Category / PG research

This part of the blog features news and information for postgraduate research students and supervisors

FHSS PGR Conference – extension to deadline of abstract submission

PG research

We are pleased to announce a one-week extension to the date for submission of abstracts, for the inaugural FHSS PGR Conference, which is being held on Tuesday 6th June from 09:30-13:30, in BGB.

 

The revised abstract submission date is Friday 21st April

 

We welcome abstracts for presentations or posters, from all PGRs in FHSS, no matter what stage of your studies you are at, focusing on the conference theme of ‘doing postgraduate research in health and social care’.  Do get in touch with the conference committee at FHSSPGRConferenceCommittee@live.bournemouth.ac.uk if you are unsure and want to discuss your ideas before submitting an abstract.

 

Don’t forget that we welcome the submission of posters that you have presented elsewhere over the last year – please submit a brief abstract, as outlined below.

 

You can submit your abstract by scanning the QR code, or following this link (https://forms.office.com/e/RK7uhNc7LT)

 

Best wishes

Tanya (on behalf of the conference committee)

April Update for (PGR) Researcher Development, Culture and Community

Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Publishing, Student Engagement, student research, Training

Desk set up with plant, light, note pad, mouse, keyboard and computer screen.

Check out the April e-newsletter.

All ‘monthly update for researcher development, culture and community’ e-newsletters are available in a dedicated content area on the Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme Brightspace unit.

If you have any questions about the e-newsletter or would like to feature content, please contact Natalie [Doctoral College Programme Manager].

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2023

PG research

 

Have your say

PRES will launch on Monday 17 April 2023 for postgraduate research (PGR) students to complete.

Look out for an email from the University containing your unique link to the survey.

We are keen to make sure our PGRs have the best possible experience while studying with us. To do this, we need to know what you think works well and what as a University we could do better. This is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at Bournemouth University. We also kindly ask that all supervisors encourage their PGRs to participate in the survey.

Thank you to all PGRs who completed the 2022 PRES survey – we listened to you and your feedback has helped us to enhance your PGR experience in a range of areas.

This year the survey will open on Monday 17 April 2023 and close on Monday 15 May 2023. Upon completing the survey, PGRs will be entered into a free prize draw where you can win one of four prizes of a £50 Love2shop gift voucher. Terms and conditions apply.

In addition, and as thank you for taking part, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.

How do I take part?

PGRs will receive an email from the University on Monday 17 April 2023 containing a unique link which will allow you to access and complete the survey. If you can’t find this email, contact PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk and we’ll help you to get access.

What will I be asked?

The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete. Your response is confidential, and any reporting will be entirely anonymous. The survey is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at BU. It will ask you to share your views on supervision, resources, research culture, community, progress and assessment, responsibilities, support, research skills, profession development, opportunities, and overall experience.

Why should I take part?

Your feedback is important. The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is the only national survey of PGRs and so is the only way for us to compare how we are doing with other institutions and to make changes that will improve your experience in the future.

More information

If you would like to know more about the survey, please visit: PRES 2023

We hope you take the opportunity to get involved this year and help us make improvements to your experience.

Best wishes,

The Doctoral College

For any PRES related queries, please email: PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk

Updated Intention to Bid form – March 2023

Funding opportunities, Guidance, PG research

Since the introduction of the new electronic ITB form on 24 January 2022, there have been incremental updates and the current e-ITB form is now available.

The e-ITB form continues to give a better user experience, creates a more efficient administrative control process for Research Development and Support (RDS) and provides accurate reporting outcomes for management.

 

Updated ITB form: The  Intention to Bid (ITB) form and the updated Research Costings Request Sheet are both available now in the Policies & Procedures/Research/Pre-award section of the intranet under Research > Pre-award. Please complete the Research Costings Request Sheet and attach it to the e-ITB form for completion. PDF copies of all submissions can be printed or saved but there are limitations to editing a form once it has been submitted.

