We have had an exciting and busy few months, welcoming back new and returning students. On page 2 you can read about our Starting Out Induction Event for new researchers, which attracted a record breaking number of attendees this year. It was great to see so many doctoral students brought together in the Hadyn Ellis Building, and we hope some new networks were made.

Every year at this time, we compile a report of the programme to present to Board. Supervisors and doctoral students may be interested to know some of the headlines. In 2014-15, we offered 186 different workshop topics and 465 sessions (multiple offerings of a topic). There were two student conferences: Speaking of Science and Breaking Boundaries, and six special events: the Three Minute Thesis Competition, Pathways to the PhD, Public Engagement Showcase, PhD Comics, and two Leadership at Lunchtime sessions. You can see some more figures from the Annual Report on page 5.

On 3 December, we hosted our second Images of Research exhibition, displaying over 40 captivating images (a selection pictured above) submitted by our doctoral researchers. Find out which images came out top on page 8.

Looking forward to 2016, we have some great events lined up. On page 2 you can find out about our upcoming careers events which offer a taste of some of the career paths and options available to you. In January we are pleased to be welcoming back internationally renowned and always popular speaker Hugh Kearns for three talks (see page 6). In February we are delighted to be hosting lecturer/writer/comedian Dean Burnett for a very intriguing talk on ‘Why your Brain is an Idiot’ (page 3).

Students, if your new year’s resolution is to challenge yourself, why not take part in the 2016 Three Minute Thesis competition? It’s a great opportunity to develop presentation skills and communicate your research to non-specialists. There are also prizes up for grabs. Find out more on page 6.

Or how about running your own event? Take a look at page 5 to find out about our scheme which funds interdisciplinary activities. Hear from three students who have received funding and organised their own activities on page 4.

As the calendar year draws to a close we would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to all those who have supported the University Graduate

College throughout this year. We wish you all an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas break and look forward to seeing you in 2016.

Professor Terry Marsden, Dean of the University Graduate College, and Professor Ken Wann, Deputy Dean of the University

Graduate College

University Graduate College Newsletter December 2015 - February 2016

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University Graduate College Newsletter Dec 2014 - Feb 2015

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Follow us on Twitter @CardiffUGC for news, events and more

What career do you see in your future? You probably already know that researchers go into a variety of careers – in industry, public sector, the voluntary sector as well as academia. However, many researchers don’t have a clear idea of what their options are or what might be involved in a particular career path. For this reason we organise a number of careers events, to help you consider what’s right for you. These are the events coming up in the next few months: Exploring Career Options Beyond Academia: Humanities & Social Sciences – 7 December Biomedical & Life Sciences – 4 February These discipline-focused events offer the opportunity for you to hear from doctoral graduates who have moved into industry, public service, business, etc., about their career paths to date and how they use the skills and knowledge from their PhD in their current roles.

find out what PhD graduates do after graduation;

find out from PhD graduates and researchers about the real opportunities available outside academia;

identify the skills and competencies that employers look for in recruits;

understand how your skills as a researcher can be transferred to different occupations;

identify the steps you need to take to move outside academia;

network with a variety of professionals;

receive handy tips on job searching.

Postdoctoral Research Positions & Fellowships – 29 February This event will explain the difference between a postdoctoral research position and a postdoctoral fellowship and how both of these fit into an academic career. Information will be provided on what sorts of fellowships are available within the UK and overseas, as well as how to find them and how to apply. Personal insights from current postdocs will be provided on applying for postdoc positions and

fellowships as well as the costs and benefits of working in such positions overseas. During the event you will have the opportunity to: find out what is involved in applying

for a postdoctoral position or fellowship;

gain insight into the impact that your first postdoc position can have on subsequent career plans and funding applications;

learn how to identify postdoctoral positions and funding opportunities through Research Professional and EURAXESS.

For full listings of this year’s careers events, search for ‘careers’ on our booking system.

