Blog Archives
Welcome to the Academic Year 2023-24!
This year we have an exciting line up of transferable skills workshops planned for you as we continue to populate the Gateway Calendar with new and repeat sessions, confirming facilitators and dates for the autumn.
Dr Kate Mahoney will be joining us to deliver two different webinars, one on ‘High Intensity Productivity: Maximising the impact of short time periods or opportunities for progress’ in September and, in January, ‘Writing your thesis so your examiner can read it’. New workshops also include ‘Working with Long Documents in MS Word’, ‘Times Management Tips for PGRs’, and ‘Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding’. There is also a new workshop on getting feedback scheduled for November. Our repeat workshops include ‘Reference management in Zotero’, ‘Preparing for a successful Transfer’ and ‘Preparing for the Viva” the latter two of which would be added shortly so keep an eye on the Gateway Calendar. To help you plan your career we are running ‘Career Management Skills for Researchers’ in September, the first of 3 careers support webinars specifically designed for PGRs.
Already in the calendar are the dates for the Development Days on Campus, such as the ‘Finishing’ Development Day, though some are still to be assigned content. We recommend that you look through the dates in advance and plan for the ones that you would like to attend. Development Days are full days on campus, filled with exciting workshops, and give you the opportunity to network with your fellow PGRs.
Do take a look at the calendar (you may be asked to log into Gateway) and check back regularly as new workshops are still being added. Book your place on a workshop by clicking on the green button on the workshop page. Get in touch with Simone if you have any questions about or suggestions for the skills development programme. We would love to hear from you and are open to suggestions for new workshops and webinars.
If you are a PGR student and would like to talk to someone about the upcoming academic year please get in touch with us via graduateschool@northampton.ac.uk. We wish you a pleasant and productive academic year and we look forward to seeing you at our programmes!
Event – Graduate School Development Day: Finishing

The Graduate School’s new Development days are monthly, in-person events on campus, with lunch. These will offer experiential learning, discussion and networking, group work and collaboration – all those things that are far better delivered in-person than online. Each day will have a theme and our first day is on Finishing your Doctorate
Our Graduate School Development Day: Finishing is happening on campus on the 14th of November! It is a full day event (with lunch provided!) designed for those who are in the writing up stage of their doctorate. Consisting of two parts, it will start with a workshop led by Prof Ian Livingstone about editing and proofreading your work. It will be followed by a session with Dr Emel Thomas which will explore the core aspects of the viva experience and include a Q&A panel with UON doctoral alumni.
If you are in the final stages of writing your thesis and preparing for the viva, we invite you to join us for this day packed with valuable information and opportunities to network with your fellow researchers. Find out more information about the sessions and schedule and register for the Development Day on Gateway.
Images of Research: deadline extended to 29th November
If you haven’t entered Images of Research yet but wanted to, then we are pleased to announce that we have extended the deadline for submitting your image, summary and title. Don’t miss out on your chance to raise your research profile, engage a public audience and disseminate your research in an annual event that challenges all researchers, including postgraduate research students and academics, to illustrate their work with just one unique image. The submission deadline has been extended to Wednesday 29th November 2017. For all details about the competition, please visit the IOR link, and if you have any query, please get in touch with Simone.
Qualitative Research Methods Workshop: An Interactive Guide
On the 4th of July 2017, the Graduate School will be running a one day workshop on qualitative research methods. In this workshop Dr. Neil Raven will introduce participants to a range of qualitative research methods that can be used separately or as part of a mixed methods approach. The day will begin by considering the use of interviews in academic research, before exploring the potential of focus groups. During the afternoon attention will turn to the use of observation and photography as methods that have the capacity to generate a wealth of rich qualitative data. Read the rest of this entry
Are you a PhD/MPhil student? Would you like to work part-time for the Graduate School?
The Graduate School are offering a 9-month paid internship for a Postgraduate Research Student, starting end of March 2017.
The purpose of the role is to provide administrative support and services for researcher development activities and to develop organizational skills transferable to a research career. If you would like part-time paid work (18.5 hours a week) whilst you study for your PhD then please see the Unitemps job outline below. Please also apply through the Unitemps link. If you have any questions on the position then please contact Simone.
https://www.unitemps.com/Search/JobDetails/12957
Graduate School Workshops in spring and summer
A variety of researcher development workshops are coming up in the next few months, so if you are a PGR student or an early career researcher why not take advantage and book a place? They include Qualitative Data Analysis Using NVivo: Level 2 (Intermediate) on April 14th, Poster Design & Presenting on April 16th and the first of a series of four intermediate SPSS workshops on April 27th. A Publishing Day on April 29th, features workshops in Academic Writing for Journals, Blogging for Researchers and Getting Published. All these workshops are open to both PGR students and early-career researchers.
Solely for PGR students we are running a ‘Finishing your Thesis’ afternoon on April 22nd, which includes Editing and Finishing your Thesis and Preparing for the Viva. So if you are within a year of completing your doctorate this will be a valuable afternoon to attend. Read the rest of this entry