Category / PG research

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

PGR Supervisory Lunchbites | Recruiting PGRs: A personal perspective

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured, PG research, Research Supervision

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

BU research, ECR Network, PG research, RKE development framework, 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

Doctoral College, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Research Supervision

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

Doctoral College PGR Research Culture and Community Funding Call Now Open

PG research

 

 

 

 

 

Doctoral College PGR Research Culture and Community Funding Call Now Open

The Doctoral College is delighted to be able to offer funding to support PGR-led activity across researcher development, research culture and research community building initiatives.

We are committed to fostering a cohesive and collaborative community of PGRs, and so have dedicated funds to support PGRs to develop your own cohort building activities, this may be a social event, training activity or other to enhance the PGR student experience. In addition to community building, the purpose of the funding is to enable PGRs to gain transferable skills and experience in planning, organising, promoting and implementing PGR engagement activities.

Stream 1: PGR Researcher Development

  • Supports the organisation of skills focused workshops, events, or initiatives.
  • Funds of up to £500 per activity are available.
  • Examples: analysis workshops, guest speakers, digital skills sessions, writing sessions.

Stream 2: PGR Research Culture and Community

  • Supports the delivery of PGR research culture and community building, well-being or social activities.
  • Funds of up to £300 per activity are available.
  • Examples: cultural events, get togethers, wellbeing enhancing activities.

Key Dates

  • Applications open Monday 16 January 2023
  • Applications close Sunday 26 February 2023

Full details on how to apply, including the application form can be found on the Doctoral College Brightspace.

If you would like to discuss your ideas before submitting your application please contact:

Natalie Stewart – nstewart@bournemouth.ac.uk 
Doctoral College Programme Manager

Supervisor Lunchbite | Wellbeing Support for PGRs at BU

Doctoral College, Events, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Research Supervision

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.

Ensuring the wellbeing of PGRs and supervisors can be challenging and this session will look at the support available for PGRs at BU. This discussion will be led by Kerry-Ann Randle, Student Services.

Staff attending this session will:

  • have gained additional knowledge of how to support vulnerable PGRs
  • have gained an understanding how to signpost PGRs to the support available at BU

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

Date: Tuesday, 24 January 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.

The PhD viva and then….

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Featured academics, international, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

Today the Journal of Education and Research published online our paper ‘Reflections on Variations in PhD Viva Regulations: “And the Options Are …”’. [1]   The paper outlines that examining PhD research in the form of a doctoral thesis is specialist work, which is why few people know the potential variations. This paper highlights the different options that are available for PhD examiners. There are four general options: (1) pass, (2) rewrite and resubmit; (3) lower degree, with or without resubmission; and (4) fail the PhD. However, from our experience, of both being examined for our own PhDs and examining others at a range of different universities, we have noted a considerable variety in detail within these common options. This paper outlines a variety of outcomes of a PhD examination, followed by four short case studies, each reflecting on a particular aspect /differences we experienced as examinees or as examiners. This paper further aims to alert PhD candidates and examiners to study the examination rules set by the awarding university, as the details of the PhD examination outcome, and hence the options available to both examiners and the students may differ more than one might expect.

This publication adds to our earlier work on the roles of PhD supervisors providing in-depth discipline-specific Public Health knowledge and technical (e.g., methodological) support to the students, encouraging them towards publications or conference presentations, offering pastoral support for student wellbeing, and finally preparing them to defend their thesis by conducting a mock viva. Our earlier paper focused on the responsibilities, opportunities, and sometimes the challenging nature of being a PhD supervisor in the field of Public Health in Nepal. [2]

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. 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 and Research, 12(2), 61-74. https://doi.org/10.51474/jer.v12i2.624
  2. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021). PhD supervision in public health. Health Prospect, 20(1), 1-4.

