April 24, 2020, by Lisa Chin
A chat with Professor Deborah Hall
“Won’t somebody think of the postgraduate research students?”
This was asked by a higher education journal last month. As we are now nearing the end of the third phase of Movement Control Order (MCO), our postgraduate research students (PGRs) have been confined to their homes or dormitories for the past several weeks. And this prolonged confinement will increase the stress levels among them who already have had to cope with the anxiety in these unprecedented and uncertain times.
A virtual live chat
At the Graduate School, we spend a lot of time advocating for our PGRs especially on issues affecting their ongoing research training and development opportunities.
In our effort to be even more explicit and relevant in our communications and responses, we facilitated a virtual live chat session between PGRs and the Vice Provost (Research and Knowledge Exchange), Professor Deborah Hall. Almost 50 of our PGRs living across Malaysia and overseas joined a Q&A session using Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 22 April 2020. We appreciate the technology we have today that enables us to stay connected wherever we may be.
“I really appreciated the opportunity to make a personal connection with our PGRs. The MCO is challenging for all of us in different ways and this was a chance for me to try to alleviate immediate concerns and reassure our PGRs that the University is looking at how best to support their needs,” said Professor Hall.
“The online platform allows us to meet and interact with our students amid campus closure. In short, it allows us to still experience the communal feel of a real university environment,” said Ms Deepa Kumari Veerasingam, Head of Graduate School.
Listening and addressing the concerns from postgraduate research students
A substantial part prior to the session was for the postgraduate student representatives to collate responses from PGRs. These responses included reasonable concerns and questions, constructive criticisms as well as suggestions for improvement. In addition, questions were also posted through the live chat platform where they were addressed in real-time.
Professor Hall gave her advice and recommendations in addressing each of the concerns and questions which covered a range of areas, bringing discussion to topics including:
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Research Update and C0VID-19 Impact Statement
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Graduating on time; covering thesis submission, online viva voce examination, graduation ceremonies and certificate issuance
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Annual review and progression
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Disruptions on laboratory and experimental work
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Research funds and critical expenditure
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Online training and development support
While it is frustrating not to be able to do any laboratory work and data collection, Professor Hall said that this MCO period poses a great chance to focus on writing. She further encouraged PGRs to take advantage of the writing sessions offered by the Graduate School to support preparing for writing, be it a journal paper or PhD thesis chapter or any kind of writing. The ‘Getting published’ workshop is also useful to get an introductory knowledge on scholarly publishing and obtain insights from experienced seniors.
Read more about Shut up and write
Read more about Getting published
Our commitment
“PGRs are an important part of our community at the University. This has been a nice experience for me to be able to chat remotely with some of you (PGRs), hear your concerns and answer your questions,” said Professor Hall at the end of the session.
The session provided a much needed platform for direct and meaningful communications between PGRs and Professor Hall. Through it, we were able to convey the reassurance that the University is thinking of and working on behalf of its PGR community.
“Good luck in your research studies. Most importantly, stay safe and stay positive, and I look forward to seeing you all back on campus in the very near future,” said Professor Hall who left a very encouraging note before concluding the session.
In our continuous effort to mitigate the impact of this closure period, taking into consideration of the possibility of further extension, we are considering to hold another chat session. We will continue to providing succinct updates on what we are doing to support our PGRs during this closure period, through our C0VID-19: Graduate School updates, twice weekly on Tuesday and Thursday.
Engagement and feedback
One of the participants said, “Thank you very much for the session. It was very informative and enriching. I am in my Thesis Pending Period with the School of Education (SoE). I am a foreign student from Singapore where I live and teach at a university here. I am very glad that University of Nottingham (UNM) has embarked on multiple programmes – all online – and for the first time, I am able to enjoy a buffet of courses on a weekly basis. I am always glad to be a student of SoE, UNM and I would always recommend anyone to be a part of this great University.”
We received many encouraging and positive messages from our PGRs. We are delighted to hear that our online training and development support is useful for them in navigating their research work.
“Thank you for engaging with us. Please keep in touch and let us know how we can support you in your postgraduate research journey especially during this challenging time,” said Deepa.
We will continue to cultivating a supportive culture in which our PGRs can advance and thrive, even during these unprecedented and uncertain times. We are here to support our PGRs and ensure they have a rewarding postgraduate research experience.
For more information please contact us at graduateschool@nottingham.edu.my
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