Research Students’ Consultative Committee
Minutes of a meeting held on 7th June 2017
Present: Professor Reyer Zwiggelaar (Chair, Head of the Graduate School), Dr Maurice Bosch (IBERS), Denitsa Dineva (ABS), Suresh Kumar (CS), Martyn Saycell (HR), Nina Sharp (DGES), Steve Smith (IS).
Apologies: Dr Daniel Burgarth, (IMPACs), Sarah Byfield (Art), Dr Brian Garrod (IBL), Alex Pitchford (Physics), Helen Walker (Law).
In attendance: Jan Davies (Graduate School), Dr Alan Macmillan (AQRO).
15. Chair’s Welcome and Introduction
Professor Zwiggelaar welcomed everyone to the meeting.
16. Minutes from meeting held on 1st March 2017
Point 20.8 (08/06/16) List of workshops requested
Training in Excel was also requested but there was no-one with the expertise in IS to run and Excel course.
ONGOING: Graduate School investigating possible EXCEL trainers in planning office.
Point 20.10 (08/06/16) Social media space for Postgraduates
RESOLVED: See Point 17.2.
Point 6.7 (02/11/17) Residence Assistant concerns.
ACTION: Martyn Saycell (HR) will look into historical and future concern and report back.
Point 10.3 (01/03/17) Aberystwyth Postgraduate Research Student’s Conference.
RESOLVED: See Point 17.2
Point 13.1 (01/03/17) NVIVO
RESOLVED: Information circulated following last meeting.
Point 13.2 (01/03/17) Removal of Research Student profiles.
RESOLVED: Issue of student profiles raised with Tim Davies, IS. Some Departments have student profiles on their web pages. Tim Davies will review whether this could be rolled out to all Departments.
Point 13.3 (01/03/17) Demonstrators contracts and HR
RESOLVED: Martyn Saycell reported that legally it is 2 months duration to provide a written statement of particulars (a contract). He also noted however that every attempt would be made to speed up the process where possible. Going forward for September 2017, demonstrators will be part of AberWorks, which is expected to help.
POINT 13.4 (01/03/17) Staff and student email accounts
Steve Smith noted that a committee decided that staff and student emails should be separate about ten years ago, but this committee no longer exists. It was suggested that it was now time to review this decision. It was noted that there might be technical issues that will need to be resolved by the BIS team. It was also noted that should it be possible to link staff and student accounts, this should remain an option not become a blanket rule.
ACTION: Professor Zwiggelaar to raise this issue with Tim Davies (IS) and Chris Thomas (PVC Research).
POINT 13.7 (01/03/17) PTES / PRES
Professor Zwiggelaar thanked the representatives on the committee for advertising the PTES and PRES. Results were not out yet, but the completion rates were significantly increased.
The minutes were accepted.
17. Chair’s Business
17.1 3MT
The live Aberystwyth final of the Three Minute Thesis competition was held yesterday, with nine finalists who all presented to a very high standard. The winner will now be notified, and will be announced on the web and on Twitter.
17.2 AU Postgraduate Research Conference 2018
A paper was circulated (Appendix One) detailing provisional plans for the 2018 conference, plus progress on other social media issues. The proposed date is Monday 11th June 2018. It is expected that this would be student led, with support from the Graduate School. In particular the committee supported the idea of inviting Alumni. Another suggestion was to include writing workshops for first years in parallel with the career workshops.
ACTION Provisional details circulated and attached in Appendix One. Please send comments to Graduate School by end of June 2017.
18. Minutes from Departmental Postgraduate Research Student/Staff Consultative Committees
Minutes were received from some Departmental SSSCs. No generic matters arising beyond those already covered.
19. Recommendations to the Research Degrees Committee
None
20. AOB
20.1 Law Dept Office Space
MPhil students in the Law Department noted that in some other departments, MPhil students have office space and they would also like to have office space.
Professor Reyer Zwiggelaar suggested that the students raise this matter with their Institute Director of Postgraduate Studies, or the Institute Manager. It was noted that generic PG specific study space is available (e.g. the PG Centre on Penglais Campus).
20.2 Induction
The Law Department reported that they felt there was a lack of proper inductions for PhD students in both September and January. Professor Zwiggelaar noted that Induction programmes are run twice a year, and that some research skills workshops were offered to January starters for the first time this year, and so he was surprised that there was not enough offered. One suggestion is to provide a handbook/pack/guidance for late starters on what to expect when starting a PhD.
ACTION: Professor Zwiggelaar asked the Law Department to send him more details on the perceived problem, and send suggestions of what extra might be included.
20.3 Election of PG Reps
It was suggested that PG reps for committees should only be elected via the student Union elections.
ACTION: Professor Reyer Zwiggelaar would investigate and report back.
21.0 Dates of Meetings Next Year
Wednesday 15th November 2017 09.30am - Visualisation Board Room
Wednesday 7th March 2018 11.10am - Visualisation Board Room
Wednesday 6th June 2018 11.10am - Visualisation Board Room
JD.