Please send RDS the completed e-ITB form and Costing Request Sheet by the latest 4 weeks before the deadline.

 

Bid Enquiry Process: If you have more than 4 weeks to the submission deadline and need advice or support regarding a bid, please access the same form link and select ‘Enquiry/Advice on Bidding’. This ensures that the pre-award team will see your Enquiry, rather than emailing a sole officer who may not be available at the time.

 

As a service, RDS is committed to delivering service excellence to enable BU’s academic community to deliver and grow world-leading research for societal benefit. The program of work continues to look at processes to enhance the user experience.

 

Changes include improvements to the pre- and post-award support being offered. Building on the delivery of a new Principal Investigator report which is currently in the final stages of being rolled out, and continuing our collaboration with the Transformation Team.

Supervisors Development Workshop

PG research

Whether you are a new supervisor, you plan to be one, or you have experience but are new to Bournemouth University, this development workshop is for you.

The workshop, which is mandatory for new supervisors, offers the necessary knowledge to supervise Postgraduate Research students by placing this knowledge within both the internal and external regulatory framework.

This workshop will cover the following key areas:

  • Nature and scope of doctoral study and the role of a supervisor
  • Code of Practice for Research Degrees at BU, its purpose and operation
  • Monitoring, progression, completion and process of research degrees at BU
  • Importance of diversity, equality and cultural awareness
  • Student recruitment and selection
  • Keeping students on track: motivation and guidance

Book your place onto one of the Doctoral Supervision: New Supervisors Development workshops below. Further details about this workshop can also be found on the staff intranet.

Date Time Location Booking
Wednesday 22 March 2023 10:00 – 14:30 Lansdowne Campus Book
Tuesday 16 May 2023 10:00 – 14:30 Talbot Campus Book

March Update for (PGR) Researcher Development, Culture and Community

PG research, Training

Desk set up with plant, light, note pad, mouse, keyboard and computer screen.

All ‘monthly update for researcher development, culture and community’ e-newsletters are available in a dedicated content area on the Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme Brightspace unit.

If you missed the March e-newsletter, you can check it out.

If you have any questions about the e-newsletter or would like to feature content, please contact Natalie [Doctoral College Programme Manager].

PGR Supervisory Lunchbites | Recruiting PGRs: A personal perspective

PG research

Hosted by the Doctoral College, these one hour online lunch bite sessions supplement the regular New and Established Supervisory Development Sessions and are aimed at all academic staff who are new to, or experienced at, supervising research degree students and are interested in expanding their knowledge of a specific aspect or process in research degree supervision.Each session will be led by a senior academic who will introduce the topic, and staff will benefit from discussions aimed at sharing best practice from across BU. Bookings are arranged by Organisational Development.

This session is focused on identifying best practice in recruiting PGRs and exploring ways of ensuring you recruit the best candidates. This discussion will be led by Dr Sally Reynolds, FST.

Staff attending this session will:

  • have gained additional knowledge of the best practice and challenges of recruiting PGRs
  • have gained additional knowledge of the relevant recruitment processes

Date: Wednesday, 1 March 2023

Time: 12:00 – 13:00

To book a place on this session please complete the booking form.

Further details and future sessions can also be found on the Supervisory Development Lunchbite Sessions staff intranet page.

ECRN-Work/Life Balance. Wednesday 8 March 2023

PG research, Training

The session aims to discuss approaches to setting and maintining healthy work/life balance whilst also managing the demands of their role. It will follow an open, discursive model and invite responses from ECRs with input from the academic leads.

By the end of the session, attendees will have acquired knowledge of models and techniques to healthy professional practice with regards to time management, wellbeing and working practices, and have had the opportunity to discuss their specific circumstances with peers and experienced academic mentors.

          Work Life Balance Wednesday, 8th March 2023  16:00 – 17:00

          Hybrid event: Talbot Campus/MS Teams

To book a place for this workshop please complete the Booking Form.