Careers Events

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We were very pleased that our Starting Out Induction Event broke all attendance records this year - with 292 students booked to attend across the three sessions in October and November.

This event is designed to help new doctoral students on their way to being successful researchers, and to start building those all-important support networks. The induction was designed in collaboration with Schools, and covers topics such as ‘the Essential Rules and Regulations’ and the supervisory relationship.

Attendees were introduced to the RDF Online Planner, a handy tool which is now available to all students – helping them to conduct a skills analysis and create action plans and targets for their skills development. One student said of the RDF Online Planner “I left feeling more confident that I will be in charge of my own professional development and that I have a solid framework to do this”. Researchers need to apply to gain access to the planner, but students who missed Starting Out can still apply by visiting our website and filling in a short application form.

There were also presentations by Library and IT services as well as a popular talk from a third year student on ‘Starting and Enjoying your PhD’.

One student said “I enjoyed this event and would recommend attending if you are a new researcher, and particularly if you are new to Cardiff”. Starting Out will run again at the three remaining entry points for doctoral students: 21 January, 19 April and 19 July.

Sarah Brasher, University Graduate College Officer

Starting Out Breaks Records

Wednesday 24 February 2016 Graduate Centre, Students’ Union

Did you know that your brain is an idiot? Dr Dean Burnett (a neuroscientist, psychiatry lecturer at Cardiff University, writer for The Guardian and sometimes comedian) will be letting us know why in this intriguing talk.

Many people talk about the breath-taking complexity, mystery and sophistication of the human brain, but this often overlooks one important fact; the human brain regularly does things inefficiently, bizarrely or just plain wrong.

How come alcohol can actually help us remember things?

Why does anger make us optimistic?

Why does the brain make eating so complicated?

Why is anecdotal evidence so persuasive?

What is it that makes conspiracy theories so compelling?

Dean will be covering all this and more in a light-hearted (if sometimes worrying!) look at the more ridiculous properties of the brain.

Book now via our website.

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Why your Brain is an Idiot

University Graduate College Newsletter Sept - Nov 2014

Are you involved in teaching? Get recognition for it! As a doctoral student you may be involved in teaching during your research degree, from running tutorials and seminars to overseeing lab demonstrations and assessing student work. Did you know that you can get recognition for this teaching by applying for Associate Fellow status from the Higher Education Academy (HEA)?

Associate Fellow status is a qualification that is recognised across UK higher education and can provide you with transferable recognition of your expertise and commitment as a teacher. This can really help with your career development, particularly if you are interested in becoming a lecturer.

The University Graduate College can help you to apply for Associate Fellow status; we run a workshop on HEA recognition which will give you an

overview of the application process. After attending the workshop, you will have access to a peer support network and resources and may request a mentor to support you.

Find out more about the scheme on our website.

Dr Afia Ahmed, University Graduate

College Officer

Recognition for Teaching

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Over To You!

edieval Myths and British Identities: Past, Present, Future’ was a one-day

interdisciplinary conference that was designed to bring together postgraduate researchers to discuss the relationship between myth and identity in Britain. I organised the conference with another PhD Student in the School of Welsh, and in the process of planning the event, we were able to develop a successful funding application; improve our time management skills; and gain experience handling finances. We also developed a strong online presence for the conference through Twitter and our main website. Some of the logistical arrangements were rather challenging: I don't recommend hosting a conference the day before a Rugby World cup match at the Millennium Stadium! Nevertheless, organising a conference – or any academic event – is a very rewarding experience, especially when it is on a theme that is directly relevant to your research as it gives you the opportunity to hear interesting papers and meet other researchers in your field.”

