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Research Degree Graduate Qualities

 

Background

UniSA has responded to the major pressures on the research degree horizon - the nagging need for timely completions, the uncertain definition of the role of supervisor, increasing debate over the measurement of higher degree by research (HDR) student satisfaction, differing opinions on the requirement for publication during enrolment and that old chestnut of candidate anxiety over employment potential after the thesis.

Endeavouring to chart a passage through this minefield, the University of South Australia in 2003 commissioned a committee to construct a set of Research Degree Graduate Qualities. The practical intention was to define more precisely what the higher degree by research (HDR) student was achieving in actually writing a thesis. What qualities were being called into play in the research environment? What competencies were required to achieve the result of a finely honed thesis that extended the boundaries of knowledge even incrementally?

Seven Research Degree Graduate Qualities were identified. The intention was to identify generic outcomes that result from the research education experience. They are not add-ons; they are derived from the existing research degree experience. Of some importance is the fact that they also identify competencies that are transferable to the workplace, either academic or professional.

The HDR student was defined as one who performs cutting edge research on a specific body of knowledge in two modes - autonomous and collaborative - in an exercise that necessarily interfaces with society and which establishes the candidate in a pattern of lifelong research. Accordingly, four general quality areas have been identified: a Body of Knowledge quality, an Autonomous quality, a Collaborative quality and a Societal-interactive quality.

Within the research degree experience a nesting of checks and balances has been established. From an initial Statement of Agreement between supervisors and candidates, to successive Reviews of Progress to a Final Review of Progress, all involved in a process of quality control to ensure that this interaction between the HDR student and the generic Qualities is actually happening.

An Implementation document has been prepared for Senior Management Group (SMG) by an Implementation Committee which included postgraduate representatives of UniSA Students Association. After acceptance by SMG, this document has now been noted by the Research Degree Committee and Academic Board. Special meetings will be held for interested staff on each campus in the new year. Higher degree by research students will be kept well informed.

 

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Research Degree Graduate Qualities

The following list of seven qualities was agreed by the University of South Australia community as appropriate to the University’s distinct mission and profile.

A postgraduate research degree graduate of the University of South Australia

1 has an understanding of current research based knowledge in the field, its methodologies for creating new knowledge, and can create, critique, and appraise new and significant knowledge
2 is prepared for lifelong learning in pursuit of ongoing personal development and excellence in research within and beyond a discipline or professional area
3 is an effective problem solver, capable of applying logical, critical and creative thinking to a range of research problems
4 can work both autonomously and collaboratively as a researcher within a particular discipline or professional area and within wider but related areas
5 is committed to ethical action and social responsibility as a researcher in a discipline or professional area and as a leading citizen
6 communicates effectively as a researcher in a discipline or professional area and as a leading member of the community
7 demonstrates international perspectives in research in a discipline or professional area and as a leading citizen

For an expansion of the Research Degree Graduate Qualities see Implementing Research Degree Graduate Qualities at UniSA (RTF file).

 

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Implementing Research Degree Graduate Qualities at UniSA

In order to achieve UniSA’s Research Degree Graduate Qualities, some adjustments to the relevant regulations for HDR students will need to be made. The following statement of implementation is written with the PhD and Masters by research in mind. Some adaptation will be required to cover Professional Doctorates by research. For more details about the Research Degree Graduate Qualities, refer to Implementing Research Degree Graduate Qualities at UniSA (RTF file).

Statement of Agreement

In the first place, it is imperative that, at the beginning of a postgraduate research degree award, a customised program for individual research degrees candidates should be constructed. Importantly, after the candidate has received information about Intellectual Property and rights over publications during induction, an agreement on both these matters will be written up. These and other matters will be formulated into a formal Statement of Agreement that will be lodged with the divisional Research Degrees Coordinator. The basis for this customised program will be the processes that develop the seven generic Research Degree Graduate Qualities taking into account their elaboration in terms of the particular needs of the candidate and the field of research.

The Statement of Agreement will normally include the designation of modules dealing with such postgraduate areas as methodology, thesis writing, IT skills, Library search skills or subsidiary studies. In some cases, these units may be online, such as the ATN LEAP modules. Further possibilities of face-to-face courses will be developed specifically for HDR students. While it would be expected that this coursework component would be concentrated in the first year EFT, there could well be some special need in subsequent years, and it is foreseen that the Research Education Support Activities program could go beyond the first year of enrolment. These elements of the Statement of Agreement should ensure that, by the end of candidature, the candidate has had the opportunity to acquire the seven Research Degree Graduate Qualities.

The Statement of Agreement will be the defining element in constructing the first Review of Progress. After the first year, the Statement of Agreement will be subsumed into the planning phase of the Review of Progress, which will have both review and planning functions.

Research proposal

The Statement of Agreement will also be aligned closely with the Research Proposal, the third section of the Statement being appended to the Research Proposal. The Research Proposal is intended to be the blueprint for the HDR student's eventual thesis. Essentially it will consist of an explication of the thesis, a review of literature, an outline of methodology and method(s) and a statement on the ethical implications of the thesis. It should also include a proposed timetable of research activities and a preliminary table of contents. It should conclude with a bibliography, arranged conventionally. Within these parameters, the HDR student should explain within the actual text of the Research Proposal, how the Research Degree Graduate Qualities will be developed.

