The UK’s European university

RESEARCHERDEVELOPMENTPROGRAMME 2019/20

The Graduate School

Support and opportunities at Kent

Associate Fellowship Scheme(AFS) The University offers the AssociateFellowship Scheme (AFS) which isa formal qualification intended forGraduate Teaching Assistants.

www.kent.ac.uk/teaching/qualifications/pgche

Help with Maths and StatsThe Student Learning AdvisoryService (SLAS) offers Maths andStats clinics if you need supportfrom understanding the basics tomore advanced principles.

www.kent.ac.uk/learning/academic-advice/maths.html

Library resourcesThe library makes available avariety of resources andinformation for postgraduateresearchers.

www.kent.ac.uk/library/students/postgraduate.html

Three-Minute Thesis (3MT®)The Graduate School organisesKent's Three-Minute Thesiscompetition. The 3MT®,developed by the University ofQueensland, cultivates students'academic, presentation andresearch communication skills.

www.kent.ac.uk/graduateschool/news/3MT.html

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RESEARCHER DEVELOPMENTPROGRAMME

The Graduate School’sResearcher DevelopmentProgramme is designed to equip postgraduate andpostdoctoral researcherswith a range of researchand transferable skills. The programme aims toimprove their effectivenesswhen conducting researchand increase theiremployability for a varietyof careers by the end oftheir research project.

The Researcher DevelopmentProgramme (RDP) offers over 200workshops, covering more than 70topics. This varies from one-to-onesessions to 2-day workshops, withsome being Faculty specific andothers cross-disciplinary. Theworkshops are run by academic andprofessional service staff as well assome external consultants. Thesesessions provide the opportunity forresearchers to interact with studentsfrom different departments andbackgrounds, which can have verybeneficial outcomes for theirresearch and development.

The RDP provision complementsresearch skills training delivered byacademic schools.

Online resourcesAll postgraduate researchers are automatically enrolled onto the Graduate School's Moodlemodule, which includes linksto a variety of online resources,training and guides.

IT online learning guides Information Services offer a varietyof learning guides that can beused for self-paced learning orreference material. Topics include;ECDL (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,Improving Productivity) and more.

www.kent.ac.uk/itservices/training/studenttraining/learning-guides

PG Community ExperienceAwardsThe PG Community ExperienceAwards allow postgraduates toapply for funding to run events orprojects which have aninterdisciplinary focus and willenhance the postgraduateexperience at Kent. Applying willhelp to develop skills in bidwriting, budget preparation andproject delivery.

www.kent.ac.uk/graduateschool/news/pgexperience.html

www.kent.ac.uk/graduateschool

Workshop bookings:For dates of future workshopsand for workshop descriptionsplease register with our on-linebooking system at:https://bloom.kent.ac.uk

3www.kent.ac.uk/graduateschool

Researcher DevelopmentFramework (RDF)Our RDP workshops are mapped to the Vitae RDF, which is aprofessional development frameworkdescribing the knowledge,behaviours and attributes requiredof successful researchers.

We are always keen to receivesuggestions from students foradditional workshops and will do

our best to provide these if there issufficient demand.

Researcher DevelopmentAssessment (RDA)The RDA is a tool which enables allresearch students to consider theirexisting portfolio of skills, as well asthe skills they need to develop whileundertaking their doctoral researchand for their future careers.

Special requirementsShould you require any assistance toengage with the workshops pleasecontact skills@kent.ac.uk and we willdo our best to accommodate.

Mapping to Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework

Early stage Mid stage Late stage Kno

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Cog

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Cre

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Per

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Sel

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Pro

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Pro

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Res

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Fin

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Wor

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Com

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Eng

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Milestoneworkshops

Kickstart your PhD Progressing with your PhD Finishing your thesis ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Effective Researcher Preparing for your Viva ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Informationmanagementworkshops

Finding and managing your references ✔

Keeping up to date with the literature ✔

Managing your research data ✔ ✔ ✔

How to write a literature review (online resource) ✔ ✔

Quality and metrics in publishing ✔ ✔

Using archives and special collections in your research ✔

Researchmanagement,ethics andintegrityworkshops

Preparing for fieldwork ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

The Ethical Researcher ✔

Postgraduate funding: considering the alternatives ✔

Practical project management for research ✔ ✔ ✔

Researchmethods anddata analysisworkshops

Introduction to Python ✔ ✔

LaTeX ✔

Introduction to R ✔

Advanced R ✔

Geographical Information System (GIS) ✔ ✔

Conducting interviews ✔

Qualitative Research (Ethnography) ✔ ✔

NVivo workshops ✔ ✔

Introductory statistics and Inferential statistics ✔ ✔

Longitudinal data analysis ✔ ✔

Communication,engagementand impactworkshops

Presentation skills introduction Presentation skills in practice ✔ ✔ ✔

Using the media to publicise your research ✔ ✔

Communicating across cultures ✔ ✔ ✔

Public engagement ✔ ✔

Developing your online profile ✔ ✔ ✔

Three-minute thesis (3MT®) training ✔ ✔ ✔

Producing a research poster (online resource) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Careerdevelopmentworkshops

Routes into academia and writing a research grant (Faculty specific workshops) ✔ ✔

Alternative career pathways for PhD ✔

Career planning for after your PhD ✔

Writing an academic CV ✔

Personaleffectivenessworkshops

Managing academic relationships ✔ ✔

Networking and personal impact ✔ ✔

Overcoming imposter syndrome ✔ ✔

Managing your time effectively ✔

Assertiveness ✔ ✔ ✔

Leadership: rising to the challenge ✔ ✔

Motivating myself and motivating others ✔

Teambuilding ✔

Negotiation skills ✔ ✔

Effective reading techniques ✔ ✔

Rapid reading ✔ ✔ ✔

Overcoming procrastination ✔ ✔

Myers Briggs ✔ ✔

1:1 coaching ✔ ✔

Writing andpublicationworkshops

Academic writing ✔ ✔

1:1 advisory writing tutorial ✔ ✔

Writing articles in international peer-review journals (Humanities and Social Sciences) ✔ ✔ ✔

Writing and publishing in the Sciences ✔ ✔ ✔

Copyright, open access and your thesis ✔ ✔ ✔

Publishing in peer-reviewed journals ✔ ✔

Writing abstracts in Humanities and Social Sciences ✔ ✔ ✔

Writing retreats ✔

Approachesto teachingworkshops

Teaching with technology ✔

Developing your seminar teaching and increasing student engagement ✔

Troubleshooting teaching ✔ ✔

Practical Planning ✔ ✔

Essay marking and feedback (Humanities) ✔ ✔

Balancing teaching with research and life ✔ ✔

Wellbeingworkshops

Managing stress ✔ ✔

Mindfulness ✔ ✔

‘Wellbeing’: what does it mean and how can we put it into practice? ✔ ✔

Yoga writing retreats ✔

CONTACT

The Graduate School, Cornwallis East, University of KentCanterbury, Kent CT2 7NF www.kent.ac.uk/graduateschool

Carla O’MaraPostgraduate Development OfficerCarla is responsible for co-ordinating and enhancingthe operation of the Researcher DevelopmentProgramme and the on-line booking system.

Dr Jo CollinsPostgraduate Development AdvisorJo leads on the development of new postgraduatetraining initiatives for the Graduate School anddelivers workshops as part of the programme.

Enquiries about the programme should be directedto skills@kent.ac.uk in the first instance.

DPC 129203 08/19