HDR Update

August 2018

In this issue

• Campus wide HDR training calendar
• #ANU3MT Three Minute Thesis 2018
• Roll of Honour

Welcome note

I hope the winter months are proving productive for you. Personally I try to use the short days and chilly nights to get ahead with my writing; sometimes this is a struggle when I get hooked on a TV series and the temptation is to binge watch, but equally it’s nice to have some down time when you feel you’ve done a good day’s work. During July I have been out and about, presenting some of the key findings of the Green Paper and offering my thoughts on possible priorities for the White Paper. If you haven’t had a chance to attend and contribute to one of these forums, please do take up the opportunity to submit a short (two-page maximum) written statement which can be emailed to ODHDR@anu.edu.au by 3 August 2018. We really do appreciate and value your feedback, and those of you who contributed to the first open forum process in 2017 may see yourself quoted in the Green Paper. However you choose to engage with this process, I want to assure you that we are doing our best to continually improve the HDR experience as we go, and I hope some of these ongoing improvements have already helped you.

Congratulations to our first Visualise Your Thesis winners this month - Ankita Gagrani from CECS, and runner up and PARSA People's Choice Joyce Yeoh, also from CECS. Good luck for the national final at Melbourne Uni at the end of the month.

If you are working in any field of science and technology you may be interested in the Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS 2019), held in Singapore in January next year. The theme for the summit is “Advancing Science, Creating Technologies for a Better World”, and ANU can nominate 5 young researchers to attend. If you are interested contact my office (ODHDR@anu.edu.au). Applications close on 23 August 2018.

Professor Imelda Whelehan

Dean, Higher Degree Research

Upcoming programs

August

Showcase

The Three Minute Thesis challenges PhD candidates to present their research and it's importance in plain language in just 3 minutes. Through participating in 3MT, candidates have the opportunity to develop presentation skills that are crucial for a successful career post PhD, inside and outside of academia.

Training for the 3 Minute Thesis continues in August, with the ANU College finals held in late August and the ANU Final is on Wednesday 12 September at Llewellyn Hall, ANU. Information on the 3MT and the training courses is here and register for training here.

Opportunities

Quality of Supervision Survey
Academic research supervision is one of, if not the most, critical aspects for student wellbeing and the ability to successfully complete a postgraduate research project. However, there are currently no questionnaires that comprehensively assess the quality of the supervisory relationship. This project will develop such a questionnaire. It will involve completing a 25-30 minute online survey focusing on the quality of the relationship you have with your primary supervisor. The results will help universities to understand current gaps in the quality of supervision and how to best equip supervisors to support their students. Those who participate can opt in to win a $150 Westfield voucher.

PostAc App
Inger Mewburn and her team have been working on a new type of search engine for PhD graduates. If you would like access to the closed user trial, you can register here.

Opportunities
Applications for the Mandy & Edward Yencken Postgraduate Research Scholarship from Crohn & Colitis Australia are now open. Applications close 31 August 2018 and more information can be found here.

Amplify Ignite 2018. One night. One pitch. One winner. Amplify Ignite is a one-night-only, PhD pitch night, where twenty exceptional PhD students from across Australia have the opportunity to present to a live business audience with a chance to win funding for their research. The finalists also have the opportunity to work with a professional performance coach and business mentor in order to prepare their cutting edge idea for a 150 second live pitch.

Applications to attend the Global Young Scientists Summit in Singapore in January 2019 are open. This prestigious summit is a gathering of young researchers from all over the world, who meet to disuss the latest advances in science and technology. For more information here and to apply please contact ODHDR@anu.edu.au

CSL Florey Next Generation Award will be awarded to a current PhD candidate who has demonstrated outstanding capability, creativity and potential in the biomedical sciences, health or medical research. Nominations close September 14 and more information can be found here.

Academic Skills & Learning Centre
Want to learn more about writing up your research for publication or thesis submission? Take a look at the Academic Skills and Learning Centre Research Writing website.

ANU Library

Digital literacy training available – register via the online training calendar.

Take some time to explore the Library's how-to guides for tips and strategies on finding resources, using reference management software, increasing your study skills and more!

Beginning your research at ANU? Our weekly workshops - Library Research, Digital Research and Internet Research - will show you how to discover a range of information using the Library’s online catalogue, SuperSearch, scholarly databases, full text e-journal collections, ANU Press and ANU Open Research. Register online for the August workshops via the full event catalogue.

Writing your literature review? Book a one-to-one consultation with a Library subject expert for a personalised and efficient approach to searching, evaluating and managing the literature.

Do you need to analyse and present your data? Join the SPSS workshops and you will learn these skills and much more.

News & links

Academic Skills & Learning Centre

Need some advice on writing up your research? Want some ideas on how to work more efficiently? Through one-to-one appointments a Learning Adviser can work closely with you to develop and improve your writing and writing habits. There are also extensive web resources on the Research Writing website. Additionally, ASLC is currently running writing programs in most of Colleges. Links are provided in the events list above and personal invitations have been sent to candidates with registration passwords included. For more information, contact academicskills@anu.edu.au. If your College or School does not currently have a program – contact ASLC to discuss tailoring a program for you. General workshops for all candidates can be found on their Eventbrite page.

