Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Postgraduate
Research Students
Training Programme
2016-2017
Introduction
The Faculty of Engineering has developed a structured programme of training for
postgraduate research students which was originally designed in 2011 and has since been
updated each academic year.
There are several external frameworks that are used to inform Postgraduate Research
training at UK universities. These include the Research Development Framework (RDF) and
the Research Council guidance. These frameworks provide detailed requirements for
research training and have been used as a basis for the development of the Engineering
Postgraduate Research Training Programme. The RDF has been adopted by RCUK and forms
part of the QAA Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in
higher education. The Engineering and Science Research Council (EPSRC) has recognised our
Faculty programme as a sector leading standard of postgraduate research development and
training.
This document outlines the programme and describes the way in which the training has been
implemented for all postgraduate research students in the Faculty of Engineering.
Enable collection and sharing of good practice and opportunities for training across the
Faculty of Engineering.
These aims are underpinned by the understanding that the Faculty of Engineering supports a
diverse range of types of training. In some cases there may be training requirements that
are generic to all students in the Faculty and provide core skills, but in many cases there is a
need for individual students to identify their own training needs and take advantage of
specialist training activities particular to their doctoral degree topic.
One of the intentions of the programme is to collect information about new training needs
and for students across the Faculty to identify particularly useful training activities. They can
now record events attended and training undertaken in their personal area of Portico, the
Faculty’s on-line postgraduate database.
The Faculty has been working with the Graduate School to provide more courses specific to
engineering and launched new technical courses during the 2015-16 academic year. More are
in discussion for 2016-17.
All students in the Faculty are expected to complete the process of recording their training
requirements and activities, but the diversity of research topics and activities within the
Faculty mean that it is not expected that all students will be required to complete the same
training programme. Student background must also be taken into consideration; a student
who comes to a doctoral research programme with a large amount of industrial experience,
or a specific research methods qualification for example will have very different training
needs to a student who has progressed onto a doctoral degree straight from an
undergraduate programme for example.
A series of ‘core courses’, provided by the Graduate School, have been identified. These
courses are intended to represent the core skills that a student is expected to demonstrate,
rather than be a list of ‘compulsory’ courses.
Programme structure
Research: This category represents skills required to directly support the process of
completing the doctoral degree. It includes courses from the Graduate School on
‘process’ elements such as the Nature of the Doctorate or Preparing for your Viva,
general research methods training provided by the Graduate School as face-to face or
online learning (e.g. Referencing for researchers) and may also be supported by
doctoral students attending UG or PG taught modules. The six elements identified as
of particular importance are:
1. Research management
2. Research methods (research design)
3. Research methods (data collection);
4. Research methods (analysis)
5. Thesis
6. Publication
Technical: This category represents specific skills associated with the particular
doctoral research topic. Some generic requirements, such as safety training and risk
assessment, have been identified as being relevant to all across the faculty, but in
most cases it is expected that this category will represent the specific training
delivered by undergraduate or postgraduate modules (identified in the Catalogue of
Modules) or dedicated (in some cases ‘bought in’) course. The elements are:
1. Safety training
2. Information Technology
3. Risk assessment
4. Computational numeracy
5. Research project related technical skills
It is expected that the profile of courses and activities selected for each student will be
different, but it is hoped that best practice will be passed down, within individual research
groups, by collaborating research students within the Faculty. There is no expected
‘standard’ of training that will be required; for a student doing a highly technical doctoral
degree they may be required to achieve a higher level of expertise with software tools for
example; whereas a student who is conducting a large amount of field research may be
expected to engage with some advanced research methods training. It is therefore
important that the supervisor reviews the planned training and ensures that the level of
training is appropriate.
Some courses are year specific - they are related to specific stages of a doctoral degree. For
example, the course on finishing your thesis or the courses on applying for jobs would be
most usefully taken during the third year, while “Introduction to the engineering literature
review process” and the health and safety training courses should take place early in the first
year if necessary. The scheduling of course attendance must be considered when training
choices are being discussed with supervisors. Students should only book courses at the
appropriate time and if they find they cannot attend make sure that they cancel so that
others on waiting lists can attend instead.
A number of courses have been identified from the Graduate School portfolio as being
particularly relevant to engineering student needs. They are categorised as core and
recommended. Core courses are considered to be relevant to all students within engineering;
recommended courses are likely to only be relevant to some. Some core and recommended
courses are marked as suitable for ‘field researchers’. These courses are particularly relevant
to those students who will be collecting data from human participants, normally in field
contexts.
