Jump to Content

News and events

UniSA staff at the QPR 2008 conferenceGo to Division and institute links for information on local events.

Archive 2007  |  Archive 2006  |  Archive 2005

 

Events 2008

Watch this space for information about conferences and other upcoming events.

QPR 2008 logo2008 Quality in Postgraduate Research conference

The 2008 Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference was held 17-18 April 2008, at the Stamford Grand Hotel, Adelaide, South Australia. The 2008 conference theme was 'Research education in the new global environment'. 

For the last twelve years the Quality in Postgraduate Research conferences have provided an opportunity to debate the latest policies affecting postgraduate education; to exchange views on current research and good practice in the field; and to link special staff and student interest groups. Policy makers, supervisors, postgraduate administrators, educational researchers, postgraduate students and academic developers attend the conferences.

QPR archive site - proceedings of the previous Quality in Postgraduate Research Conferences, 1994 onwards.
 

On campus and online workshops and training


top^


2006 HDR student focus groups - summary report

In response to the 2006 Student Experience Questionnaire results, the Dean of Graduate Studies commissioned a series of focus group sessions at each metropolitan campus. HDR students were invited by email to register for the sessions which were held during the last week of November 2006. Around 30 students provided feedback into the sessions.

Key questions

Each one-hour session was conducted on campus. A facilitator from Planning and Assurance Services led participants through seven key questions:

  1. What do the terms research culture and research community mean to you?
  2. How could we improve UniSA’s research culture?
  3. What financial support should UniSA offer to higher degree research students?
  4. What makes a great research degree supervisor?
  5. What are the best aspects of the research education support activities (RESA)?
  6. How could RESA be improved?
  7. Think about your research activities and your interactions with your supervisor. What is it about these experiences that helps you to demonstrate or develop UniSA research degree Graduate Qualities?

Responses

Participants’ responses to each key area are summarised below under the following headings:

Research Culture and Research Community

Statements about research culture: a climate in which quality research was fostered, the exchange of ideas, fostering student progression, shared values, professionalism, collegiality, respect for others and fraternity. Negative comments associated with research culture involved the absence of these ‘qualities’. Others comments: ‘groupthink’ had a negative impact upon research culture; some academics were more interested in keeping fresh minds down than enhancing them.

Research community: Participants suggested that networking with other researchers, collaboration and links with like-minded people and internal (eg school) and external (eg international researchers) groups were critical to developing a good research community.

Responses highlighted a number of ways in which UniSA’s research culture could be improved:

  1. Fostering opportunities for UniSA researchers to ‘come together’ including the use of reading circles, discussion groups and RESA workshops
  2. Developing research rooms on each campus – a physical space where HDR students can gather to learn from one another
  3. Expanding research seminars to include visiting scholars or industry leaders, fostering inter-disciplinary participation and ensuring that technology is utilised to enable students to access sessions via online recordings
  4. Exploring possibilities to develop a HDR mentoring scheme.

Financial support

Across all sessions there was a lack of awareness of the financial support available to HDR students. In general, students felt ill informed about their financial situation and several commented on the lack of transparency at the school level or the difficulty in obtaining reimbursement for some items. The allocation of funds for ‘consumables’ was also critiqued: Students commented on photocopy, software, online journal and colour printing costs. These comments are interesting given the unlimited print quota allocated to HDR students. Almost all participants acknowledged that they would like to have more funds available to travel to and attend related conferences.

The following should be considered:

  1. Exploring communication strategies used to promote the financial support available to HDR students
  2. Review of how funds for consumables are allocated (eg. how are HDR students provided with funds to access to photocopiers?)
  3. Promotion of colour and other printing facilities at UniSA (eg the extensive Print On Demand service now operational at City West campus)
  4. Exploring opportunities to sponsor HDR student attendance at related conferences.

Attributes of a great research degree supervisor

Open-ended responses to the 2006 SEQ highlighted several attributes that personified a ‘great’ research degree supervisor. These were explored further in the focus group sessions and several common attributes were identified, including:

  1. Responsiveness. Being available to students, having the time to supervise, responding to emails and being a good manager of time and task
  2. Empathy. Supervisors that care about their student’s research, show kindness, respect, a good listener, show interest in the whole person not academic issues only
  3. Knowledge and kudos. About the supervisor’s track record in their chosen field and their willingness to pass on knowledge to the student, including the supervisor’s ability to critically review the students’ work from a position of expertise and academic rigor. Some participants commented that they wanted a supervisor that had ‘status’ in their field or had good links with industry or their research community

RESA - what’s good, what needs improvement

UniSA’s Research Education Support Activities (RESA) were generally well received by participants and many commented on their contribution to their research and the networking opportunities they afforded. RESA appears to be facilitating the development of a research community by bringing together students from across the University.

One improvement strategy suggested by participants was Communication and timing: The need to have RESA opportunities promoted earlier in candidature, having a core series that all HDR students attend in their first six to twelve months. Occasionally, students missed out on a session because there wasn’t enough advanced notice or the location of the session was inconvenient. Students suggested greater flexibility in the delivery of the sessions including the use of Pod casting or online videos

Research Degree Graduate Qualities

Most participants were pragmatic in their response to the Research Degree Graduate Qualities question. The majority recognised the need for the University to have the RDGQ articulated and saw benefit in promoting these to industry, employers or other key stakeholders but occasionally commented that the RDGQ in their current format would not have much appeal to these groups.

Other key criticisms were associated with the burden of having to respond to the RDGQ in Progress Reviews and the lack of engagement with the RDGQ by supervisors.

These criticisms present some opportunities to better integrate RDGQ into the HDR experience:

  1. A review of RDGQ publicity with input from industry representatives and graduates to enhance their relevancy for all stakeholders.
  2. A review of the Progress planning and review form where student’s progress in developing RDGQ is recorded. Providing students with examples of graduate summaries of RDGQ could help students better understand this process and reinforce their relevancy
  3. Ensuring that the student’s response to RDGQ is understood and encouraged by supervisors.

 

top^