Streamline Your Invoicing with the Invoice Master for Research and Development

Invoice master for Research and Development

so um hello everybody I'm going to hand you over to our uh director of the postgraduate office um Miss Dorothy Stevens Dorothy are you there yes thank you Allison okay great I'm just going to uh share the slides all right would you like to begin darthy yes thank you thank you Allison um good afternoon everyone uh welcome to the session um this information session from the division for research development um uh on on postgraduate research development and supervisor support um I am Dorothy Stevens I am the director of the postgraduate office um and I will be making this presentation with my colleague Allison Allison Bal um who's the head of the uh postgraduate skills development program um and so uh just just a very very brief quick overview of um the um postgraduate office um we have uh different areas of responsibility and we're also in a little bit in state of um reorganization um sorry Ellie would you mind just going back to the previous slide okay let's let's just leave it there um okay so um in today's session um I'm going to be talking about the postgraduate officers roles um we will talk about training for supervisors of postgraduate researchers um some of the resources available for supervisors um and then uh we will also give you some insight into some yearbook changes that affect um postgraduate researchers both students and also their supervisors Alison okay so um in in postgraduate office we have a a couple of areas that we focus our attention on um we do a lot of um uh instit cross institutional work on providing um postgraduate study support in the form of um inform access to information through uh the website of um the program offering of the University making sure that uh prospective students have access to the correct information about um different programs that they might be considering and so that is all um dealt with by the colleagues in our study support environment I give you a little bit more details um in a moment uh then um we have a focus on um our our joint degree relationships um these are all at post-graduate level uh with um different International partners then the a very big focus of today's discussion is our post-graduate skills development program um which we will tell you much more about and then um our post-graduate funding office uh which is is um what I was referring to earlier on we're in a little bit of a state of reorganization um but that currently is is part of the postgraduate office um but uh focuses on postgraduate bseries very many funding opportunities um available uh for our um postgraduate students um and yeah so I will explain all of that to you and we're all falling within the division for research development thank you so in our um a little team that focuses on our studies support uh we support postgraduate students um both those that are uh currently um doing their undergraduate with us um so technically our current students advising them on on postgraduate study options for the future um as well as uh um students from um externally um about what how they they could articulate into the University so um we have a big focus on that driven through our um un through our website um we also have an inhouse special specialist service in conducting credential evaluations for international applicants um that allows uh academic departments to consider candidates from elsewhere in terms of the their eligibility for uh post-graduate study at stenos um just general assessment of Eligibility of inquiries for admission to postgraduate studies and Advising so it's very much tied to that and then supporting um students um both enrolling and in in in joint and collaborative degrees but then also um from time to time where the um necessary uh foundations are in place um setting up new agreements for the benefit of um joint degree students um so in terms of the broader uh um Team working uh and focusing on post-graduate matters and also um newly on also onto post-doctoral matters under the leadership of um Mr ENT Lewis um this is the range of of colleagues who are are working every day with postgraduate students in in some or other in some or other way um or and also actually with academic departments um and in terms of making that which is available um helping students to navigate the system um providing workshops and training opportunities um making sure their bseries are paid um and then also dealing with some policy matters systems matters um and of course uh uh the the post doctoral office um who who who is obviously involved with um the uh um enrollment of post doctoral fellows payment of their bseries and so forth so in terms of the study support team um we are devising um policies relating to post-graduate students and postgraduate supervision and providing information and advice on these policies rules and regulations um where necessary they are being reviewed where necessary um um new elements need to be uh um devised um at the moment uh the vast d the deputy Vice Chancellor for teaching and learning and research Innovation and postgraduate studies those two dvcs have instructed us to work on um an update to uh an Institutional rule around progression um for for Masters and doctoral students so a lot of that kind of work is what we are busy with in um in the postgraduate office also um training uh staff users to maintain postgraduate records on the um student information system and in this um respect we I'm I'm sure you have all been feeling pain and um we we are going to