I have an interview for a PhD soon and I was wondering how I would answer this question:

- What can you add to the PhD community

It was raised a potential question that I would be asked, and was wondering if you had advice.

That is a bit of an ambiguous question! If I got that at interview, I would probably start by trying to clarify whether the panel literally meant community as in the university or department community, or whether they were defining 'people with PhDs' as some kind of bigger community. It is hard to know from the question whether you're meant to answer it in terms of your interpersonal skills or whether they're looking for the type of PhD contribution you would make! Where did the question come from?

My apologies, I think I may have removed the context. Essentially they are asking how I would contribute to the University, and the postgraduate research community at the University.

It may be worth considering things like university/departmental conferences and seminars, and how you would contribute to those (e.g. organising or presenting), and things that might be available within the department - PhD student meetings or committees, research groups, informal ways of sharing info and networking and so on. I guess you could stress your commitment to sharing information and expertise, finding connections with others' research, that sort of thing.

Thank you very much for your response Chickpea. All very good ideas to raise.

All the very best.