Blog Archives
Call for Images – Graduate School’s Images of Research 2017-18
The call for the Graduate School’s Images of Research 2017-18 is now open! If you are a researcher (staff or student) at the University of Northampton, and would like to participate, all you need to do is to come up with a unique image that you can either create or photograph, the image should capture the essence of your research or an element of it, in a visual, artistic or photographic way, with a 150 word summary and a title. Entries for IoR 2017-18 must be emailed to Simone by November 10th 2017. Please see the rules and guidelines. Images of last year IoR competition can be found in IOR 16-17 catalogue. Read the rest of this entry
An invitation to “Connected Communities”, the Graduate School’s conference for new researchers on 14th September
Book now to attend The Graduate School’s annual research conference for postgraduate and early career researchers, which will be held on Thursday 14th September in Holdenby Lecture Theatre 3, Park Campus,
We’re holding our first 3MT with a £25 prize, plus 5 panel sessions of papers from our postgraduate researchers. For more information see the conference page.
Please book your place here on our Eventbrite booking page. We look forward to seeing you there.
Graduate School Update Day
On Thursday 29th June, Graduate School Update Day was held on Park Campus with an attendance of over fifty PGR students and supervisors. Every year The Graduate School hold this event to provide a space for both PGRs and supervisors to get together, discuss one or two topics of relevance to them via workshops and provide an opportunity for both parties to feed back on the year’s Graduate School provision and service. This year, the event started with a one hour session on research ethics, during which Professor John Horton, Chair of Research Ethics Committee provided an update on changes to research ethics processes for research degree students at the University of Northampton including the new proforma for ethics applications. The second workshop of the day was led by Clare Jones, an expert in researcher careers for research staff and PhD students from the University of Nottingham. Clare started her workshop providing an overview of the PhD landscape with examples of some career related issues and challenges that postgraduate students encounter in their PhD journey.
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YES Competition 2017
Take part in YES17 this autumn and spend three days immersed in developing enterprise skills; thinking creatively to produce innovative solutions to major challenges; and discovering how to communicate research with impact.
YES is an opportunity for postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers wishing to:
- Enhance CVs
- Develop transferable skills
- Cultivate business acumen
- Become career-wise
- Collaborate with peers and network with industry experts
- Pitch for a share of the £7,500 prize fund
The application deadline is the 9 July 2017.
For more information, please see the link
Supervisor Development Programme ~ 2017/18
The university runs a development programme for supervisors who are new to research degree supervision, co-ordinated by Professor Ian Livingstone, Head of the Graduate School. It is a validated university postgraduate course and it is delivered as two modules – Workshops and Observation. It is a requirement of our research degree regulations that everyone who is new to supervision takes the first module – the workshops. The second module is optional but if you complete both you are awarded the Postgraduate Certificate in Research Degree Supervision which you can count as one completion when putting together supervisory teams. Even if you have previously supervised research students, there may be some elements of the programme that you would find useful.
In 2017/18 the workshops will be delivered on:
Tuesday 20th, Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd February 2018 at The University of Northampton;
Tuesday 10th, Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th July 2018 at The University of Northampton
Staff from both The University of Northampton and Regent’s University London plus staff delivering our research degrees as international partners are welcome to join either delivery. You only need to join one three-day course, not both. No fees are paid by participants on this programme, but if you will be travelling away from your own university you will need to discuss travel and subsistence expenses with your line manager.
If you are intending to join this programme for either delivery and have not yet contacted Ian Livingstone, please do so now. (01604 893362; email: ian.livingstone@northampton.ac.uk). He will be happy to answer any questions you have about the programme.
Nominations for the Times Higher Education Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year 2017 are NOW OPEN!
Nominations for the outstanding research supervisor of the year award are now open. Sponsored by the Times Higher Education, this award will be given to the individual who has created the most supportive, stimulating and inspirational research environment for doctoral students. Entries will be accepted from institutions, supervisors themselves or their students or colleagues, but in all cases the institution must support the submission and student testimonies must be included in the supplementary documentation. Entries are open online until Wednesday 28th June 2017. Read the rest of this entry
Call for Papers from PGRs – September 2017 Conferences
The East Midlands Doctoral Network (EMDoc) would like to invite PGR students to submit an abstract for a paper or poster to their Postgraduate Research Conference. This year conference will be hosted at the University of Nottingham and is a great opportunity to promote students’ research, and meet and network with other postgraduate research students from around the East Midlands. The conference will be held on the 13th September which is the day before the University of Northampton PGR/ ECR conference. So, aiming at encouraging our students to communicate their research both in internal and external settings, and seeking to help them improve their presentation skills, the Graduate School is offering PGR students the opportunity of covering the expenses of their trip to Nottingham if they are also planning to present in the PGR/ECR conference in Northampton. Read the rest of this entry
Images of Research 2016-17 winners announced!
The winners of the Graduate School’s Images of Research (IoR) exhibition and competition 2016-17 have now been chosen
There were two competitions – 3 winners chosen by guest judge Ralph Derbyshire, Principal Lecturer and Subject Leader in Fine Art, UoN , and a people’s choice. The ‘People’s Choice’ competition votes were counted from those on paper at the exhibition at Avenue gallery corridor and the university library exhibitions, plus the online votes via the Research Support Hub.
Congratulations to Claire Clews, Jacquie Ridge and Kardi
Somerfield who were Ralph Derbyshire’s winners. The People’s Choice winners were Zainab Al-Rubaye, Maitreyee Buragohain and Saneeya Qureshi. For more information about the winners please see the links above. The IOR 16-17 catalogue shows all the 2016-17 entries.
New EMDoc Logo Winner from UoN!
The East Midlands Doctoral Network (EMDoc), a collaboration of nine universities in the East Midlands, launched a competition to design a new logo with a winning prize of £450. The competition was open to all Postgraduate Research Students in the EMDoc network. We had three research students from the University of Northampton participating in the competition among students from other universities in EMDoc. The winner was our PhD student Julius Azasoo from the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology. Julius successfully designed an attractive and creative logo and won a prize of £450 which will be awarded to Julius at the EMDoc annual conference for PGR students.
The Graduate School’s Postgraduate Research Conference rescheduled to September 14th.

The Graduate School Research Conference 2016
The University of Northampton Graduate School’s 2017 annual Postgraduate Researcher Conference for PGR students and early career researchers will now be held on Thursday September 14th 2017.
Originally scheduled for 20th June, the reschedule to September enables an important addition to the programme – the Graduate School’s first 3MT competition. Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) was originally developed by The University of Queensland in Australia and celebrates the exciting research conducted by PhD students around the world. The competition helps to cultivate students’ presentation and research communication skills. Presenting in a 3MT competition increases student’s capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience. Competitors are only allowed one PowerPoint slide, but no other resources or props. Read the rest of this entry