be starting with um a new system very shortly um replacing the an old information system um for the capturing of supervision um on on uh postgraduate records um we will also be we we also um as I've mentioned earlier uh make visible and host the postgraduate um offering of the university to prospective students um and in this regard the team is often in contact with academic departments to make sure that matters around closing dates and so forth for postgraduate programs are correct for the next intake the offering as well as the types of additional supporting documentation people require um when um reviewing a candidate for postgraduate studies and then as I mentioned previously we're negotiating our um new and existing joint and collaborative degrees um through uh the postgraduate office okay then our um postgraduate funding office under um nent Lewis's uh directorship um is managing the full post-graduate scholarship portfolio at stos University and um this involves um all of the uh internal and external funding instruments internal one being the postgraduate um scholarship program which is our sort of prestige uh uh uh instrument to to um which is handled very much in collaboration with fa Heath sorry Alison could you just go back one more um then also uh administering um departmental bseries and yes this is very much um an area that once again um we're institutionally are feeling a a tremendous amount of pain at the moment um the burer system has only recent come um come on board um and uh we the the postgraduate funding office are working through a tremendous backlog now of of getting things um uh paid out um and getting the system to work um and yes we really um do appreciate people's patience with that um just generally supporting Good Financial Management um um and supporting in that for students as well in terms of different wraparound support um uh uh interventions that are offered through through the office as well and then big big responsibility to develop and Implement institutional policies um relating to uh bseries and other scholarship instruments um I as I mentioned earlier the flagship funding instrument of the PSP which is managed with faculties um and uh administered and paid out through the bseries um and then I actually want to hand over to um uh the postgraduate skills development team um in in uh the next slide um because this is the this is the group of colleagues who are going to be telling you about the um uh just generals supervision development support um and student supervision uh and student um postgraduate student support and development opportunities that are available through the postgraduate office over to you Ellison thank you thank you very much darthy yes so I'm going to be focusing on uh the type of support that we offer uh staff and and supervisors so more focus on on staff uh today's session is part one of uh two sessions we're doing for the our research Division and part two which is going to be on the 26th of March is going to elaborate or expand on um exactly what we do in postgraduate schools in terms of workshops and um resources so I'm going to jog through it um today and it'll be elaborated on in March and um I'm also going to focus on some of the resources that uh and and training that supervisors can get um if you are a postgraduate and you're attending this meeting it's still valuable uh to you you're still um pure of um supports and resources um but I also do encourage you to join again on the 26th of March okay so myself and my colleague uh Kristen mcclard and dandre O harer form a small team within our postgraduate office called the postgraduate skills development um and it's a program that's been running since 2011 and it it's grown in in Leaps and Bounds uh currently it's or over the last few years and continuing it's being funded by our DHE University capacity development programs project the the postgraduate pipeline project and um so the pgp We Run The postgraduate skills program under the pgp project is uh supplemental to the temple support that students will receive within their own faculties or departments so the goal of the ucdp project is to provide research appropriate skills and knowledge to our postgraduates primarily Masters and doctoral students but we do also support um honors students especially those who are doing um more extensive research projects and then also uh looking at professional skills for future careers in the sense of um what Dorothy alluded to earlier the raar around support um we've got some of our training is on confident public speaking or project management um yeah so not only um research specific but anything related to what a student would be expected to do in their role as postgraduate student so they would expected to present their proposals so that would be presentations perhaps to attend or presented conferences um etc etc so the reason why we see the postgraduate pipeline as being important is that we I need to perhaps take a step back here is that part of our program is that we also do needs uh a needs analysis um once every three years so the uctp project cycle is three years and um so we we're going to be launching a survey um over the next few months to postdoctural not postdoctoral um postgraduate doctoral students primarily but also um Master's students um and so it's it's for us to understand what our students uh are looking for where they perhaps feel there's a gap in what they're getting between um their faculty and and institutional support uh yeah so it helps us to respond ingly it also helps the institution um ensures that the