September 30, 2015, by Lisa Chin
Postgraduate Welcome Programme 2015
The first part of our annual Postgraduate Welcome Programme was held on 21st September 2015. It offered a formal introduction to the Graduate School and a series of social and educational activities, aimed to provide all new and returning postgraduate students with an opportunity and platform to get started with their postgraduate life as well as to meet and develop a constructive network of friends and colleagues.
The Postgraduate Welcome Programme started off with an introduction to the Graduate School and its members of staff, presented by Ms Vimaleswari Danapal, the Administration Manager of Research Training and Academic Development (RTAD). The attendees were introduced to the role of the Graduate School in providing a range of dedicated support and facilities for its postgraduate students. The welcome note was then addressed by Dr Christopher Hill, the Director of RTAD. Dr Hill also provided an overview of PhD life and gave some useful advice in surviving the challenging PhD study.
PhD Life and Thinking About Your PhD, presented by Dr Christopher Hill.
The programme continued on with an informative presentation by Dr Tissa Chandesa, a Research Training Development Manager at RTAD. Dr Chandesa delved into the details of training provision by the Graduate School i.e. Research Development Programme (RDP) and Postgraduate Student Teachers (PST) Programme. The RDP provides free training for University of Nottingham registered postgraduate research students and some taught Masters students of the University to develop a range of transferable skills. The PST Programme offers postgraduate research students, who are involved in teaching, a range of workshops. The workshops cover different methods of teaching, including giving feedback when assessing undergraduates’ work. As most of the attendees were new postgraduate students, the presentation by Dr Chandesa was helpful in getting them to familiarise with Moodle.
Dr Tissa Chandesa gave a brief tour of the Moodle pages of Researcher Development Programme (RDP) and Postgraduate Student Teachers (PST) Programme, offered by the Graduate School. This allowed the new postgraduate students to familiarise themselves with the basic knowledge navigating through the Moodle pages.
Next was ‘A Session with Supervisors’ where the invited supervisors; Dr Ong Sze Pheng from the Faculty of Engineering, Dr Rasyad Parinduri from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Dr Jessica Price from the Faculty of Science, gave their views on what their expectations are for a postgraduate student and what the life of a postgraduate student should look like.
Dr Ong took a very interesting approach in explaining the different stages of postgraduate study using Piled Higher and Deeper (also known as PhD Comics) by Jorge Cham, which is a comic strip about life in academia. Dr Ong talked about the complex student-supervisor relationship as well as what to expect and not to expect from a supervisor. Dr Ong further emphasised the importance of mutual expectations between both the supervisor and postgraduate student.
An interesting presentation by Dr Ong Sze Pheng, an Assistant Professor from the Faculty of Engineering.
Dr Parinduri, on the other hand, highlighted the significance of having a passion for research in undertaking a research degree.
An informative sharing by Dr Rasyad Parinduri, an Associate Professor form the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Dr Price reiterated the importance of having a good working relationship with the supervisor. As each supervisor has different supervision style, Dr Price recommended that a postgraduate student and his/her supervisor should at the start of the research degree discuss the format and frequency of formal supervisory meeting and understand the responsibilities of supervisor so that the postgraduate student has clear expectations as to what supervisor is – and is not – there for. That understanding will provide the postgraduate student with a foundation for building an effective working relationship with the supervisor.
An enlightening presentation by Dr Jessica Price, an Assistant Professor from the Faculty of Science.
One of the crucial points repeatedly highlighted by the three supervisors in managing the expectation of a supervisor is effective communication. As such, the supervisors strongly encourage the postgraduate students to take advantage of their meetings with supervisor.
A networking lunch cum informal ice-breaking session was organised for students to get to know each other and their seniors on campus. It was a great success as the seniors were promoting Graduate School and its roles and ensured everyone was at ease and having a good time.
Networking lunch, a good platform to develop a constructive network of friends and colleagues.
The Postgraduate Welcome Programme continued on with a talk entitled ‘The Doctoral Research Journey: Towards Success’, presented by Professor Tony Bush. The talk addressed key aspects of the doctoral journey and discussed the roles of students and supervisors.
Tony Bush is Professor of Educational Leadership at University of Nottingham with resposibilities in the UK and Malaysia Campus, and a vising Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a vice-president and a Council member of the British Educational Leadership Society (BELMAS) and has been the editor of the SSCI-listed internal journal, Educational Management, Administration and Leadership (EMAL) since 2002. His previous experience includes professional appointments at renowned universities such as Leicester, Reading, Lincoln and Warwick. He was presented with the BELMAS Distinguished Service Award in 2008 and appointed as a Fellow of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM) in the same year. He has been consultant, external examiner, invited keynote speaker and research director in 16 countries.
The second part of the Postgraduate Welcome Programme featured the annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition, held the following day on 22nd September 2015. A write-up on the competition will be posted on our Postgraduate Blog and Facebook soon.
The third and final part of the Postgraduate Welcome Programme is the SWIRL (So What’s It Really Like?) session, which will be held on 28th October 2015, 12pm – 2pm @ H1B13. Join us to find out about life at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus from current postgraduate students at an informal forum for old and new postgraduate students!
For those who attended the first part of the Postgraduate Welcome Programme, we hope that you have gained something from the sessions arranged and we look forward to seeing you in our upcoming SWIRL session.
*Special thanks goes to all the invited speakers: Dr Ong Sze Pheng, Dr Rasyad Parinduri, Dr Jessica Price and Professor Tony Bush.
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