It is all about experience

BU research, Delicious links, Featured academics, international, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Publishing, research methods, student research, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network, writing

This week we published a paper on the experience of conducting fieldwork in the public health field in the Journal of Health Promotion. [1] Fieldwork is usually a crucial part of PhD research, not only in the health field. However, few researchers write about this, often challenging, process. This paper highlights various occasions where fieldwork in the area of public health, health promotion or community health was more difficult than expected or did not go as planned. Our reflections on working in the field are aimed at less experienced researchers to support them in their research development. Moreover, this paper is also calling upon health researchers to share more details about the process of doing fieldwork and its trials and tribulations. Our key advice is to be inquisitive and open-minded around fieldwork, followed by: be prepared for your fieldwork, conduct a risk assessment of what might go wrong, and consider your resources and options to overcome such trials and tribulations. Fieldwork can be unpredictable.  We believe it is important to share practical lessons from the field which helps other to better understand these tribulations, and learn from them. Finally, sharing such information may guide new researchers and help them identify strategies that can address those issues and challenges in their future studies.

Dr. Preeti Mahato (at Royal Holloway, University of London), Dr Bibha Simkhada and Prof. Padam Simkhada (both based at the University of Huddersfield) are all BU Visiting Faculty.  Moreover, I have had the pleasure of acting as PhD supervisor for five of my co-authors.  I have included in this blog what is probably my favourite fieldwork photo taken a decade ago by former BU PhD student Dr. Sheetal Sharma.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

 

References:

  1. Mahato, P., Tamang, P., Simkhada, B., Wasti, S. P., Devkota, B., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2022) Reflections on health promotion fieldwork in Nepal: Trials and tribulations. Journal of Health Promotion 10(1): 5–12. https://doi.org/10.3126/jhp.v10i1.50978

Studentship Funding Panel: call for Chair, Deputy Chair & Panel Members

BU research, BU2025, Doctoral College, Funding opportunities, Fusion, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Research Supervision, Uncategorized

***DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 6 FEBRUARY 2023***  The Studentship Funding Panel is responsible on behalf of the Research Performance and Management Committee (RPMC) for providing internal funding and support to ensure the University maximises opportunities for investing the University’s QR RDP Supervision grant in match funded studentships, in line with the BU2025 Research Principles.

We are seeking expressions of interest (EoIs) for the Chair, Deputy Chair and Panel members for the new panel.

Chairs should be members of the Professoriate – this is extended to Associate Professors for the Deputy Chair role. Applications from underrepresented groups (minority ethnic, declared disability) are particularly welcome.

EoIs for Panel members are open to the wider academic community, not just the Professoriate.

Application: EoIs will be reviewed against selection criterion which includes knowledge and experience of knowledge exchange, innovation and impact, experience of chairing meetings and plans for leading the research agenda across the university.

EoIs for the Chair and Deputy Chair roles should consist of a short case (maximum length of one page) on the form provided outlining suitability for the role. These should be submitted to the Doctoral College mailbox by the deadline of 5pm on 6 February 2023.

EoIs for Panel member roles should consist of a short case (maximum length of half a page) on the form provided outlining suitability for the role. These should be submitted to the  Doctoral College mailbox by the deadline of 5pm on 6 February 2023.

Please note: EoIs should specify to which role the applicant is applying.

There will be a delay in response to Panel member applications until the Chair and Deputy Chair roles are appointed by 6 March 2023. After this the Panel Members will be contacted about their appointment.

There will be an orientation meeting on at 10am on 9 March 2023 for the Chairs and Deputy Chairs. This will be with Deputy VC Tim McIntyre-Bhatty.

Full details are available here:

BU Studentship Funding Panel – ToR.pdf

BU Studentship Funding Panel – Chair & Deputy Chair Role Descriptor

BU Studentship Funding Panel – Panel Member Role Descriptor

BU Studentship Funding Panel – Expressions of Interest

Participate in a research study exploring positive research cultures for PGRs across disciplines

BU research, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research, student research

Participate in a research study exploring positive research cultures for PGRs across disciplines. I’m interested in PhD student experience and thoughts on what makes a positive research culture. Participants must be PhD students, at BU, who started at least 6 months ago. You will be invited to an online interview which will take between 45 minutes – 1 hour. Participation is voluntary and any involvement will remain anonymous. This work is part of my PhD and not my role in the Doctoral College. Click the flyer for the Participant Information Sheet. Any questions, please email Natalie Stewart at nstewart@bournemouth.ac.uk. Ethics ID: 45787