postgraduate students are more informed and skilled in research professional areas so to enable them and it's an enabler for students to take greater responsibility for their own development so this is this is the philosophy behind our um pgp program so how do we support uh you as staff uh as Dorothy mentioned our office um provides information postgraduate policies regulations and training um and but within our program we also um I particularly uh give information about the uh research academic research Integrity policies avoiding plagiarism Etc we we also present postgraduate support orientation sessions on request from uh faculties and departments then I present a awarding plagarism session also on request from departments and then also on a regular basis receive queries from postgraduates um needing assistance with uh their turnit 10 reports uh Etc and then something important which some of you as um if you are a postgraduate supervisor um might not be aware that we have a supervisor training course that we run we assist our research development um by presenting these supervisor training courses and they are presented twice a year so typically over the May June uh examination period and then again over October November examinations those who are interested in attending or reading up more about this um you do need to be a currently you do need to be a staff member who is working with postgraduate students in a supervisory role in order to be eligible um you may also be a a post-doctoral fellow um but you will find more information about it there there are no costs um for you to attend um we we cover it all actually I should say our research division covers it from their ucdp um project for early career um academic development then so this is an introductory course and it's presented by uh Professor Chrissy Bowie um she was formerly a DVC at at University she's now currently an extraordinary Professor linked to the university through the center of and adult education and she also um does some training for chist also in a on the supervisor training but the do um course short course and then we a co-presenter is um Dr nilo chuma and she is also uh linked to the education faculty she's also with the center for higher and adult education so we've got two very experienced um supervisors uh presenting to stush University students introducing them to the supervisor journey and what their role entails throughout from beginning till end then sometimes we are asked um what what other courses uh on supervision are um available so Crest as I mentioned offers a short course online um it's quite an intensive one for it's a little bit more advanced and so you can have a look on their website to see what their course entails and then the center for higher and adult education also offer uh supervisor courses um very often on sort of zooming in on a specific element of um supervision so you can also have a look at there website um the difference between well not apart from the fact that this is our's introductory and um these are bit more advanced is that there are costs involved for the crest and centi and adult education um yeah we believe that stash University staff members shouldn't have to pay for their training and supervision it is part of our role to provide that right so getting back to what our um program does um I've just mentioned how we support staff um how we support postgraduates is by providing information and advice also on policies and regulations and also where else they can find support at stellen University and then we present the orientation sessions on request from the Departments to inform the postgraduates we attend to pledges some concerns if student has got themselves into a pickle and we can advise um we can also um assist with um interpreting the turntin reports so it's sort of a dual role we support staff in this role as well as the postgraduate students and then we run our institutional postgraduate skills program and we create resources for um postgraduate students and these can all be found on our postgrad skills development programs website but as I alluded to in the beginning um my colleagues um Kristen and dandre will be tackling the workshops and resources and additional support in our part two of this drd information session on the 26th of March just for interest sake um this is a snapshot of who typically um attend ends from faculties and this this is for our postgraduate skills program workshops um we have had an major influx in attendance from our medical and Health Sciences faculty which is wonderful since um we took our whole offering online um during Co um it's supported students who very seldomly come to stush camp us the opportunity to attend our training and workshops um we've also made our workshops well to a large extent um asynchronous students can access the course material on sun learn uh once you know once they've registered after attending um training and they're able to go back and look at the material and um sharpen their skills that they've learned um there are typically live online um two one or two sessions per training but just the fact that the student doesn't have to physically come in and take a whole day's leave um makes a huge difference so so yeah um of course faculties um you get large faculties and smaller faculties and you also get faculties um for example like law that um have quite a different approach to uh uh research support and development and many faculties have their own tailored um programs and support yeah so hence hence there being less attendance from law for example all right so