Vicky Shirley, School of English,

Communication and Philosophy

Vicky organised the conference alongside Isabelle Valad, School of Welsh.

e received an award from the University Graduate College to organise a multi

-disciplinary event entitled, ‘Cuisine Curiosity: The Facts about our Food’. The preparations included securing four speakers from fields ranging from microbiology to psychology, anthropology and chemistry to deliver an afternoon workshop centred on all things culinary. In addition to recruiting speakers, selecting a venue and organising catering, we also developed interactive activities to entertain guests and educate them on often overlooked aspects of our food preferences, such as sugar and calorie content. One example of our breakout activities was a station called ‘Juicy Jelly’. This activity was designed to explore the link between food colour—in this case jelly—and perceived flavour. Because we intentionally mismatched the colour of the jelly with its flavour (e.g. cherry jelly was coloured green, rather than the traditional red), participants struggled to identify the actual flavours of the jelly. Beyond gaining highly transferable skills in event planning and promoting, we greatly enjoyed learning more about nutrition from the speakers and interactive stations available on the day.”

Stacy Littlechild, School of Optometry

and Vision Sciences

Stacy organised the event alongside Emma Board Davies, School of Dentistry.

n late 2014, I apprehensively approached fellow PhD researcher Alister Forman

with the idea of setting up an interdisciplinary postgraduate conference with support from the University Graduate College. Given that we are both from different schools at Cardiff, but also engaged in research on energy transitions, I felt we’d have a pretty strong application on a very current topic. At first, I think he thought I was mad – we’d both organise, host and present at a conference? Yes – and we did! (Thankfully, we were also able to enlist additional help from PhD researcher Tara Hipwood). Needless to say, it feels great to have pulled it off and with relatively few hiccups, the worst being two confirmed speakers dropping out very close to the day of the conference. Despite this, we managed to secure replacements, as we had a really strong response to our Call for Papers from a wide variety of researchers. We also had a fantastic turnout on the day, with highly engaged delegates. Despite the stress and challenges, this UGC initiative is a rewarding experience.”

Max Lacey-Barnacle, Welsh School of

Architecture

Max organised the conference alongside Alister Forman, School of

Planning and Geography.

“M “W “I

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Fancy organising your own interdisciplinary activity or event? These doctoral students have! Read about their experiences and then find out more about our funding scheme on page 5.

Over To You!

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Funding for Interdisciplinary Activities Do you have an idea that will attract the doctoral research community, but need money to make it happen? The University Graduate College can help! We are keen to award funds up to £1,000 for interdisciplinary activities proposed by doctoral researchers from different disciplines. Projects can range from running conferences and seminars to a lecture series and much more. This scheme is a great opportunity for you to collaborate with others and to organise activities that will benefit your peers. At the same time you will develop transferable skills that employers will value, such as project management, time management, team working, problem solving, communication and networking.

The next two deadlines for funding applications are midnight on Sunday 14 February and Sunday 12 June 2016.

For more information about the funding scheme, please visit our website.

Our Year in Numbers

We held:

465 workshops, covering 186 topics

2 student conferences, with 181 attendees

6 ‘special events’ (‘Pathways to the PhD’; the Three Minute Thesis Competition; PhD

Comics; Public Engagement Showcase; and two ‘Leadership at Lunchtime’ sessions.)

2 Mock Viva events, with 175 attendees

9 careers events, with 409 attendees

We had:

11,900 workshop bookings, up 13% from last year

1,369 visits to our online modules

36,049 visits to our website

We awarded:

£4,160 for student-led activities

Student feedback:

89% of workshops were rated at 4.0 or above for

‘usefulness’ on a 5 point scale

97% of workshops received a rating of 4.0 or above for ‘satisfaction

with presenter’ on a 5 point scale

Every year at this time, we compile a report of the University Graduate College Programme to present to Board. Here are some of the key figures for this year…