Safety
The Faculty runs a Safety workshop each year for new PGR students
There are no other specific safety courses provided by the Faculty. PGR students should
contact their area Safety Officer for advice.
Name Office Phone Email
Training progress will be assessed via informal discussion with supervisors and formal review
of the audit document by the internal assessor at the point of the year 1 and year 2 reviews.
The format of the document is shown in appendix A. The audit document will be completed
as follows:
a) Six weeks after registration:
Researcher training plan, with 300-500 word commentary
b) With year 1 report:
Researcher training record and plan, with 700 word (max) reflective
commentary
c) With year 2 report:
Updated researcher training record and plan from year 1, with 700 word (max)
reflective commentary.
The commentary can be purely discursive in nature. It is an opportunity to identify how you
can take forward elements of the training into your doctoral degree.
Before submission of report a) the supervisor is required to confirm that they have reviewed
and approved the planned training activities. The internal assessor is expected to provide
feedback on reports b) and c) during the year 1 and year 2 reviews and confirm that they
have done this on the internal assessor review report form.
Completion of the training record and plan is a compulsory step if the student wishes to
progress.
You will get an email shortly after registration with instructions about accessing
https://myphd.engineering.nottingham.ac.uk and then be able to use it for your training
records.
Faculty of Engineering
2016-2017
Assessment requirements
Each doctoral student should complete an audit of their own skills in research methods and professional skills, including prior experiential
learning, and use this audit to identify their training needs for the year(s) ahead. If you have already received training in an area you
should note this; you are not expected to attend training courses for skills that you already have. Some of you may have a strong
background in research methods already, others may wish to develop specialist research methods skills, and some may wish to take an
introductory course in research methods. This booklet provides recommendations for training that you may wish to take, and specifies
some Graduate School training courses that all students are expected to complete.
The training activities that you should plan and record within this framework include:
By the end of the period of registration students will have appropriate research, technical, and professional skills to complete a doctoral
research degree programme and prepare for a future career. The process outlined here is intended to support the student in their
completion of their doctoral degree and ultimately improve the quality of doctoral research at the University.
Research Group:
The course/training selection plan should outline how you will address the training needs listed in the following table below
during the next 12 months of your research project.
The commentary should describe your rationale in developing your plan. It is fine for you to be uncertain about some
elements at this stage; in such cases this document may also provide a useful basis for discussion within supervision
meetings, and you are encouraged to refer to it over the next 12 months of your doctoral studies to see how your training
needs are changing and being met.
Submission date:
Report 1 must be submitted six weeks after your initial date of registration.
Copyright,
Intellectual
Property &
Research Ethics
Interpersonal &
Communication
Professional
Skills
Creative thinking in
research
The business
context of research
Team working
Career
Management
Research methods:
Research design
Research methods:
Data collection
Research
Research methods:
Analysis
Publication
Safety Training
IT & Information
Skills
Risk Assessment
Technical
Computational
Numeracy
Technical
(Research-project
related)
Your supervisor(s) needs to sign the following: I confirm that I have reviewed the planned training activities and consider them to be
appropriate to support the doctoral research of ....................................................................................................... (Student
name).
Research Group:
1. A list of the training activities that you have completed during the last 12 months.
2. A 700 word (max) reflective report considering the relationship between your training activities and your doctoral
studies. This report can be purely discursive in nature. This is an opportunity to identify how you can take forward
elements of the training into your doctoral degree, so it would be useful to include some examples of proposed
applications of skills developed in the course in your report. You may wish to use this as an opportunity to describe
your strategy for selection of courses and your plans for future course. It may be appropriate to comment on
elements of the courses or training that you did not find useful, but this report is NOT intended to be an evaluation
of any specific courses that you took.
This report will be reviewed by your internal assessor as part of your end of year review process.
Submission date:
Report 2 must be submitted along with your end of year review in years 1 and 2.
Copyright,
Intellectual Property
& Research Ethics
Interpersonal &
Communication Skills
Creative thinking in
research
of research
Team working
Career Management
Research methods:
Research design
Research methods:
Data collection
Research methods:
Research
Analysis
Publication
Safety Training
IT & Information
Skills
Technical
Risk Assessment
Computational
Numeracy
Reflective commentary
Please insert a 700 word (max) reflective report considering the relationship between your training activities and your doctoral studies.
Continue on a separate sheet if necessary
You can register for all courses that are currently available at Central Short Courses www.nottingham.ac.uk/csc