at the beginning of the slides uh we indicated that we were also going to mention uh resources that are available to uh stush University staff particularly uh supervisors um in their roles uh you know supervising postgraduate researchers and um one of these is the memorandum of understanding which uh is compulsory um that all postgraduates Telos University students who are doing research must sign a type of memorandum of understanding at the beginning of their research it's um yeah it's an official formal um process that's in place and then we advise that students and supervisors um return and re revisit the memo you at the beginning of each year sometimes even in the middle of a year if um one of the parties discovers that um the expectations or or timelines that they ially agreed to was not not working out and they need to renegotiate um but we we can't impress on you enough how important this process is it's it's uh shouldn't be seen as just a matter of um ping in a form and saying yes I've read the code of conduct and the roles and responsibilities of students and supervisors in the yearbook um yes you should do that but you need to go a step further and and to actually consider um how the project is going to be managed and um who who what roles are is who's going to play which roles um any preconceived ideas or any um misaligned expectations can be ironed out from the start um or can be adapted and um adjusted where necessary so we recently revised our mou template that uh we house on our postgraduate office uh website or PG skills website and we've created PDF um documents that well two of them are fillable what we have discovered is that uh because our funding uh the students who are receive postgraduate funding especially um for the PSP uh scholarship uh they it's compulsory most of the um scholarships of are it's required that a student sign some sort of mou and um we've been getting the uh you know reporting that students are finding it difficult to fill this in but we've discovered that you can't fill it in on your cell phone or your mobile um the student does need to be on a on a PC um in order to fill in these fillable forms that we created in the hopes that it would be uh easier and more streamlined for um students and supervisors to to use so what we're going to do is we we're also putting together or we're just um Tiding up the word version and we'll pop that onto our website as well so that anybody who wants to use um the mou uh form and the expectations and timelines document but are finding the PDF isn't helpful um we we're going to have the word uh versions on our website as well in the next couple of days okay um what we've done too is we've uh created a a sort of a bundle um an M bundle and these are yeah some of it's explaining why it's important to establish and to sign an mou um it's um highlighting or bringing to light that there is such a thing as a supervisor student code of conduct in the yearbook that needs to be uh read and agreed to or at least taken cognizance of um and then we also bring to the attention the doctoral graduate attributes um by the um Center for Council higher and adult higher education um exists for doctoral students and that doctoral candidates should um know that there are these nine doctoral graduate attributes that um they're going to be primarily the ideas that they they need to acquire these nine by the time they finished their U their degree by the time they complete provide evidence that they're able to do so um so number four and five are these fillable forms or documents that are talking uh alluded to or spoke about just now um many departments um do have their own memorandum of understanding document or their own um bundle uh with with support documentation um so you need to find out if you are a student uh listening in on this session uh whether your depart department has a specific mou that they want you to discuss and sign or whether you you can go ahead and use one of our uh templates that are there to guide you all right so what I can mention before we sign off I I did mention that we've got this um part two of um the session in in March what I want to just leave you with is um to remind you there have been some announcements about um yearbook changes um there there was an announcement um in our postgraduate times newsletter um towards the end of last year as well as of course um if you attended any of the Senate meetings um the approval of the new thesis title page and the new requirements um for thesis abstracts that is in the the 24 yearbook so I encourage you to to go and have a look at what is in the year book um yeah you look under uh the examination section for Masters and then also for doctoral students for the uh process or the procedure um for examination and you will find that um they talk about the new thesis title page page um also take note that from a copyright or from a um sort of intellectual property standpoint one should only put or use this official formal title page um when you are submitting your final product to Sun scholar so our students need to bear in mind that when they submit their thesis for examination it's it's still a work in in progress so ing to our innovas colleagues that shouldn't have the University's logo on it yet because it's not the final product um putting the logo on and in you know inserting this title page when you submit your final product to Sun scholar after examination is um an indication that um that this is this is now the official final product um then you will also see in the yearbook that there has been a change in the