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Hugh Kearns Returns! We’re looking forward to welcoming back internationally renowned speaker Hugh Kearns (Flinders University, Melbourne) in 2016, for three great events. We kick off his sessions with a talk especially for supervisors on how to manage the relationship more effectively to turn your students into highly successful researchers. Supervisors at last year’s event commented “An interesting workshop about PhD supervision, with useful insights and tips on how to help your students to increase productivity and completion rates” whilst another said “Incredibly useful, even if you are a very experienced supervisor”. There are also limited places for research staff to attend ‘Turbocharge your Writing’ and ‘The Imposter Syndrome’. Staff bookings should be made via Eventbrite or CORE while students should book via our online booking system. Hugh’s sessions are always very popular, so make sure you book your place soon! The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Researchers Session for Supervisors - Monday 18 January Session for Doctoral Researchers - Tuesday 19 January

What do research students do to finish on time, to overcome isolation, doubt and writer’s block, and to enjoy the process? What do they do in order to spend guilt-free time with their family and friends and perhaps even have holidays? This interactive session describes the key habits that will make a difference to how quickly and easily you complete your PhD. Turbocharge your Writing Monday 18 January Would you like to know the secret to high output, low stress scholarly writing? Research shows that there are very clear and practical strategies that can greatly increase your writing productivity. This session will help you to understand the principles of quick starting, how to set achievable goals and greatly increase the number of words you produce. The Imposter Syndrome Tuesday 19 January How can it be that so many clever, competent and capable people can feel that they are just one step away from being exposed as a complete fraud? Come along and hear what the latest psychological research has to tell us about ‘The Imposter Syndrome’ and more importantly some strategies for dealing with it.

Can you explain your research in just three minutes?

Since 2014, the University Graduate College has been inviting doctoral researchers to take part in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition. This year’s Cardiff heat winner Rhodri Thomas did incredibly well in the national competition, coming in seventh place and just missing out on a place in the finals. We are hosting the competition again in 2016. Fancy taking part? 3MT® is for all doctoral students - you don’t need to be writing your thesis.

Entering the competition can help you to develop those all-important communication skills but it also does much more than that. Entrants must crystallise their research project into just three minutes, which also helps you clarify and focus your work. As 2014 Cardiff heat winner Kat Deerfield tells us, “Having distilled it

down to its most central ideas, not only can I now share my work with others more effectively, but even my own understanding is enriched by this process”.

The Cardiff competition will be held on Thursday 9 June and the winner will

represent Cardiff University at the national semi-finals.

Find out more on our website,

Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is Coming!

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December

3 - Images of Research

7 - Exploring Career Options Beyond Academia: Humanities & Social Sciences January 18 - Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Researchers (supervisor session) 18 - Turbocharge your Writing 19 - Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Researchers (researchers session) 19 - The Imposter Syndrome

21 - Starting Out Induction Event for New Researchers

February

4 - Exploring Career Options Beyond Academia: Biomedical & Life Sciences 14 - Application deadline for Funding for Interdisciplinary Activities 24 - Why your Brain is an Idiot (Dean Burnett)

29 - Postdoctoral Research Positions and Fellowships Workshop

Do you use our online modules?

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If so, we would love to hear from you. We are always keen to gain feedback on our programme of training. If you have used any of our online research skills modules, we would love to find out what you think of them. Please email us at ugc@cardiff.ac.uk

Our online modules are an opportunity for ‘anywhere, any time’ learning, and cover topics including research methods, career planning and getting published, amongst many others. Visit our website to find out more.

Dates for your Diary

In each issue of the Newsletter, we will be introducing you to one of our Doctoral Training Partnerships. In this issue, Professor Martin Kayman tells us about the AHRC South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership… For Arts & Humanities PhDs, in the beginning was the thesis and the supervisor’s expertise, with funding awarded to individuals in a national competition whose main purpose was to manage the ‘health of the subject’. With the AHRC’s first Block Grant Partnership in 2009, funding was devolved to individual institutions based on their training provision for postgraduates and their place in the University’s research strategy for the Arts & Humanities. Finally, with ‘BGP2’, the call came for an innovative conception of doctoral training. The AHRC-funded South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (www.sww-ahdtp.ac.uk/) is an ambitious response to this call from a group of eight universities, led by Bristol and including, besides ourselves, Aberystwyth, Bath, Bath Spa, Exeter, Reading and Southampton, along with a group of overseas institutions and a range of non-HEI organisations, large and small, in the Arts, Heritage and Media. The member universities make their combined resources available to support the students’ project and career development, including training opportunities and library access.