We hope you will be able to join us and look forward to meeting you

For any queries regarding the content of this session, please email David Green: dgreen2@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Doctoral Supervision | New Supervisors Development Workshop

PG research

Whether you are a new supervisor, you plan to be one, or you have experience but are new to Bournemouth University, this development workshop is for you.

The workshop, which is mandatory for new supervisors, offers the necessary knowledge to supervise Postgraduate Research students by placing this knowledge within both the internal and external regulatory framework.

This workshop will cover the following key areas:

  • Nature and scope of doctoral study and the role of a supervisor
  • Code of Practice for Research Degrees at BU, its purpose and operation
  • Monitoring, progression, completion and process of research degrees at BU
  • Importance of diversity, equality and cultural awareness
  • Student recruitment and selection
  • Keeping students on track: motivation and guidance

Book your place onto one of the Doctoral Supervision: New Supervisors Development workshops below. Further details about this workshop can also be found on the staff intranet.

Date Time Location Booking
Thursday 23 February 2023 10:00 – 14:30 Online Book
Wednesday 22 March 2023 10:00 – 14:30 Lansdowne Campus Book
Tuesday 16 May 2023 10:00 – 14:30 Talbot Campus Book

 

Add the PhD Supervisor keyword to your BRIAN profile

PG research, staff profile pages

 

 

 

 

 

Academic Staff who are currently supervising Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) students – or who wish to in the future – can now add the ‘PhD Supervisor’ keyword to their BRIAN profile.

With thanks to the IT team who worked on the developments, potential PGR applicants can now search the staff profile pages by their area of research interest, filtering it by those with the ‘PhD Supervisors’ keyword. This provides PGR applicants an outstanding resource for looking at the capacity of BU to supervise their projects, while easily allowing them to contact potential supervisors to discuss their research, ahead of making an application.

The changes to the search and filtering functions will go live shortly, but staff are able to add the ‘PhD Supervisor’ keyword already. We will update our applicant pages to provide guidance on how best to use this new facility.

If you have any questions about recruiting PGR students, please contact us on PGRadmissions@bournemouth.ac.uk

February Update for (PGR) Researcher Development, Culture and Community

PG research

Desk set up with plant, light, note pad, mouse, keyboard and computer screen.

All ‘monthly update for researcher development, culture and community’ e-newsletters are available in a dedicated content area here on the Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme Brightspace unit.

So, if you missed the February e-newsletter, check it out.

If you have any questions about the e-newsletter or would like to feature content, please contact Natalie [Doctoral College Programme Manager].

Gain national recognition for your doctoral supervision: Join us online today!

PG research

Come and join us today (Tuesday 07 February 2023) at 12:00pm to learn more about the UK Council for Graduate Education’s (UKCGE) Good Supervisory Practice Framework and the Research Supervision Recognition Programme which allows established supervisors to gain recognition for this challenging, but rewarding, role.

This discussion will be led Dr Martyn Polkinghorne, UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor, BUBS: Associate Professor, FLIE: Education Excellence Theme Leader, TeachBU: Academic Lead.

Staff attending will be able to: 

  • use the Framework to navigate the wide-ranging, highly complex and demanding set of roles that modern research supervisors must undertake to perform the role effectively
  • reflect on their own practice, compared to a benchmark of good practice
  • identify strengths and weaknesses and build upon the former and address the latter with targeted professional development
  • work towards recognition of their expertise by a national body.

Further details on the session as well as information on future lunchbite sessions can also be found on the staff intranet.

Date: Tuesday 07 February 2023

Time: 12:00 – 13:00, Teams

To book a place on this session please contact the Doctoral College: DoctoralCollege@bournemouth.ac.uk 

Further details and future sessions can also be found on the Supervisory Development Lunchbite Sessions staff intranet page.

