Blog Archives

Essential PhD tips: 10 articles all doctoral students should read

The THE has some useful reading on their Website for research students.Whether you’re still deciding on doing a doctorate or you’re nearing the end of a PhD, there’ll be something of interest in these ten tips. They include…

  • 14 essential PhD questions answered
  • Choosing a PhD subject
  • The PhD experience: this far, and no further
  • 10 steps to PhD failure
  • How not to write a PhD thesis
  • Realistic expectations keep you on the path to a PhD
  • 10 truths a PhD supervisor will never tell you
  • Me and my PhD supervisor: tales of love and loathing
  • How to get students through their PhD thesis
  • How to get ahead with a PhD

Postgraduate Research Student Network Summer PGR get-together

All postgraduate research students are warmly invited to a postgraduate networking party, to be held after The Graduate School PGR Annual Conference in Holdenby Lecture Theatre 3 (HLT3), Park Campus on Tuesday 14th June at 4:30pm. Whether you’re doing a PhD, an MPhil or any of our professional doctorates you are all welcome to join us.

This will be a chance for all our PGR students to meet students from other Schools, socialise and enjoy a selection of drinks and snacks.Book your place here for catering purposes please  http://pgrsummerparty.eventbrite.co.uk

Why not come along to the PGR Conference first and see some of your fellow students present their research?

We look forward to seeing you there!
Lucy Atkinson & Simone Apel

Advanced research methods workshops for research students

Aston Summer School 2016Aston Business School, part of Aston University, are running a summer school for researchers in Birmingham and have opened their doors to PGR students by offering reduced rates.

The advanced research methods workshops are running from 20th June to 13th September and include Modelling Markets; Panel Data Models for Accounting and Finance; Experimental Designs in June, Data Mining and Big Data; Text Mining and Social Network Analysis; Multilevel Regression Analysis in July and Mapping Decision Making in September.

The workshops are open to all research students from any university. Reduced fees for students are from £75 for a 1-day course to £225 for a 3-day course.

The workshops are also open to research staff and industry researchers at a higher fee. See the Summer School website for more details and to book.

Open invitation to the Graduate School PGR Annual Conference 2016

2014 GS Conference

2014 GS conference

The University of Northampton Graduate School are holding their annual Postgraduate Researcher Conference on Tuesday 14th June and would like to invite staff and students from the University of Northampton to join us.

The conference provides an ideal development opportunity for new researchers to present their research, discuss and share good practice with others in an informal and non-threatening setting. There will be representation from all Schools and feature a diverse range of research activity.  Read the rest of this entry

Graduate School workshops – to turn up or not turn up!

mature students photoWe’re coming to the last few months of workshops in the 2015-16 programme and I thought a reminder on the delicate subject of attendance is perhaps overdue!

We have had (like most other universities offering free skills workshops) a problem with researchers booking a place on Eventbrite but then not turning up, or turning up half-way through a workshop. Neither of these scenarios results in a happy workshop facilitator, as they have spent hours preparing and then delivering the material to an expected number of bodies, in a planned time-frame. Please remember that by registering on a workshop you are committing to attend.

Many other Universities charge a booking fee or deposit, but we have chosen not to do this, so if you book a workshop please don’t abuse the system by not turning up.

So, here’s the booking etiquette….. Read the rest of this entry

Inspiring Futures: The 2016 EMUA PGR Student Conference call for papers and posters

EMUA-logo-528pxCalling all of our postgraduate research students! Here’s a chance to present your work via a talk or poster at the 2016 East Midlands University Association (EMUA) postgraduate research student conference, which will be held on September 1st 2016. The call for papers is now open and will close on July 7th.  Read the rest of this entry

Summer School on ‘Doing and Communicating Qualitative Research’; Kingston University London; 4-8 July 2016

This event may be of interest to qualitative researchers:

Keynote by Les Back and workshops by our very own Jane Murray and Helen Lomax:

  • Keynote Address: Professor Les Back, Goldsmiths University of London ‘A qualitative research renaissance: New directions and opportunities’
  • ‘Researching with Children’ Facilitators: Dr Jess Prior, Kingston University, and Dr Jane Murray, University of Northampton
  • ‘Analysing, Generating & Disseminating Visual Data’ Facilitators: Professor Helen Lomax, University of Northampton, and Professor Janet Fink, University of Huddersfield.

Further and the Programme can be downloaded.

Workshop: Publishing and reviewing with Taylor & Francis

Library and Learning Services in conjunction with the Graduate School are delighted to announce a new workshop for research students and staff.

Elaine Devine from Taylor & Francis will be leading the workshop and will bring a publisher perspective to the two important scholarly activities of getting published and becoming a peer reviewer.

Programme:

10 – 11am How to get published in an academic journal: tips to help you succeed
  Questions / break
11.15am  – 12pm How to be an effective reviewer for an academic journal
12 – 12.30pm Breakout review exercise on effective reviews for journals Including feedback and questions
12:30 – 1pm Lunch
1pm – 2pm Taylor and Francis focus group: give your views on the journal article publishing process (optional)

Where:  Pytchley 101, Park Campus

When:   Thursday 30th June from 10am to 1pm (includes lunch)

Who:      Research students and staff

To book a place:      Please register on our Eventbrite site

Read the rest of this entry

Call for papers: 2nd Annual Northampton Business School Research Conference

2nd NBS conference imageA call for papers from NBS staff  and NBS doctoral students for the 2nd Annual NBS Conference has been announced. Changemaker for Tomorrow: creating business impact through research is this year’s theme and the conference will run on 15th and 16th June 2016. The deadline for abstracts is May 3rd 2016.

If your research area relates to any of the following themes:

  • Sustainability
  • Logistics and Supply Chain
  • Emerging Economies

then why not submit a paper? Please email your abstract, along with a brief personal biography to Sandy.MacDonald@northampton.ac.uk

Researcher help desks – Summer 2016

I’m so sorry – we’ve been having a somewhat hectic few weeks and I completely forgot to post the new term’s help desk dates!

These are the dates we have planned but of course you can always contact Nick or myself directly to fix up a time to meet that suits you better.

nu-information-services-park-401Park Library R2.20:

  • Friday 29th April – 2 to 4pm
  • Wednesday 11th May – 10am to 12 noon
  • Monday 23rd May – 10am to 12 noon
  • Friday 10th June – 10am to 12 noon
  • Thursday 23rd June – 2 to 4pm
  • Thursday 7th July – 10am to 12 noon (**updated)

Avenue Library MG1:

  • Tuesday 3rd May – 10am to 12 noon
  • Thursday 19th May – 10am to 12 noon
  • Wednesday 1st June – 2 to 4pm
  • Monday 13th June – 10am to 12 noon
  • Tuesday 28th June – 2 to 4pm

We look forward to seeing you at Park or Avenue library.