ANU Online Wattle, Turnitin & Echo360 training

ANU Online provides training on Wattle (Moodle), Turnitin, Echo360, and using technology for teaching and learning. We offer: face-to-face sessions, monthly online coffee courses – where we discuss topical educational technologies in 15 minutes, or you can join the conversation about education technology with our ANU Online Community. We also have a monthly newsletter – with news, upcoming events and tips – see the latest version here.

Training for August includes: Introduction to Wattle Gradebook on 21 August, an Online Coffee Course running from 22 - 28 August on Feedback for Learning, and Marking Assignments in Turnitin and Wattle on 22 August.

For more information on Wattle please contact wattle.support@anu.edu.au, or for training please contact EdDesign@anu.edu.au.

ANU Qualitative Research Network

QRN Forum: Qualitative research at the margins: case studies of innovative methods

Centre for Higher Education, Learning &Teaching

Are you a PhD student who has tutored at ANU? Learn about new ideas and practices. Are you interested in gaining new skills to improve your effectiveness as a tutor/demonstrator? Principles of Tutoring and Demonstrating (PTD) is an intensive 10 module program, designed to help you develop teaching strategies, apply effective lesson planning principles, offer practical help with marking and examples of how to give feedback to your students.

Registrations essential.

Counselling Centre

The ANU Counselling Centre offers a range of group workshops in Semester 2, including a four week stress and anxiety management group. See this website for more details.

Ethics training

Twice monthly Human Ethics Training sessions

HDR Administration Support Project

The University is committed to identifying improvements for administration and support functions that affect the HDR student experience. Under the direction of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) the ANU Service Improvement Group has a project in progress aiming to identify effective ways of delivering significantly improved HDR Administrative Support outcomes. 

To read the most recent news from the project, click through to the update. For more information on the HDR Administrative Support Project please visit the web site or contact the Project Managers: Kailee Fisher (PM for the Admissions component) and Megan Easton (PM for the broader body of HDR work).

Library

Library opening hours have changed to coincide with the start of Semester 2. All branch opening hours are on the Library website.

New in 2018: ANU Library provides you with free access to the Springer & Palgrave eBook Archives for titles published before 2005. This gives you access to over 66,000 titles in 19 subject collections to help with your studies, and importantly, includes a lot of the materials lost in the Chifley flood.

A free shuttle to the NLA departs on the hour from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Friday from Hancock to the National Library of Australia. Look for the yellow and blue bus at Biology Place, the road next to Hancock Library. The ANU Campus Traveller bus can be tracked in real time using the ANUOK app.

Part of the DNA: The John Curtin School of Medical Research and the ANU Library, a new exhibition highlighting the contribution of the ANU Library to the history and research of the John Curtin School of Medical Research. The exhibit will include photographs, historical equipment, building plans, line drawings, as well as journals and research papers. Items are on display in the Menzies Library foyer August to October.

The ANU Library is currently digitising the theses of ANU students – starting all the way back from the 1950s. We recently celebrated the 5,000th thesis being digitised! The thesis to receive this honour was published in 1979 by Ian Brunskill, as part of his Doctor of Philosophy at ANU. This milestone represents the ANU Library’s continued commitment to digitisation and providing access to our world-class research. You can read more about Dr Brunskill, and the benefits of digitisation, on the ANU Library website.

Need a refresher on what the ANU Library can do for you? Take a look at these tips on getting the most out of the ANU Library.

ANU Press

New this month from the ANU Press:

Island Rivers - In this unique contribution to Pacific Island ethnography, Island Rivers looks at the significance of rivers for Pacific Island culture, livelihood and identify, by drawing attention to the deep historical attachments of island communities to rivers, and the ways in which those attachments are changing in response to various forms of economic development and social change.

New Directions in Strategic Thinking 2.0 - The Australian National University’s Strategic & Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) is Australia’s premier university-based strategic studies think tank. Fifty years after its founding, SDSC celebrated with a two-day conference which brought together many of the world’s premier strategic studies minds. New Directions in Strategic Thinking 2.0 encapsulates the essence of this cutting-edge thinking, and is a must read for those concerned with emerging strategic challenges facing Australia and its security partners.

China’s 40 Years of Reform and Development: 1978–2018 - The China Update Series is Australia’s premier publication for in-depth discussion and analysis of the Chinese economy. The latest in this series, China’s 40 Years of Reform and Development: 1978–2018, assembles some of the world’s most prominent scholars on the Chinese economy to reflect on the preceding four decades and what the world can expect in China’s fifth decade of reform and development.

All titles can be purchase or download for free from the ANU Press website.

Statistical Consulting Centre

Free statistics consulting appointments for ANU research students and staff

Postgraduate & Research Students' Association (PARSA)

Shut Up and Write (SUAW) where you come together in a supportive environment to work on your thesis using the Pomodoro Technique, and enjoy a hearty meal courtesy of PARSA.

SUAW is held at the Molly Huxley Room at University House. Day sessions include lunch, and dinner is provided in the evenings.

As part of the SUAW program, PARSA also runs Shut Up and Write (SUAW) Coffee Sessions. Join our SUAW Coffee Sessions every weekday, in cafes around campus.

For more information, and to register for the SUAW Sessions and SUAW Coffee Sessions, visit the PARSA website.

From the Thesis Whisperer

Roll of Honour

Warm congratulations to these following students who have been recently approved to graduate from their PhD or MPhil. Well done all!

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