Educational and Staff Development

Learning and Teaching

Researchers

Postgraduate Research Students

New

Research Techniques in Biomedical and Life Sciences: an introductory programme organised jointly by the Science & Engineering Graduate School and the School of Medicine & Dentistry Graduate School.

All postgraduate research students are required by the College to undertake the equivalent of two weeks transferable skills training per academic year of their research programme.

The PhD Research Student Development Programme

Courses and workshops on The PhD Research Student Development Programme are designed to help PhD students to develop the skills and attributes needed to effectively manage their research and to plan for the next step in their career. You should have a wallplanner which lists all these workshops. If you have not received one, please contact Dr Jo Cordy. To learn more about these workshops or to book a place, please go to the web booking system. There is no charge for attendance at any of the courses and workshops for research staff or postgraduate research students registered with the College.

Special Initiatives and Events for PhDs

Every year ESD organises a number of special events for PhD researchers. Examples include a yearly ‘Pitch Your Idea’ business plan competition for PhD students as well as an increasing number of student-led initiatives and courses which are supported and funded by ESD. To find out more or to suggest ideas for future events/training opportunities please contact Dr Jo Cordy in ESD.

Personal Development Planning (PDP)

Personal Development Planning is a structured and supported process that helps individuals to plan their personal, professional and career development. It is a way of reflecting on your existing skills and achievements, and using this as a basis to plan for your development in the future.

At the start of your PhD you will already have many skills. These will be different for everyone, depending on background and experience, so it is impossible for the graduate school to adopt a one-size-fits-all policy for skills training. This is why it is important for each PhD student to think individually (with support from their supervisors) about what skills they already have, and which they would like to develop, so that everyone can make use of training and development opportunities that are relevant to them at a particular stage of their PhD. PDP is a simple way of carrying out this process.

The PDP process starts with reflection on your current skills, and on those which you feel you need to develop in the near future. This may be motivated by upcoming events (for example having to give a presentation, the need to start writing your thesis, needing to prepare for your viva etc), by a wish to develop new skills for a particular career or to make you more employable, or by feeling that you could be more effective at your research if you were a bit better at time-management, motivating yourself etc. This "skills analysis" or "Training Needs Analysis" can be carried out using the skills audit form (Word doc | pdf). Ideally you will use this form every six months or so and discuss it with your supervisor.

The other forms are to help you keep a record of your activities. Records and Documentation (Word doc | pdf) is where you keep information about your supervisor, your project, milestones in your degree and supervisory meetings. The Personal Log (Word doc | pdf) is where you can record training activities you've taken part in, along with presentations, publications, teaching experience etc. The PDP Proforma (Word doc | pdf) is where you can record your training plans for the next few months - what skills you're going to work on, why, how, and how you will know when you've been successful. All these forms can be modified to suit however you wish to use them.

A record of your training and development activities forms an important part of the upgrade procedure, so you should keep an up-to-date record of the training you receive and the activities you take part in.

PhD email distribution list

We have an e-mail distribution list for postgraduate research students; please email esd-phdstudents@qmul.ac.uk if you wish to be registered on the list. This list is used to keep postgraduate research students informed of forthcoming events and other relevant information.