Enrolments
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Domestic enrolments: If you are a domestic student, click here to enrol in the first year of your course
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International enrolments: If you are an international student, click here to enrol in the first year of your course
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Coursework enrolments: Unless you are completing a PhD and have not been instructed to complete coursework, click here to enrol in your coursework subjects as well
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If your annual progress report is satisfactory, you will be automatically enrolled in the course each year until you finish
Orientation
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Click here for details about the next orientation session
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Click here for a recording of the last orientation session
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Click here for a set of activities you should complete in your first week
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Click here to join a Zoom support group if you like. Each group revolves around one interest—such as part-time candidates or Indigenous research—and meets once a month to share concerns, solutions, and resources.
Research proposal review
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Click here for guidelines on how to complete the research proposal review: your first key milestone
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Click here for a table that lists the key tasks you need to complete, the potential complications of each task, and the avenues to resolve these complications
Ethics and biosafety applications
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Click here to complete the human ethics application—necessary if your study includes human participants
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Click here to complete the animal ethics application—necessary if your study involves animals
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Click here if your study includes infectious organisms, biohazardous materials, genetically modified organisms, materials requiring quarantine containment, or other biosafety risks
Annual progress reports
The annual progress reports are available in SOLS or accessible from this link. However, rather than complete this report just before the due date, you should collate the information over time—because this information can be useful for other purposes. For example
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Use this tool to record any challenges you experience. At any time, you can submit some or all these challenges to your Head of Postgraduate Studies—and this person might be able to address similar challenges from several candidates holistically.
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Use this tool to identify some research, personal, or career skills that you might want to develop. This tool also specifies some opportunities to develop these skills
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Use this tool to help project manage your research. This information can then be copied and pasted into your progress report
Other milestones
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Although not mandatory at this time, you should also present your research to relevant academics—either at the university, at a conference, or at another setting—both midway during your candidature and a few months before you submit
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To maintain research integrity, the university can apply various tools, like SPRITE and StatCheck, to identify suspicious patterns in your data. But, if you submit regular drafts of your work and data to your supervisor, you will not be as vulnerable to these random checks.
Here are all the forms you might need to complete. You will need to complete a form if
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you want to add or remove a supervisor
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you want to seek an extension or leave—except annual leave
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you want to transfer to another course, to part-time, or to full-time
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you want to submit your thesis
You will also need to complete a form if you want to change your thesis substantially--such as
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change your field of research
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shift from qualitative research to quantitative research or vice versa
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swap the central topic, theme, concept, or key outcome variable with an alternative
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change the scope or size of your research, such as the number of studies
Training
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Click here for training sessions, delivered at UOW, and co-designed by candidates and staff
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Click here for library training, such as information about literature searches, data management, and publishing
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Click here for training opportunities outside UOW, such as forthcoming MOOCs
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Click here for online resources that could facilitate your development
Development scores
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For all sessions you attend and materials you read, record a brief summary or some other evidence to demonstrate your understanding
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Count the number of hours you dedicate to training—but exclude training on topics that are specific to your discipline
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This number is called your development score and, if greater than 80 each year, demonstrates you have developed research skills, career skills, interpersonal skills, and resilience
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Therefore, if your score is high and included in some application—such as applications to attend a special training program, participate in an exchange program, request better office space, earn an award, or seek an extension—your request is more likely to be fulfilled.
Other opportunities to boost your development score
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The time you dedicate to presentations—at conferences or in the media for example—or to tuition of peers also counts to this score
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Click here for the locations of our Community Wall: spaces in which you can attach ideas on how to improve the course or comment on the ideas of other people. Whenever 10 or more people like your ideas, your score increases by 1
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Click here for theses that other candidates would like someone to proofread. The time you dedicate to this task also counts to this score
General support
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Click here to access UOW support services--such as guidance around mental health problems, harassment, inclusion, financial concerns, legal matters, and IT issues
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Click here for access to the UOW Facebook community--designed to enable research candidates to support one another
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You will also receive an email about the HDR International Peer Mentor Program
Inclusive support
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Click here to join a Zoom support group that is relevant to your community or interests.
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Click here if you are an Indigenous candidate and feel the course does not accommodate a cultural need. UOW can then arrange sessions with you, your supervisor, and relevant staff to discuss how we can adapt existing policies and practices to suit your needs.
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Click here to access the schedule of monthly upward feedback sessions—in which you are granted the opportunity, anonymously on Zoom if you prefer, to voice your concerns to the Dean of Graduate Research. Each month will focus on a particular demographic.
Events
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Click here for events in which you can socialise and meet with other graduate researchers. Reminders will be publicised in the UOW Facebook community, in emails, and in School Facebook and Twitter pages
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Click here for details on about the writing obstacle course—a festival in which participants surpass writing obstacles, such as learn to avoid the word "it" and write 8 kinds of paragraphs—to earn micro-credentials
Initiatives
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Click this link to visit our virtual whiteboard, called Enhance your Experience, in which you can suggest improvements and comment on some of our proposed changes to initiatives, policies, procedures, and guidelines.
Competitions
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Click here to learn more about the 3MT or three minute thesis competition, in which you attempt to outline your research in three minutes.
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Click here to learn more about the VYT or visualise your thesis competition, in which you attempt to develop a video, lasting one minute, that outlines your research
Career skills
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Click here for insights on how research candidates in particular can become more employable
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Click here to complete an assessment, called my individual development plan, that identifies possible roles, outside research, that match your skills and interests
Career opportunities
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Click here for access to possible jobs and internships now
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Click here for industry engagement packs—packs that include suggestions on how to interact with partners and sample projects that are relevant to each field or sector
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Click here for information about iAccelerate, to explore opportunities to commercialise your research