Following up on PRES 2009
PRES 2009 showed that we had listened to and acted on what you told us in 2008, resulting in an increase in satisfaction in every area of the survey. It also demonstrated there are still areas to improve.
Here's what you said and what we did in response.
Satisfaction with training increased by 12% since 2008 but less than half of you feel encouraged to think about your professional development needs and the range of career opportunities out there
- We reviewed the annual progress review forms to include professional development planning
- The University’s online portfolio tool (Mahara) is being promoted to researchers to support professional development planning and our newly launched online induction course leads new students through the personal development planning process.
- Careers advice is provided to researchers in all Colleges through career planning, interview skills or CVsworkshops and often as part of the induction process. All research students have access to tailored PGR careers services and one to one appointments.
A few respondents felt there to be a lack of travel grants in the University or that the existing ones were poorly publicised.
- We have improved the promotion of scholarships through the PGR office website and distributed fliers at PGR training events.
- The PGR Office meets regularly with Development and Alumni staff to identify ways in which funding for PGR travel can be promoted to potential donors.
- The Office of the VP (Research and Enterprise) funded 6 delegates in 2009 to attend the Universitas 21 Graduate Research Conference in Melbourne and Brisbane.
Satisfaction with integration into the research environment is variable across Graduate Schools and some students would like to get more involved with their research community.
Restructuring allowed for fresh thinking on how to build a vibrant and inclusive PGR community and help you make links across disciplines.
- Each College revised its induction programme to include opportunities for networking. In Science and Engineering and MVLS, a second induction is held later in the year for students who started late.
- Training courses are run at both College and University level to allow networking across fields.
- Since 2009, the University’s New Initiatives fund has been used to support 3 researcher networks, 9 researcher-led conferences and an innovative mentoring programme.
- In 2009, the University introduced a series events called ‘making an impact with your PhD’ which encourage cross-disciplinary networking and collaboration. The last event was attended by over 80 students from all Graduate Schools and the University was shortlisted for a prestigious Times Higher Education award for in recognition of this series of events.
Satisfaction with the University’s infrastructure and facilities for is generally high, with the exception of responses from researchers from Arts &Humanities.
We recognise this is important and a review of space issues is being conducted by the Deans of Graduate Studies in early 2011.
The majority of students have a good knowledge of what’s expected of them and where to go if an issue arises. However, there was felt to be room for improvement in our induction process.
The Postgraduate Code of Practice was fully revised to ensure clarity over standards and expectations. Such issues are discussed in a revised version of the face to face ‘Effective Researcher’ course (new for January 2011).
To improve induction and ensure that it is available to all students, the University launched an online induction course (strategies for a successful start) at the end of 2009. Since then, over 250 students have enrolled on the course and we are now planning a second online course which focuses on the final stages of a PhD, including thesis submission, viva preparation and job hunting.