Graduate School Skills Director, Room 100, Northcote House
The Queen's Drive, Exeter EX4 4QJ
Tel: 01392 263711 Fax: 01392 263108
Email: gradstudy@exeter.ac.uk
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Graduate School Skills Director, Room 100, Northcote House |
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Frequently Asked Questions about the Effective Researcher Programme(1) Why do we offer an effective researcher programme? (2) What form does the programme take? (5) Is the programme compulsory or voluntary? (6) Do I need to do any work before-hand? (7) Do I need my supervisors support to attend? (8) Which courses do I need to take? (9) How do I get the most up to date information about workshops and register? (10) How can I be sure that the workshops are well designed and delivered? (11) What should I do if I am unable to attend after booking? (12) What if a session that I would like to attend is fully booked? (13) Who can I contact with questions? (14) What if I need training in something that is not offered? (15) I have accessibility and special requirements, who should I inform? (17) What if I am studying at a distance, or not on the Streatham Campus? (18) Monthly Skills Bulletin for Research Students (1) Why do we offer an effective researcher programme? We organise this programme because we are familiar with the high-level skills you will need to develop as a research student at the University. Doing a PhD is a considerable undertaking, and we realise that you will need help in the form of training as you progress through your research project. We want to help you to complete a successful PhD on time and to ensure that you enjoy your postgraduate experience here at the University of Exeter. We also want to help you to identify and develop these skills to improve your future employability, whether in academia or further afield. The world of work is becoming ever more competitive and by engaging in skills training that is highly transferable, we hope that University of Exeter research students will be highly competent and confident in their chosen field of employment, and of course, become excellent ambassadors for the institution. (2) What form does the programme take? The programme mainly comprises half-day and whole-day workshops which take place in various locations across the campus, but mainly in the Postgraduate Centre on the Streatham Campus. We also use seminar rooms at the Tremough Campus. Please remember that training does not need to be formal workshops and seminars; we encourage you to get involved in one-to-one training with your supervisors and mentors, and other research students and take full advantage of any other training opportunities offered by your school and external to the University of Exeter, perhaps by your professional body, in the UK or overseas. All events are free of charge. However students may be charged who book but do not then turn-up on the day. All postgraduate research students (MPhil/PhD) are eligible to attend our workshops, irrespective of funding status or mode of attendance. The programme is not open to taught masters students. (5) Is the training compulsory or voluntary? The Graduate School strongly encourages all research students to attend relevant training courses to enhance their skills profile and future employability, but we do not make this compulsory. However, some schools make elements of the Graduate School programme compulsory, so you must speak with your supervisor and/or school's director of postgraduate study about this to ensure that you meet your school’s requirements for a research degree. (6) Do I need to do any work before-hand? For most events, there is no preparatory work. However, for some events, preparatory work is essential and you may be turned away unless you have undertaken the work involved. The reasons for this are simple; some sessions require a prior commitment so that you gain the most possible benefit out of the limited contact time. (7) Do I need my supervisors support to attend? The Graduate School requires all supervisors and students to discuss training and development as an integral part of the supervisory process, and your supervisor should help you to identify, acquire and review your skills on a regular basis. However, we would encourage all research students to take ownership of their research projects and responsibility for their professional and personal development. (8) Which courses do I need to take? Apart from the induction events, there is no formal route through the generic training programme. Instead we offer a 'pick-and-mix’ menu approach to training, which is demand-driven and needs-based. However, we strongly advise you to only take training that is relevant and timely. On our skills website we often identify the target audience for our training events, to be used as a guide. However, please use the service in a professional way – for example there is little to be gained from a first year PhD student attending a session on writing up the thesis, or preparing for the viva. On the other hand, third year PhD students will find little value in attending a session on project managing the thesis. (9) How do I get the most up to date information about workshops and register? We have a dedicated online booking system for all of our workshops. We encourage all research students to bookmark this page and to visit it regularly throughout their programme of study. Our online system is regularly updated, sometimes on a weekly basis in busy periods. We require all research students to 'sign-up' for an account to book onto sessions, and this will take no more than 2 minutes of your time online. We ask for your name, student number and school