Academic Services: Postgraduate Research Student Development Programme
Introduction
The University of Sunderland champions the development of transferable, as well as subject specific, skills and is committed to supporting postgraduate research students through their postgraduate research process to enhance their experience.
The support programmes are offered by Academic Services in collaboration with other central support services and the academic community. These are provided in addition to any subject specific faculty based training that is offered by research student managers and the supervisory teams which includes bespoke subject specific training, as well as training sourced through master's level programmes.
Details of the Academic Services development programmes for postgraduate researchers.
Programmes aims are to:
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Provide support to postgraduate research students at critical phases in the research degree to ease students' progression through the process of undertaking a research degree and thus enhance the student experience.
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Provide the quality and scope of transferable skills provision in line with local and national policy, equipping researches with transferable knowledge and skills that can be utilised during and beyond their research degree.
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Provide a rich interactive learning experience with time for researchers across all disciplines to develop core skills as part of a cross university research community, as well as develop knowledge on the breadth of research that is taking place and providing an environment for forming and strengthening a peer network that will enhance the student experience and could prove valuable in the development of future collaborative research projects.
The approach will:
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Provide time for researchers to collectively explore the subject material in the context of their own research using a workshop approach where possible.
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Provide training in concentrated workshop programmes over a relatively small number of days. This will be useful for researchers who travel long distances or take annual leave to attend events at the University of Sunderland, and is especially important for part-time researchers.
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Be flexible in allowing students to book onto sections of each programme when it is appropriate for them (with guidance from the supervisory team and the Academic Development Officer for Research).
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Enable students to opt out of sections of the compulsory course on occasions when they can already meet the learning outcomes with the support and guidance of their supervisory team. See appendix B for more information on opting out of sessions.
Postgraduate Researcher Development Programme - PGR students from all subject disciplines attend these workshops.
PGR student subject specific training at Sunderland
Subject specific faculty based training that is offered by research student managers and the supervisory teams which includes bespoke subject specific training, as well as training sourced through master's level programmes. Please consult your supervisor and research student manager for more information.
Arts Design and Media training - email beryl.graham@sunderland.ac.uk for more information or to book a place.
Faculty of Education and Society seminar programme 2011'12 (2012'13 coming soon) - email alison.perrett@sunderland.ac.uk for more information or to book a place.
PGR student training at other universities in the region
Postgraduate Research Students at Sunderland, Teesside, Newcastle and Northumbria universities are also eligible to attend training courses, through the North East Collaboration Group for Postgraduate Researcher Development, at other universities in the North East region.
PGR training at other universities