50th PhD viva as external

international, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Late last week I had the pleasure of conducting my 50th Ph.D. viva as an external examiner.  The first Ph.D. viva as external examiner was in 2004 at the University of Durham.  Over the years most have been at universities in the UK, but I have also had the pleasure of conducting viva in Ireland, the Netherlands, Nepal, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Denmark and New Zealand.  Technically three of these were not a traditional Ph.D. viva, as it included one Doctorate in Professional Practice (at The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen), a D. Phil. at the University of Oxford and acting as pre-examiner for a Ph.D. at a university on Finland.  In addition I have also acted six times as an internal examiner at the University of Aberdeen (n=3) and Bournemouth University (n=3).  Over the years some of the experiences related to examining and supervision Ph.D. theses have resulted in papers and book chapters [1-5].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E (2007) PhD theses: the pros and cons (letter), Times Higher Education Suppl. Issue 1808 (August 24th): 15.
  2. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4.
  3. Wasti, S.P. Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2022) Writing a PhD Proposal, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 176-183.
  4. Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Converting your Master’s or Doctoral Thesis into an Academic Paper for Publication, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 184-189.
  5. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., Poudel, K.C. (2022) Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”, Journal of Education & Research 12(2): 61-74.

New sociology paper led by Dr. Orlanda Harvey

PG research, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Dr. Margarete Parrish in the Department of Social Sciences & Social Work on the publication of our article “Using a Range of Communication Tools to Interview a Hard-to-Reach Population” in Sociological Research Online [1].  The paper highlights that online communication tools are increasingly being used by researchers; hence it is timely to reflect on the differences when using a broad range of data collection methods. Using a case study with a potentially hard-to-reach substance-using population who are often distrustful of researchers, this article explores the use of a variety of different platforms for interviews. It highlights both the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Face-to-face interviews and online videos offer more opportunity to build rapport, but lack anonymity. Live Webchat and audio-only interviews offer a high level of anonymity, but both may incur a loss of non-verbal communication, and in the Webchat a potential loss of personal narrative. This article is intended for sociologists who wish to broaden their methods for conducting research interviews.

This methods article was developed based on the recruitment issues faced during Orlanda’s PhD research from which she has published several previous papers [2-6].

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2023)  Using a Range of Communication Tools to Interview a Hard-to-Reach Population. Sociological Research Online [online first]
  2. Harvey, O., Keen, S., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E. (2019) Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Literature Review into what they want and what they access. BMC Public Health 19: 1024
  3. Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E., Trenoweth, S. (2020) Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 27:5, 377-386. doi 10.1080/09687637.2019.1705763
  4.  Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E, Trenoweth, S. (2022) Libido as a reason to use non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids, Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 29(3):276-288.
  5. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2022) Mixed-methods research on androgen abuse – a review, Current Opinion in Endocrinology & Diabetes 29(6):586-593.
  6. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) The case for ‘anabolics’ coaches: selflessness versus self-interest? Performance Enhancement & Health 10(3) August, 100230

SciVal training for ECRs and PGRs – 22 February 2023

BU Challenges, Business Engagement, PG research, Publishing

Bournemouth University’s staff and students have access to the research intelligence platform SciVal, a tool that provides access to research analytics data.

Join us in this upcoming online session, delivered by our dedicated SciVal Customer Consultant.

You will learn how to:

• Effectively identify the right body of literature for a review paper or thesis chapter beyond keyword searches.
• Summarise the amount of scientific activity in a certain field over time.
• Discover which corporates or other institutes do research in a certain field.

To find out more about how to sign up for this session, visit this link on the Staff Intranet –

https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/workingatbu/staffdevelopmentandengagement/fusiondevelopment/fusionprogrammesandevents/rkedevelopmentframework/careers/scivalforecrsandpgrs/

If you do not have access to the Staff Intranet, you can access the booking form directly via the link below –

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=VZbi7ZfQ5EK7tfONQn-_uHL-6XoUudlNkJOS948yf5NUNEUyMUJSWUVUR1ZRWUNEVjhVT0lIS01QVyQlQCN0PWcu