake Your Research.

These universities have realised that the culinary arts can be helpful for students to render complex abstract research in simple, concrete visual ideas, ultimately helping them express their ideas through clear, accessible, and concise language. This competition is a wonderful way to develop research communication skills, as well as to raise researchers’ profiles and awareness of their work.

Culinary art can also be a teaching method as the students reported their families and friends had a much better understating of their PhD research after they had presented their culinary creation in the competition. Participating universities include the Australian National University, the University of Southampton in England, Memorial University in Canada, Otago University in New Zealand, Dublin City University in Ireland, and Warwick University and Brighton Doctoral College in England, among others.