HDR Update

December 2019

In this issue

• Development opportunities for HDR candidates
• Scholarships and Programs
• Roll of Honour
• News from around ANU

Welcome note

Welcome to the last Update of the year. December is upon us and now is the time to look back on what we have achieved this year, and ready ourselves for the year ahead. I hope that you all have the opportunity to have some time to relax and recharge before New Year begins.

Graduation is a time for great celebration and recognition of all the hard work and effort over several years. It is also an opportunity for us to say thank you to those who support us, our family and friends. For those of you graduating in December, congratulations, and as I will be at many of the ceremonies I look forward to seeing you crossing the stage. We will also be awarding J. G. Crawford Prizes at upcoming graduation ceremonies. The J. G Crawford Prize is awarded to one graduate in the natural sciences and one in the social sciences/humanities for the excellence of their thesis. A third prize is available for a PhD graduate whose research crosses interdisciplinary boundaries. We were able to award all three so please join me in congratulating Dr Virginia Mazzini, Dr Eve Warburton and Dr Mengbin (Ben) Ye.

Looking back at 2019 there have been some significant changes; we welcomed the Graduate Research Office (GRO) early this year, before farewelling the previous Dean, Imelda Whelehan. More recently it is great to see ANU supporting HDR supervisor development and best practice in HDR supervision; which in turn better supports you in your research here!

Lastly, I wish you all a great holiday period and look forward to working with you in 2020, which is going to be even more exciting than this year.

Professor Ann Evans

Interim Dean HDR

Thesis Boot Camp!

Congratulations to our November Thesis Boot Campers, these legends wrote 292,548 words over one weekend. BIG thanks to PARSA for funding another successful camp and to Academic Skills for lending their expertise!

From Research Skills and Training

December

What does it mean to be a ‘researcher’?

A PhD produces both a thesis and a researcher. For many HDRs, doctoral education is a transformative journey, at the end of which they take on a new professional identity as a 'researcher'. This Pomodoro Break explores the ways in which we become researchers and how we demonstrate that identity to ourselves and the world. We finish the academic year on a celebratory note after the rigours of the September Pomodoro Break on examination.

By the end of this mini-course you will be able to:

• identify the objects and spaces that affirm your researcher identity
• understand how you can position yourself as a researcher in your field
• apply these concepts to build your own researcher profile

The course will run over a week, 2-6 December 2019. Please register your interest by midday on Monday 2 December. Then we’ll send you a link each day to a short blog post that provides some stimulating reading, links to relevant material, provocative questions and useful activities. All up, the reading and responding will take 20-30 minutes – just enough time to drink your coffee.

For more information and any questions, contact Cally Guerin.

Other Development Opportunities

December

Keep an eye on the ANU Library digital literacy training calendar for their 2020 workshops.

Scholarships and Programs

ANU launched its new HDR Supervision Development Framework  on 4 November. The purpose of the Framework is to foster and support best practice in the supervision of HDR students, including through recognising and capitalising on existing good practice and supervisory experience. Information about the Framework, supervisor registration requirements, and Q&A are available at the HDR Supervision Development webpages. It was developed with input from ANU staff and HDR students; we thank PARSA for its assistance.

All ANU staff who supervise HDR students, and Panel Chairs and Primary Supervisors external to ANU, are required to join the ANU Supervisor Register, established under the Framework.  The Framework also includes a suite of online resources to support good supervisory practice, including the comprehensive Supervising Doctoral Studies module. ANU HDR students can also access these resources, here.

The ANU HDR Supervision Framework supports a new HDR Supervisor of the Month award, to recognise, celebrate and share good supervisory practice. The Award is also open to professional staff who support HDR students. We encourage you to make a nomination for your Supervisor of the Month, here. 

We’re delighted to announce Supervisor of the Month Awardees for both November and December 2019:

• November – Dr Charlotte Galloway, ANU School of Art and Design
• December – Ms Amelia Maddock, ANU Medical School 

Congratulations to Charlotte and Amelia; and thanks to those who nominated them! You can read why they were nominated, and their reflections on their roles as supervisor and administrator, respectively, at the Supervisor of the Month webpage.

From the Thesis Whisperer

Roll of Honour

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

News

Research Integrity Exam

All HDR candidates must complete a research integrity training milestone exam early in their candidature. The milestone exam is supported by a Wattle site which explains the principles and practice of research integrity at ANU, more information can be found here.

A new National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research was released in 2018. The Wattle site has been updated to reflect these changes and a new Research Integrity Milestone exam has been updated in the eForms. The exam still offers you two chances to pass. If you have any questions or concerns about the new exam, please contact the Director of Research Training: inger.mewburn@anu.edu.au.

Building the Library Collection

Have you been wondering when we would replace the books lost in the flood? I am very pleased to advise that so far over 12,100 monograph titles lost in the flood are available through the Library. Many were donations and we have purchased a great number of titles. Recent flood replacements include:

• over 1,400 monographs acquired at significant discount from Cambridge University Press
• 60 donations from the Chancellor
• Major Adam Matthews collections. This includes replacements for 952 reels of microfilm and 89 microfiche from 26 microform collections:
• Church Missionary Society Archive
• Literary studies
• Medieval and early modern history
• Women’s studies (available from February next year)
• Empire studies

You can keep up to date with new items through the Library’s weekly updates.

Research Ethics

Research Ethics Drop-In Sessions will continue on the second Wednesday of each month over the summer. Drop by on 11 December or 8 January for help with ethics applications. For more information see the drop-in session event page.

Academic Skills

If you're working on a thesis chapter or journal article draft over the summer and would like a fresh perspective on your writing, make an appointment with Academic Skills! Our Learning Advisers are also happy to sit down with you to discuss any aspect of your research.

Are you an ANU PhD candidate with teaching, tutoring and/or academic mentoring experience? Do you love writing? Does helping your fellow students with their academic writing sound like your idea of fulfilling work? If so, we invite you to apply for the position of Writing Coach for the 2020 academic year. For more information visit ANU Career Hub. Applications close 19 January 2020

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