The programme we have designed aims to train a new generation of researchers in the Arts & Humanities, either prepared for a career in academia, or able to take advantage of the growing opportunities for professional Arts & Humanities researchers in the creative economy. In our conception, the new researcher will continue, of course, to be expert in their subject and skilled in research techniques, but they will also be aware of questions that cross subjects, familiar with the opportunities that exist in the creative sector, and able to engage with researchers in other subjects and professions, and with the public.

Collaboration is hence at the heart of the project. The SWW-DTP is, for example, the only Consortium that makes cross-institutional supervision the norm for all students. The latter run their own cross-disciplinary ‘research clusters’ and participate in a ‘Professional Arts & Humanities Research Programme’ designed with input from our non-HEI partners. Students are able to extend their three years’ funding by up to sixth months in order to undertake high-cost specialised training (for example in a language) or a placement with one of our partners. The placement may be necessary to

the PhD project itself or a way of furthering the student’s career development.

With two cohorts in place, thanks to a match-funding contribution from the universities, we have 100 students at present and aim to offer up to a further 56 awards this year. Professor Martin Kayman, Cardiff

University Academic Lead

Doctoral Training Partnerships

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Can you provide an image that sums up your research? That’s what we asked our doctoral students for, and the result was an exciting and interactive exhibition. On 3 December 2015, we were proud to display over 40 compelling images from doctoral researchers across the University. Simply presented alongside short descriptions, the images took centre stage and stimulated curiosity and conversation among attendees. Thank you to all who submitted an image; we were overwhelmed by their quality and beauty. Students were on hand to interact with delegates and give the context and

stories behind their images; we were fascinated to hear about some of the amazing research being undertaken across a wide range of disciplines. A panel of judges were given the difficult task of choosing the judge’s choice winner, and the prize was awarded to Jane Davies from the School of Healthcare Sciences for her image ‘Thoughts from Ellen’ (below left). Jane is donating her £200 cash prize to a local teenage cancer charity. Second place was awarded to Lucy Baker from the School of Planning and Geography for her image ‘The Art of Waiting’ (bottom left). Delegates voted for the people’s choice winner, and chose Katherine Connolly from the School of Medicine for her image ’Scaredy Fat’ (bottom right). A huge congratulations to our winners, and a massive thank you to everyone involved in the event. All images are available to view on the UGC Facebook page so please take a look and share with others. Sarah Brasher, University Graduate College Officer

University Graduate College Newsletter Sept - Nov 2014

1. ‘Thoughts from Ellen’, Jane Davies, Healthcare Sciences

2. ‘The Art of Waiting’, Lucy Baker, Planning and Geography

3. ‘Scaredy Fat’ (PEOPLE’S CHOICE) Katherine Connolly, Medicine

4. ‘Connections of the Brain in Parkinson’s Disease’, Jilu Mole, Medicine

5. ‘Me. Me. Meme: Image, Identity and Selfies’, Sara Sylvester, Journalism, Media & Cultural Studies

6. ‘Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)’, Aderonke Osuntokun, Journalism, Media & Cultural Studies

7= ‘3D Visualisation of Human Colorectal Tumour-Derived Organoids using Lightsheet Microscopy’, Luned Badder, Biosciences

‘The Power of Water’, Shariffah Sy Yusoff Fadzil, Architecture

‘I’m Crazy about the Research’, Ewa Sypianska, Earth &Ocean Sciences

‘UK’s First Self-Healing Concrete Site Trials’, Oliver Teall, Engineering

‘Rebirth of the Ancient Egyptian

Dead’, Scott Williams, History, Archaeology and Religion

Top Rated Images

Images of Research

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