Blog Archives
Call for Posters from PGRs! Enter the Postgraduate Researcher Poster Competition 2023
The Graduate School has launched the call for entries for the 16th Annual PGR Poster Competition, which will be held on campus on Thursday May 25th. Our Poster Competition is open to all doctoral students at UON and is an excellent development opportunity for presenting research, for improving communication and for networking with other doctoral researchers. The Entry Form is here, deadline for entering is April 27th. You have until May 25th to produce and print your A1 landscape poster. There will be Amazon voucher prizes to win – £100 for the winner and 2x £75 for the runners up!
The aim of the event is for PGRs to create a research poster that explains complex research to a mixed audience of non-subject specialists. Your paper poster will be displayed on traditional poster boards in an exhibition in the Owl’s Nest, Learning Hub at Waterside Campus, with an in-person judging session. Entrants must be available from 10am on the day until 2pm.
At whatever stage in the research process you are, do take this opportunity to share your work with others and gain valuable feedback. For further information on the rules of entry, please see the Guidelines.
Read the rest of this entryPractising your presentation skills in a supportive environment
Delivering good research presentations to others is a skill which requires practice and an absolutely essential research skill for PGRs. With this in mind the Graduate School are offering Presentation Cafés every month as an opportunity for PGRs to present their research and/or be in the audience to listen and ask questions. The online Cafes are a great opportunity for PGRs to gain confidence and feedback on their presentation without being judged, in a friendly and supportive environment. Whether you are rehearsing for a Transfer seminar, a presentation for a conference or simply wish to talk about your research to others, the Presentation Cafes are there for you to develop those skills.
To sign up to present your research at an online Café, please fill in this form. Presentations should be 10-15 minutes long with time for questions after. Cafes are planned for 15th Feb 4pm; 13th March 12 noon; 20th April 10am; 16th May 3pm; 12th June 1pm.
To be in the audience (no presenting required!) just click on the green Respond button on the Café workshop pages on Gateway calendar. Please note, do think about signing up to make a presentation at some point – we will have to cancel sessions if we don’t have any presenters! If you are interested in presenting at an in-person Cafe on campus please contact Simone or Lina from the Graduate School.
New workshop for PGRs: Critical Thinking and Academic Communication
Dr Qian Zhang in Educational Linguistics is running a development day on 31st January 2023 from 10am until 4pm which will help PGRs to critically read and analyse academic sources, express arguments clearly and concisely and improve their critical reading and writing.
The development day will be held on campus at Waterside and you can sign up here on the Gateway page. The day includes all refreshments and lunch.
PGRs. Are you getting the most out of your supervisory relationship?
Your working relationship with your supervisor is so important and getting the best out of the relationship can really help you to progress in your doctorate, making your life much easier. This workshop, run by Professor Ian Livingstone, who runs UON’s Supervisor Development Programme, helps you to consider what you want to get out of your supervisors and how to manage that. He will help you to gain a deeper understanding of the working relationship and what you need to do to to maintain a good relationship, thinking about how to communicate assertively and consider how to recognise and manage constructive and non-constructive criticism. A must for all Postgraduate Researchers.
The session will run from 10am-12noon at Waterside, Northampton on 24th January 2023. But there will also be an opportunity for PGRs to join remotely via Collaborate. You will be able to register and find the Collaborate link in the Gateway page below.
New Development Days for PGRs
The Graduate School are running new monthly Development Days for PGRs – a full day on campus on a theme – featuring practical workshops with lunch and the opportunity to meet with your fellow PGRs from across the university. Seriously consider taking a day out to do this. Doctoral study can be isolating and meeting up with others is a great way to share your concerns, chat about your research, share tips and tricks for progressing and increasing your motivation.
Please book on Gateway using the links below (click on the green Respond button). Contact Simone with any booking issues.
Read the rest of this entryWellbeing Day for researchers on January 18th 2023
Following on from our successful Wellbeing Week in September, we are hosting, on campus, a Wellbeing Day for researchers on the topic of Resilience in Research on the 18th of January. It is open to all postgraduate researchers and all staff doing research at UON. There will be two main sessions held on the day.
The morning session will be facilitated by Daniela Bultoc, an award-winning emotional intelligence and resilient leader coach. This interactive session aims to provide researchers with the space to focus on themselves, review where they are now and gain a renewed perspective on what is important to them. The session provides practical insights into building resiliency and refocusing in times of uncertainty or when dealing with setbacks.
Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on what helps them be at their best, what motivates them and what their strengths are. They will become more aware their own communication approach in different situations, and especially when solving problems or working with others.
The afternoon session will be facilitated by Cathy Smith, Dean of Research and Innovation, and will be a discussion based around different themes concerning the various challenges and concerns faced by researchers. There will be an opportunity for attendees to briefly discuss wellbeing issues they have experienced as a researcher at UON. And the discussion will cover how the University can support the researcher community and how we can support each other. You can choose to remain anonymous by submitting your thoughts, experiences, and questions around these areas beforehand to be brought up at the event in this section of the day. You can follow the links above for the sessions’ respective Gateway pages for more information, to see the schedule and to sign up for the sessions. Please note that the two sessions have separate sign ups and you need to sign up for both of them if you wish to attend the whole day. Lunch will be provided
PGRs – do you need a refresher on Transfer preparation? Ethics? Literature Searching? PURE?
If so, the Graduate School are running a series of online sessions on Tuesday 22nd November which you can join online on Collaborate. If you need a refresher of any of these topics below do book and come along to just that session. You don’t have to attend all day if just one session is relevant. The Getting Started day will feature….
10-11 Preparing for Transfer
11:15-12:30 Research Ethics
1:30-2:45 Getting Started with your Literature search
3-4:30 PURE – your online Research Presence
Book here on Gateway, where you will find the Collaborate link.
Wondering how to start your very own Research Blog? Join our new online workshop
A practical introduction to creating and publishing a Blog for your Research (online workshop)
24 Nov 2022, 12:00 to 14:00
Have you ever thought about starting a Research Blog but wasn’t sure where to begin or how to go about it?
Keeping a Research Blog is an excellent way to document your experience, keep track of your progress and share your research journey with others.
The Graduate School is hosting “A practical introduction to creating and publishing a Blog for your Research”, an online workshop that will introduce you to creating and setting up a blog on Campus Press (the University’s version of WordPress), how to customise it to your needs and how to publish it.
Find out more and sign up for the workshop on Gateway.
Are you a PGR in the beginning stages of your research journey?
Whether you have just joined the University of Northampton or have been with us for some time and need a refresher on the beginning stages of your research journey, the Graduate School would like to invite you to our Development Day: Getting Started which will take place online on November 22 from 10:00 to 16:30.
This series of webinars is for students who have recently joined a research degree programme at the University of Northampton. We will cover what to expect in your first year, how to prepare for key stages and events in your research project and how to prepare for the ethical approval process. There will be plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.
To find out more information and to sign up please follow this link to the event’s Gateway page.
NVivo training for PGRs and staff doing research
Would you like to learn how to use NVivo? NVivo is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) management tool and Dr Hala Mansour is running two in-person workshops for the Graduate School, one for beginners in November and one for more experienced users in December on campus at Waterside. The workshops are open to Postgraduate Research Students and Early Career Researchers, academics and research staff.
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