etc, and this ensures that only bona fide Exeter students use the service. After this process, you can then electronically book and delete yourself onto relevant events. Once booked onto an event, you will receive a personalised confirmatory email. Two or three days before the event you will also be automatically reminded of your booking. We believe that our online booking facility is easy to use and enables us to keep a check on bookings. Bookmark it now! (10) How can I be sure that the workshops are well designed and delivered? We take the quality of our training provision very seriously, and for this reason, we exercise a range of quality control measures. These include using professional venues, using high quality and experienced trainers who are experts in their chosen field, providing clear information about events to manage your expectations, including session descriptions and 'intended learning outcomes' (what you can expect to gain from each event…although you may learn even more!), and also by asking students to complete an evaluation form at the end of every session, the results of which are collated and used to fine-tune future sessions. We also make public our evaluations for each and every event, as can be seen in this booklet and on the website when you browse sessions. A selection of more descriptive student quotes are also scattered throughout this booklet from participants on the programme last year. Our evaluations are strongly positive; in 2005-06 we had well over 1400 student places filled, and over 97% of students would 'positively recommend them' to other research students. Where problems do occur, from time to time, we take action to rectify these, often in consultation with research students themselves. (11) What should I do if I am unable to attend after booking? If you book on to an event, you are expected to attend. If you are unable to attend you must inform the organisers, or better still, automatically remove yourself. The Graduate School contacts all students who book and do not attend, after each and every event. We provide a professional service, and we ask that students use the service in a professional and courteous way. The Graduate School reserves the right to remove persistent 'no-shows' from the booking system. Also, we ask that students do not 'block book' onto sessions, but instead take their development in a step-wise, measured and timely manner. We monitor our booking system and will contact students who do not use the system in the way that we request. (12) What if a session that I would like to attend is fully booked? If you would like to attend a session that is already fully booked, email Gradskills@exeter.ac.uk and we will put you on a reserve list, and email you if places become available. In addition, for very popular events, we try and put on repeats throughout the year, so make sure that you regularly visit the website. (13) Who can I contact with questions? Contact: Gradskills@exeter.ac.uk or visit Gill Fairbrass, the Postgraduate Skills Secretary in The Graduate School Office, Room 100, Northcote House: 01392 263711 (3711 from an internal phone). (14) What if I need training in something that is not offered? We are always considering ways in which our programme can be enhanced and expanded. If there are particular generic sessions that you would like to see offered, in addition to what we already have on offer, then please get in touch. If enough other students are interested, then we may be able to help. Please note that we do not offer one-to-one training and we do not offer training in specific research methods - speak to your respective school about this. (15) I have accessibility and special requirements, who should I inform? Please contact the Graduate School about any specific requirements - there is also a section on the online sign-up form to inform us of your needs. Please also inform the Graduate School if you would like to receive the programme booklet or any course materials in an alternative format. Email: Gradskills@exeter.ac.uk or call 01392 263711 (3711 from an internal phone) On occasion, we may need to cancel a workshop, for example, due to a last minute room problem, if the facilitator falls ill, or perhaps if numbers are not sufficient to warrant running an event. From experience, this does not happen very often. However, we would like to apologise in advance should this situation occur. All participants will be fully informed about such an eventuality, and where possible we will automatically transfer you on to the re-scheduled session. (17) What if I am studying at a distance, or not on the Streatham Campus? We recognise that the majority of our training events take place on the Streatham Campus. However, we do offer a smaller training programme on the Tremough Campus in Cornwall. This tends to be more demand-driven, and in consultation with senior academics on the site. We will be expanding provision in Tremough over the coming months. For those students not on-campus, we will also be expanding and enhancing our online resources section of our website. However, from speaking with students off-campus, we are finding that some do come to our workshops and combine them with a trip to the library and to meet their supervisors and other colleagues. For students at Tremough only, please contact the Graduate School Office about assistance with travel to the Streatham Campus. (18) Monthly Newsletter for Research Students Every month, the Graduate School compiles a newsletter that lists all courses scheduled for the coming month to keep research students abreast of developments. This is sent directly to all research students. |
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