National GRADschools 2011

The dates for the Vitae National GRADschools 2011 have just been announced. They are:

GRADschool 1: Windermere, 1 - 4 March

GRADschool 2: Bournemouth, 14 - 17 June

GRADschool 3: Windermere, 11 - 14 October

More information on GRADschools can be found here, but basically they are residential courses for PhD students, that aim to do the following:

'Our vision is to create an inspirational, challenging and experiential learning environment in which all participants will learn something new about themselves and take away skills, tools or information which will motivate them to complete their studies, further realise their potential, and enable them to make more informed choices about their future careers.'

The courses are aimed at PhD students in their second year or above. If you are research council funded you will be eligible for a funded place on a GRADschool subject to availability. If you are a non-research council funded researcher you may apply for a national GRADschool but you or your department/school will need to cover the cost of your place and you will need to provide invoice details.

More details about the 2011 courses, and how to book, can be found here.

Having been on one of these courses myself during my PhD, I can't recommend them highly enough and I would strongly urge anyone to attend one. If you are interested, you should book as soon as possible, as the places are open to any PhD students in the country and they will get taken fast!

The Digital Researcher

On 14th Feb 2011, The British Library and Vitae are running a free one-day course for postgraduate research students and research staff to help them make the most of new technologies in their research.

On the day participants will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of:

* the role that online networks can play in supporting research and researchers' careers
* how to manage your online profile (positively)
* how to build networks to support your research and career
* the range of different tools that are available to support you and your research

The event will be held at the British Library, and more information, including how to book, is available here.

Leadership in action - free non-residential course!

The Vitae London hub are running a 3-day Leadership in Action course at the London School of Economics from 15th-17th December for research students and staff. This is a non-residential course, and is completely free to attend.

The course will allow you to explore and develop your leadership skills. You will have the opportunity to look at relevant theory, practice your leadership style and receive feedback.

This course offers you the opportunity to:

- explore leadership both in theory and in practice
- work with a team of experienced facilitators from a range of career backgrounds, who will ensure you get the most out of the 3 days
- meet researchers from a variety of disciplines, backgrounds and career stages
- develop your understanding of leadership theory and how to apply it in practice
- receive feedback on your leadership style and how you can develop it
- take a few days out from your research both physically and mentally, and have some space in which to consider yourself and your next steps.

If you are interested, there is more information here, and you can book a place by e-mailing londonhub@vitae.ac.uk. There are only 36 places, and they are being filled on a first-come-first-served basis, so make sure you get in quick if you do want to go!

Courses at the School of Advanced Study

The School of Advanced Study (SAS), which is part of the University of London and based in Senate House, runs a programme of research skills training workshops which are open to researchers from other institutions working in the humanities & social sciences. These workshops cover a variety of research skills and methodologies. A pdf of the handbook detailing the workshops can be found here.

There are also some discipline-specific workhops in English, Modern Languages, History, Law and Music, many of which are open to students from outside SAS. The details of these are also in the handbook above.

A new academic year!

For any new research students reading this - Welcome to Queen Mary! And for everyone else, I hope you had a great summer whether you stayed here or headed off to more exotic locations!

The programme of Learning Institute workshops for the 2010-11 year is about to start. You should receive a wallplanner listing all the courses soon, and they can also be seen on the google calendar in the sidebar of this blog. This year we have made a bit of a change to the course booking system, to try and ensure that there are spaces on the workshops for people who want to attend. Booking is now open for courses up until Christmas, but for courses in Jan, Feb & March booking won't open until 13th December, and for courses from April - June booking won't open until 1st March 2011. On the booking site there will be a reminder of this, and an invitation to contact me if you have a very good reason for needing to book a course more than a few months in advance.

Throughout the year there will also be various events and competitions you might want to get involved with, both inside QM and outside. I will post information about those on this blog, and also on the Learning Institute PhD pages.

Please get in touch if you have any thoughts, comments, concerns or suggestions about anything to do with your experience at QM!

"The Engaging Researcher"

Are you interested in engaging the public in your research but not sure where to start?

Have you done some public engagement activity but would like to improve your knowledge and skills?

Do you have significant experience of achieving mutually beneficial public engagement activity but want to improve your practice?

This one-day event in Manchester on 6th July is aimed at researchers with any level of experience of public engagement. The day will include presentations from key-note speakers and the chance to attend several short workshops based around different areas of public engagement. You will also have an opportunity to start to develop a public engagement project together with exhibitors who will be present on the day, and apply for funding of £1000 to get the activity off the ground.

This event is run by Vitae, and is free to attend. More details and booking information can be found here.

Welcome to Queen Mary!

If you've just started your PhD at Queen Mary, then welcome to the University, and welcome to this blog! I hope you have a great few years here. If you're not a new student, then welcome to the new academic year - I hope you managed to get a bit of a break over the summer and are looking forward to getting back to your research!

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jo, the Development Adviser for Research Students at QM. There's a bit more info. about me and my background in the side panel. I'll be using this blog to keep QM research students informed of events going on inside and outside the college that might be of interest to you, so please check in regularly or set up an RSS feed. You might also want to look at the QM Researchers' Careers blog (see the feed on the side panel).

Also on this blog is a calendar of workshops and courses run for PhD students by the Educational & Staff Development department. You can find more information about each event by clicking on it in the calendar. If you wish to book on any courses you can do so here.

So, that's probably enough for now. Please get in touch if you have any thoughts, comments, concerns or suggestions about anything to do with your experience at QM.