Presentations of research

Research degrees candidates will be required to make an oral presentation each year based on their research. This presentation could take place at School level or at an appropriate local, national or international conference. Further, each principal supervisor should include in the Statement of Agreement that the candidate is working towards the writing of a journal article, at least from the second year of enrolment EFT, to enhance the postgraduate research quality of effective communication. There should be a natural progression from the seminar or conference presentation delivered at a local, national or international venue, which is mandated for each candidate, to a written article. The article should be closely related to the thesis and preferably able to be incorporated into its written text. It would be in order for the supervisor to be included as joint author if there was authorial input.

Each discipline area, combination of related discipline areas or professional area will be required to provide a regular, ongoing research-in-progress seminar program that will closely involve its HDR students. Further, there will be a yearly discipline-based (or related disciplines/profession-based) Research Forum or Colloquium. It is suggested that this could resemble, as closely as possible, the format of a national academic conference. Higher degree by research students, from their first year, will be invited to present papers on their research. Only those HDR students who will personally present at a national or international conference in the calendar year will be exempted from this requirement. The Forum or Colloquium could involve: providing abstracts for prior distribution, parallel sessions, chairpersons nominated from the participants. Such a Forum should give rise to well-prepared presentations, vigorous debate, logical discussion and subsequent academic networking among HDR students within their discipline areas.

Review of progress

In the light of the implementation of the Research Degree Graduate Qualities, the review of progress will become a more accurate instrument for assessing HDR students. ‘Satisfactory’ progress will need to be more stringently defined. For example, commencing HDR students might be considered satisfactory if they have demonstrated effective development in the seven Research Degree Graduate Qualities by completing an approved Research Proposal (after six months EFT enrolment) with the elements mentioned above, obtaining ethics approval from USAHREC for any research involving human subjects, beginning the research process with methodological rigour, presenting a research-in-progress paper at an appropriate venue and fulfilling any customised items within the Statement of Agreement entered into at the beginning of candidature.

The same requirements apply for continuing candidates where satisfactory progress might be defined as engagement in competent research activity with sufficient accompanying written interpretation according to the specific planning outline within their previous Review of Progress. In this way candidates’ progress can be gauged in terms of expected completion date. They should also have presented a paper on research-on-progress at an appropriate venue and be at least working towards a publication related to their research.

Final Review of Progress

While the Reviews of Progress should be formative assessments of the developing capabilities contained within the seven Research Degree Graduate Qualities, the Final Review of Progress is a summative statement, drawing largely on the preceding Reviews of Progress. It is more than a checklist.

Towards the end of the HDR student’s program, even after the submission of the thesis but prior to conferral of the degree, the HDR student will submit a separate document, the Final Review of Progress. This document is not a claim that the candidate has met all the standard indicators, but it will provide evidence of achievement and experience in the seven areas of the Research Degree Graduate Qualities.

This document could form part of an Exit Meeting at which candidates give feedback on their experience of the research education process and the research environment. The Exit Meeting could be conducted by the appropriate Research Degrees Coordinator in the presence of the candidate’s supervisors and any other relevant persons. Each of the Research Degree Graduate Qualities would have been elaborated in ways that are appropriate for the research undertaken by the candidate, and the Final Review of Progress is a short statement of candidate achievement related to these elaborations. These achievements would have already been foreshadowed and recorded in the Statement of Agreement and the Reviews of Progress.

Clearly, different research projects will affect the profile of Research Degree Graduate Qualities, but there will be common elements.

More in detail, the Final Review of Progress should include a demonstration that the thesis contains new knowledge proper to the discipline field, that the academic literature has been widely canvassed within an international context, and that a program for lifelong learning has been established. There should be examples of the HDR student being involved in autonomous work and collaborative work within the wider discipline and professional contexts, together with a statement of the overall ethical awareness of the candidate in undertaking the research. There should also be documentation that shows that the candidate has participated in research-in-progress seminars, the delivery of papers before peers and other researchers and is working towards publication. Finally it should contain the candidate's justification for the thesis having international perspectives.

The preparation of the Final Review of Progress should be guided by the supervisors who would have overview not only of the document as submitted, but also of its cumulative content in the Reviews of Progress. This Final Review of Progress would need to be favourably approved by the supervisors and the Divisional Research Degrees Coordinator before the research degree is formally conferred. However, the Final Review of Progress will not be included with the thesis, and the examiners of the thesis will not be asked to comment explicitly on the Research Degree Graduate Qualities. The Final Review of Progress will take the form of a rather brief, separate document.

 

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Forms and processes

Planning and Review flow chart (RTF file)
Statement of Agreement, explanatory information and welcome checklist
Progress planning and review report form

 

Useful links

Brochure (PDF file, 48kb) - for a brief outline of the Research Degree Graduate Qualities.

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