Postgraduate Essentials

Postgraduate Essentials is an online course designed to equip graduate researchers  with the academic skills, practical information and management tools essential throughout candidature and beyond. Being online, the course is accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world with reliable Internet. There are two parts in the course: part one focuses on a getting through the early stages of candidature and part two looks at completion and beyond.

Strategies for a Successful Start to your PhD (Postgraduate Essentials 1)

This part of the course is for commencing graduate researchers. It provides you with academic and practical advice, information and skills for your degree, as well as opportunities for discussion with your peers and university experts in online forums and face to face workshops.

There are six essential modules:

  1. Starting your PhD
  2. Getting Organised
  3. Working with your Supervisor
  4. Searching the Literature
  5. Writing a Literature Review
  6. Preparing for Confirmation.

Course outcomes

By completing Strategies for a Successful Start, graduate researchers can expect to:

  • Understand the key stages and distinct challenges involved in  postgraduate research
  • Develop knowledge of time and task management issues, tools and  resources
  • Reflect on and clarify the roles and responsibilities of supervisors and students at the postgraduate level
  • Explore the main browsers, search engines, bibliographic  software, online databases, indexes and catalogues that they will  use for conducting   and recording literature searches
  • Understand the requirements and elements of a literature review and  a confirmation report
  • Consider factors which contribute to the effective presentation of  academic research.

Completion and Beyond (Postgraduate Essentials 2)

This part of the course is for graduate researchers in the final stages of their degree. It provides advice on how to write, edit and submit  a doctoral thesis, as well as on how to plan and prepare for life after  submission.

There are six modules:

  1. Writing to Finish
  2. The Editing Clinic
  3. Submission and Examination
  4. Maintaining Momentum
  5. The Changing Nature of Supervision
  6. Beyond the PhD.

How to access the course

Postgraduate Essentials is accessed through the Graduate Research ePortfolio (GReP) on the LMS. Please read the GReP page for more information.