Student participation, seminars, conferences and teaching opportunities

* Please note that due to the current Covid-19 pandemic there are restrictions in place regarding the amount of time that staff and students can spend on campus. Please check the University’s webpages for the most up-to-date information about guidance on attendance on campus.

 

As developing researchers (and often teachers), research students make a very significant contribution to the academic, intellectual and social life of the College.  Accordingly we place great emphasis on your participation in attending and organising seminars, conferences and reading groups, in presenting and discussing your work and the work of your peers.  Details of events happening within the College can be found on the intranet and the College Events database.  The College also runs a Humanities PGR Seminar series which is delivered by academic staff across all the disciplines.  Details are included in the weekly newsletter and are also posted on the Humanities SharePoint

We are also aware that it is important that you also have opportunity to meet socially with PGR students from other disciplines within the College, and we encourage you to get involved with any student activity and journals

Disciplines regularly hold research seminars with both internal and external speakers. The College considers these sessions to be a vital part of postgraduate training and student attendance at these seminars is strongly encouraged.  Further details will be provided by your supervisor or the DPGR for your discipline.

The Humanities PGR Conference is held each year and is an opportunity to get involved and gain experience of organising a conference and presenting a paper.  Attendance at, and participation in, the College’s PGR annual conference is considered compulsory unless there are mitigating circumstances. Each PGR student is required to present a paper at least twice during their studies.

Each discipline within the College has a Postgraduate Research Liaison Forum (PGRLF), which is open to the entire graduate research student cohort in that discipline; it includes staff representation, and is chaired by a student member who is elected by the forum members. 

The PGRLFs are an important means to voice your views and concerns about your studies. Their purpose is to enable students and staff to jointly participate in the management and improvement of postgraduate provision within the College. 

Each PGRLF meets once a term. Notice of meetings and a request for agenda items are emailed to all students prior to the meetings. Concerns raised by the PGRLF are addressed by the PGR Support Officer and, if necessary, the College Director of Postgraduate Research. The minutes of each meeting are emailed to all PGR’s within the discipline, the discipline DPGR and the student Guild.  They are also posted on the PGRLF page on the College intranet and are considered to be part of its normal business by the College’s Graduate Research Strategy Group. 

There is also a College-wide PGRLF meeting once a term which is attended by the student representative from each discipline. 

Teaching is not guaranteed.  You should check with your discipline to see what opportunities are available. 

Students granted discipline-specific studentships may be required to teach on modules in their discipline – please check your funding offer letter to see if this is the case. 

If you wish to undertake teaching or teaching-related activity, you must first complete at least the first stage of the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE) course. 

The College has a Postgraduate Teaching Assistants’ Code of Good Practice, provides College-specific details about the employment of PGR students as Postgraduate Teaching Assistants (PTAs), and the various roles and responsibilities associated with these duties. This code provides a complement to, and should be read in conjunction with, the University’s Code of Good Practice: Employment of Postgraduate Students.