A typical student is expected to spend no less than 10 working days per year engaging in researcher development activities. It is recommended that you undertake a range of research related activities alongside more formal training.
All first year PhD students are expected to:
- undertake the introductory courses and videos available from the Postgraduate Researcher Development ‘Getting Started’ webpage
- attend the University Postgraduate Safety Course
- attend a Faculty training session on supervision of undergraduates
- complete the University Equality and Diversity Essentials online training
- complete the University’s online data protection training course
In addition, it is an expectation of both Departments that students will actively engage with opportunities for developing core research skills such as presentation and writing skills. Different research groups have different ways of organising these aspects of your training, but in general terms you should aim to give a minimum of one talk/presentation on your work each year, and use opportunities, such as the Smith-Knight and Rayleigh-Knight Prize essay, for writing-up your research.
Your Researcher Development Log
Every year all mathematics research students are required to submit an updated researcher development log. Your log must be submitted to the Postgraduate Office by the end of Easter Term. You will receive email reminders about this requirement. A template log is provided:
Purpose of the log for you:
- To keep an up-to-date record of your training activities.
- To be able to identify gaps in your training.
Purpose of the log for us:
- To ensure that you are developing your skills appropriately.
- To help us plan future events to meet your training needs.
- To report on RD activities to the University, School and certain funding bodies
Online RDLog
The University provides the facility to download a customisable transcript of training that you have undertaken from different providers across the institution via the online RDLog system.