Personal development
Introduction
The second generic quality refers to the 'pursuit of personal development and excellence in research within and beyond the discipline or professional practice'. This personal learning goes beyond the length of the candidature and range of the discipline into the attributes required for lifelong learning. These include management of time and resources, coping with stress, communication with self and others (networking) and organisational skills.
Implementing Research
Degree Graduate Qualities at UniSA (RTF file) acknowledges that
'the postgraduates would also have attained capacities and skills
relative to creating and critiquing knowledge that can be
transferred outside of their immediate discipline or professional
area' and 'would have acquired the resources and the motivation
necessary to continue research in the relevant discipline or
professional area after the thesis has been completed'.
UniSA resources
On campus workshops
Research Education Support Activities (RESA) offers on campus workshops relevant to personal development as part of the core series (eg 'A team of one’: how will you manage time and your project? and Minimising stress and optimising performance in the Sciences, engineering and technology commencing program). Check the calendar for details of when these workshops are offered.
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Online workshops, courses and resources
These RESA indexes provide links to online workshops, courses and resources:
Student lifestyle: Creating a balance (Learning and Teaching Unit) is a resource designed for students commencing their university studies but some questions posed may be useful to research students who have had a break from study or are finding the transition to candidature difficult. A time management plan and structure for managing change are provided.
Online guides
Dealing with life changes provides suggestions for coping with the stress of your candidature and approaches to dealing with this, including counselling and advice.
Time management (Research Education, Learning and Teaching Unit) provides information under the headings: Strategies; Advanced Time Management; Variations to Candidature; Further Resources. Weekly and yearly planner templates may be particularly useful. Money management (Research Education, Learning and Teaching Unit) looks at the costs associated with living and the costs associated with research as factors in money management for research students.Other resources
ATN LEAP Program is a resource for postgraduate research students (and their supervisors) at universities in the Australian Technology Network, which 'gives you the opportunity to improve your employment skills while you study'. Contact Graduate Studies Office for more information.
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Project Management module covers:
- Developing detailed project definitions
- Project Planning: scoping, scheduling and budgeting for projects
- Quality Assurance, project communications, procurement planning and risk planning
- Controlling, closing and evaluating projects
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Public Policy module covers:
- helping research students to better understand the world of public policy and its relationship to the world of research
- helping research students to better understand what are some of the factors governing the behaviour of the world of public policy through a case study of water
- helping research students to become more confident in dealing with that public policy world, whether that be in working within it, seeking to influence it, or trying to obtain something from it.
The Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD? by Dave Pritchard offers a humorous look at the process of writing a thesis.
PhD Stages, University of Queensland, offers the following resources
- Coping with your highs and lows
- How is the best way to organise myself to get the whole thing done?
- Why am I doing this and how do I keep myself motivated for three years?
- Dealing with isolation
- Clarifying your real reasons for doing this degree
Stress Management brochure from the Counseling Center at the University of Illinois talks about optimal stress and useful straightforward tips on how to handle stress better.
How to master stress (Mind Tools) is organised under the following headings: Understanding stress; Finding your best level of stress; Stress management techniques; and Summary of stress management, with extensive information under each heading.
How to be a good graduate student (Marie desJardins) 'attempts to raise some issues that are important for graduate students to be successful and to get as much out of the process as possible, and for advisors who wish to help their students be successful.' This paper covers topics such as Staying motivated and The daily grind
Professional organisations
You will want to join one or more professional organisations or at
least keep yourself informed of their activities
- Professional associations (Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment) lists professional industry bodies linked to programs offered by this division
- Professional societies (Division of Health Sciences) lists a wide range of professional societies which have varying levels of association with the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences
- Division of Health Sciences
- Professional societies lists a wide range of professional societies which have varying levels of association with the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences
- Professional Associations and Registration Boards information
- Australian professional organisations, associations and societies does not claim to be a comprehensive site and you may need to talk to your supervisor(s) and other research students to find relevant Australian professional organisations to contact, or do a Google or other search engines search on your subject area, for example 'professional organisations art'