font type for thesis and dissertations um students are uh it's it's required to use calibri or Cambria um please don't uh be concerned now that you know you might have a student submitting um to S scholar n for graduation in um March April uh the sun scholar team I'm almost certain won't expect students to change a document that's all in Times New Roman for example uh to Cambria um it it'll affect their their layout and their formatting but going forward um for the December graduation uh and going forward all thesis and dissertations uh should abide by the the new font typ the new thesis title and then importantly the abstracts requirements have uh changed and you will see that it's it's now saying that your thesis abstract should be in the language that the thesis was written in and then you may of 500 words and then you may add an additional uh abstract or two in another language and specifically if you are a joint degree student if for example your other university is in France and uh you know that language that speak is French then your second abstract um would be in in French so there's a little bit of leeway there now and it's it's all linking with um the University's um transformation and language policies so a little bit of pressure off students who um for example um don't speak or can't speak Africans or you know um having to to put together an abstract just for the sake of having it in English and Africans um it also we're hoping is going to add to uh quality um you know improve the quality of of the abstracts the second abstracts um if you know people are afair with the with the language that they need to write it in all right all right so I um yeah it was quite quite a mouthful in the end um Dorothy do you have anything to to add to to what I was saying um not really Allison I think maybe we we can uh leave a little bit of time for questions um yes and just you've pointed to the the yearbook changes the other the other the other um aspect of the yearbook that changed was the um rules around um conversions uh from from Masters to doctoral um and yes I think that was that was about that was about all but no I don't have anything to add so long okay okay great so what I can um what I wanted to say is that I see there is um is there something in the chat I think there might be um the the choice of calibria and Cambria uh for thesis and dissertations didn't come AB totally arbitrarily um The Branding uh unit of the university and and um sscar and our office were involved in um discussions and calibria and Cambria uh are both um compatible um across the board and those who are using latch um apparently Cambria is yeah very user friendly and it it's also lends itself to formula etc etc so yeah there is there is some rhyme and reason behind um the changes but um as I said we don't want people to get into a panic if they've been working on their thesis or dissertation for a couple of years now and they''re got to the end and they're now need to submit to suns colola in the in the next um few weeks yes I see that Professor proeski has their hand up yes thank you Allison and thank you Dorothy for a very informative uh session I have a question about uh students that are not yet registered but are spending a few months up to a year to write their proposal so they are not formally registered they don't have a student email address this morning I had a problem with teams um I created teams for the student or the candidate and um they can't get access to that but that's another thing I'll sort out with um it I think you know I just wondered would the um would your unit also be um offering some assistance if the student is not yet formally registered and that is yeah I think that's the only question at this stage that I have thank you Dy would you like to I'm happy to answer that um Hardy unfortunately no um we cannot uh um uh offer support to students who are not forly registered students of the University um we do have to uh account for um that which we how we spend um the budget that we receive uh to um to the DH uh in terms of offering courses uh training opportunities developmental opportunities and the students do participants do need to be registered students of the University thanks Dorothy yes I thought so while I'm while I'm while I'm talking maybe just a quick one um uh we've had an issue lately it's it's a Once off I think but it might be a problem later on or some other people might have had this problem and that is that students who use professional copy editors sometimes the copy editor does more than just copy editing and what is the University stance and that I cannot find anything in policies uh faculty level or um but maybe I've missed it do you know of anything um that I can warn the students about before they um especially here right at the end when they they start asking the the professional copy editor for instance to um cut the number of pages or cut the number of words because it's too long that you know for me that goes over to more than copy editing okay thank you yeah so we've we do have a um a list of um we call them unoted editors on our web uh website under resources um however we do add um at the top uh we we've added a link to an article that um we have a a couple of um experts in the Arts faculty who uh you know their expertise they their field is in um editing and translation and um yeah Professor Amanda Lawrence um M has has written a piece and I think it's it's is important for for students and editors to to realize that the only editing they should be doing is um what we call copy editing is looking at the