APPENDIX ONE
Postgraduate Research Conference – Monday 11th June 2018
A provisional date of Monday June 11th 2018 has been set for the Postgraduate Research Conference. This date is in Vice Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Treasure’s calendar so that she can deliver a speech/opening address and attend the conference. A selection of rooms are also provisionally booked in Medrus for the event – depending on numbers and the exact event programme, all may not be needed. Do the committee see any problems with this date? Exams and term finish for UGs on Saturday 2nd June.
The event will be held alongside the #3MT competition. It is envisioned that there will be long presentations, #3MT presentations, and a poster session during lunch where delegates can display and answer questions on their academic posters. Elsewhere it is common for there to be prizes for the winner in each category – we thought we could have a delegate vote to determine the winner in each category. Registration in advance for the conference (both for those wishing to present and those only wishing to attend) will be necessary to ensure catering, and to ensure we can finalise the programme and room layouts etc. There can only be so many slots for presentations so potentially not everyone wishing to present will be able to. However, clear criteria for deciding on submissions should be set in advance. For example, submissions should reflect all Departments if possible (i.e. if overbooked, ideally don’t accept 5 submissions from one Department and zero from another). Should submissions also be selected to reflect a conference theme? Conferences elsewhere (both university-wide, and Department specific), revolve around a theme, and presentations broadly fit into this.[1] It would be good for our conference to have a theme.
We could hopefully have multiple guest speakers at the event – alongside the Vice Chancellor and Head of the Graduate School (Reyer). If possible, it would be great to have one or two previous PGR students present. Other universities (such as Lancaster), host previous graduates as guest speakers at their Research Conferences. Perhaps Departments could reach out to previous PGR students to invite them to present at this?
The event could also hopefully incorporate Y3 careers workshops (or some sort of employability focused workshops), in order to also consider the journey that follows completion of a PhD – career directions (academic and non-academic), networking, research funding, etc. It is common elsewhere that conferences include panels/workshops. These workshops (and the poster session) would require additional rooms, hence multiple provisional room booking.
Idea for Programme and Logistics Breakdown
09:00-09:30 / Registration – those presenting posters in poster session should be advised to arrive early to set up their posters09:30 – 09:50 / Welcome Address – Vice Chancellor
09:50 – 10:10 / Guest speaker – previous graduate?
10:10-11:00 / 3MT presentations
11:00-11:20 / Break
11:20-12:40 / Long presentations
12:40-1:40 / Lunch – with poster session/stalls (graduates can get lunch before proceeding to rooms with poster displays to view posters and discuss these with their presenters)
1:40-2:00 / Guest speaker
2:00-3:00 / Long presentations
3:00-3:20 / Break – ballot box to be available for votes for best presentations (if we have a delegate vote, as opposed to a judging panel). Votes can then be counted in following session, ready for prize giving during closing address
3:20-4:40 / Parallel sessions – Y3 Careers workshops **
4:40-5:00 / Closing remarks and prize presentations for best long presentation, best 3MT and best poster (as voted by delegates) – Head of the Graduate School
5:00 / Reception/end
Social Media – Twitter
I have reactivated old Twitter accounts, which some PGRs are now/were already following. I am attempting to tweet anything of relevance to both prospective and current postgraduates (i.e. funding, deadlines for applications, conferences, research seminars, PG news, 3MT reminders). I am following all academic Departments now on the English account. The plan is that these social media accounts can be used to follow and promote the Postgraduate Research Conference next year also.
The twitter accounts are @AberUni_PG for English tweets and @PrifAber_Uwch for Welsh Tweets. If PGR students are encouraged to follow these accounts, they can then tag us in their tweets containing information they want tweeting to all PGR students (i.e. a conference, research opportunities), and we can retweet.
ApAber
ApAber can be reached online via ap.aber.ac.uk (you will first be asked to login to your email). The ApAber app can also be downloaded via Google play. This app links to and displays the @AberUni Facebook and Twitter feeds – as far as I am aware you can’t change this to see alternative twitter and Facebook accounts.
However, it is a very useful app through which you can see information such as Library loans, Blackboard, email, calendar, MEQs, the university’s social media, Aber card balance, computer room availability, Information Services news, and your Library PIN all in one place.
I don’t see how this app could be a social space per say. However, if there was a way for the Graduate School to have its own thread within Important Information (see below), PGR students could then subscribe to this to receive relevant information from the Grad School.
Postgraduate Blog
We now have a Postgraduate Blog, which I have invited both PGT and PGR students to contribute to – providing information for prospective postgraduates or just more generally talking about postgraduate life. So far we have received contributions from Physics, Computer Science and Interpol. The blog can be found at wordpress.aber.ac.uk/pgblog
RSCC Minutes7june17
[1] Themes elsewhere include: Lancaster, ‘Demonstrating Impact’; EMUA, ‘Inspiring Futures’; Nottingham School of Education, ‘Sharing our ideas, collaborating with people’; Leeds School of Education, ‘Impact of your Research’