quality of the language um making a flow of sentence uh you know flow more smoothly um but any content change or even a structural change is is not above board um but there is no policy as such um there's is guidelines so we we've got the this article on our website I can share it with um with you perhaps my colleague Kristen can add the the link in the chat here um thanks yes that would be great yeah yeah so it is it is problematic and and we also do understand from a student point of view if their uh English isn't their mother tongue and they're writing a dissertation in English it's going to be tricky um but what what I can say is the supervisor training course that um that we run with and it's particularly Professor Chrissy Bowie um puts a lot of emphasis on the role of the supervisor in writing support which is quite interesting and her stance is that um yeah supervisor should be um yeah modeling um the correct approach to writing not literally uh grammatically but um you know how how one approaches writing and and and the editing only comes towards the end once you've got the ideas in place and um yeah so so anybody who's who's thinking about uh how their role in supervision and and writing supporters I also encourage you to if you are a supervisor to sign up for our course but yeah it's a big one it's a big one because uh we don't always see ourselves as writers um very often students sign up because they want to uh be researchers and they want to expand um you know the knowledge um yeah capacity and they don't necessarily see themselves as writers but in order to convey the the findings and and the whole argument of your thesis of disertation you do need to um yeah have basic writing skills okay all right I see Kristen has added the link to the article there um so the original article is in afans and then on our website we've just got the uh summarized or sort of abbreviated um version in English for those who can't access the africant much appreciate it Alison thank you yes yes Susan Elis us up hi Allison um I would like to go back to the question about registration is there an um like a deadline of when you need to be registered as a as as a student I'm going to let darthy answer thank you um sell so yes there is um if you are a new Master's or a doctoral stud student you have until the end of um I think it's the 28th of March to to be registered um and I think that they do also uh um have a little bit of a grace period there after but if you can try to regard 28 March is your absolute deadline would be useful otherwise if if you are a continuing student um so you were a master student last year and you continuing or PhD um you should pretty much have been registered by now um but under the circumstances that people have been experiencing this year with huge um uh systems difficulties and so forth um they are being a little bit lenient on deadlines as well so for an undergraduate student you know classes have started already so um they they have to be much harder on those deadlines but on the other hand um if if you uh are are are as I said a returning full research Master student it's it's not like you have to be in a classroom so you know um there is a little bit of leniency does that answer your question does that help you yes thank you it helps me a lot thank you it's a pleasure all right are there any more questions we we will be sharing the the slide hand art version of this presentation our drd colleagues will be uh sharing it with you yes Dorothy sorry um I do see I think chrisen is talking to Melissa in the chat about her her difficulties with access um I think it's Sun learn related um chrisa is this to do with the supervisor training course or just general access to sunl um from what I understand I think it's just general access but I've popped a response in the chat and um Melissa I'll also pop our email address there so if you get stuck you're welcome to email us and um we can maybe assist you or forward um you on to the colleague who can assist okay what what I can say is that sunar has been under immense pressure with the the traffic the last few days you may have noticed uh you keep been getting an error um I know I've been struggling to update a a course so um it might be that one needs to give it a d so until they or even uh try after hours When there's less traffic um yeah these systems are um wonderful when they work but of course do take strain with the numbers all right are those um the only questions good so as I said we'd share the handout in in the handout you'll get links to our websites um the resources uh what I could perhaps mention um Prof proeski is that your students who aren't fully registered yet there are a number of resources that um are on our website it that are sort of Open Access that um students can uh have a look at um some of them are in sunloan so they won't have access to that but we do give some uh links for example with the um for writing support we refer students who aren't yet registered to the enhancing postgraduate environments website which has a number of resources on it that helps uh guide students on the academic the nature of academic writing and um yeah I'll take I'll take a look Alison yes yes so there are all those things good and then if that is all I'd like to thank you for attending and uh I hope that it was cohesive enough for you to um to gain uh some new knowledge and perhaps to be reminded of uh things that you um had perhaps forgotten uh and yeah you're welcome to press on our button anytime when you need assistance uh whether it's for your student or for yourself