All our Postgraduate Researcher Development Programme (PRDP) workshops are taking place online until further notice. Most of our own sessions will be held on Microsoft Teams while sessions from external providers may take place on other platforms such as Zoom. Our summer programme offers repeats of some of our most popular workshops along with a number of brand new sessions. Book your place via the links below and you’ll be sent join details in advance of the session.
Postgraduate Funding: Considering the Alternatives (NEW)
Wednesday 10 June, 14.00-16.00
This webinar is all about funding from unusual places such as charities, trusts and foundations. These funding bodies are seldom used by research students but often make grants regardless of subject, course or nationality. You’ll discover how to identify appropriate, alternative funding sources and submit strong applications.
The workshop will be delivered by Dr. Luke Blaxill, founder of the award-winning ‘Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding‘ to which we subscribe at Brighton. Luke won 45 separate grants from charities and trusts as a PhD student and his story has been featured in several national newspapers and on TV.
Academic Writing Skills
Wednesday 24 June, 11.00-12.30
Academic writing is seen by many as daunting, difficult, challenging. Whilst we can all agree that we have to be able to write for academic audiences, in this session we will look at academic writing in a different way.
There is no one best way to write, approach writing or revise our writing. Imagination, planning and preparation, revision are all needed but, most of all, we must be able to read well. We’ll start by looking at how we read academic texts before going on to look at useful strategies that help you start, continue and complete a writing task before trying a range of writing exercises to find the strategies and tactics that work best for each of us.
And, unlike the often recited story about academic writing, we’ll have some fun along the way.
Structuring your Thesis (NEW)
Tuesday 30 June, 14.00-15.30
The task of writing and compiling upwards of 60,000 words of text can feel daunting. In this session we will look at some methods and strategies for compiling and structuring your doctoral thesis.
Central to this workshop and its approach is a focus on what your thesis is meant to ‘do’ and what audiences will be expecting. Using recent examples of successful doctoral theses we will look at how real world cases map onto, or diverge, from the text book advice available on how to structure your thesis.
This workshop is directed towards early / mid stage doctoral students but all are welcome.
Preparing for your Viva
Wednesday 8 July, 10.30-15.30
Tuesday 15 September, 10.30-15.30
It’s the culmination of your research degree: submitting your thesis and defending your work in an oral examination. But what’s the procedure for submission and how can you prepare for the final hurdle? This practical workshop provides an insight into the process, helping you understand the requirements, purpose and possible outcomes of the examination, the roles of those involved, and what to expect from a typical viva. You’ll receive tips and advice on handling nerves, responding to difficult questions and offering a defence without being defensive.
This workshop is aimed at students in the final six months of study. You will be invited to participate in a simulation to help prepare for a mock viva and are asked to bring along an abstract of your work to help shape the discussion.
Book your place on PhD Manager for 8 July workshop (log in required)
Book your place on PhD Manager for 15 Sept workshop (log in required)
Literature Reviews and Research Diaries
Thursday 9 July, 14.00-15.30
This session covers the role of the literature review in research. It looks at aims, strategies for identifying and managing the relevant literature, critical reviewing, and the use of literature and the literature review in a doctoral thesis.
Book your place on PhD Manager (log in required)
Write for The Conversation
Tuesday 14 July, 12.00-14.00
The Conversation is an online independent source of news, written by academics and researchers. It hit record traffic in March with 13 million on-site users (20 million including republications) and an increase of nearly 6,000 new newsletter subscribers, so this couldn’t be a better time to publish your research with them. As well as reaching a much broader audience with your research, publication in The Conversation can lead to opportunities like new collaborations and invitations to talk about your research from the BBC.
If you are interested in finding out more about how to publish in The Conversation, or you would like to pitch an idea directly to an editor, come to this online workshop aimed specifically at PhD students. (And if you are planning an article in the Conversation, please do discuss with your supervisor and get their sign off.)
To book your place, contact Isobel Creed at I.creed@brighton.ac.uk (Research Communications).
Are we all still here? Remote supervision of doctoral students
Wednesday 15 July, 11.00-12.30
A webinar for doctoral supervisors and students from Prof Gina Wisker
The current pandemic has focused us all on how we might change doctoral supervision so that (hopefully) flawlessly and easily we can move to forms of remote or distance supervision which are effective and manageable. The ways in which we change our approaches to supervision and research during this current difficult period will probably affect many other ways we work together in the future.
This session will build on personal experience and recent and more historical research to explore some of the challenges, the difficulties and the effective practices which supervisors and students are using to ensure supervision, research and researcher development can continue effectively and productively. We will explore experiences and practices along three dimensions of the supervision process in the context of moving to remote or distance supervision. These dimensions are: personal, learning and institutional.
Watch a video of the presentation (a narrated powerpoint) (36 mins) or view as a PDF with clickable links.
Demystifying the Viva: an introduction to the end of your degree (NEW)
Thursday 16 July, 11.00-12.00
For many doctoral students, the viva looms large on the horizon of their research degree. At Brighton, we offer comprehensive support for students nearing submission including workshops and mock vivas, and we have a dedicated Exams Officer to guide you through the process. But students often want to know what to expect before they reach those final stages.
In this brand new session aimed at early and mid stage students, we’ll take a look at what happens prior to, during and after your viva. We’ll explore the different roles of participants (chair, candidate, examiners) and we’ll also discuss the specific circumstances that pertain to online vivas. We’ll offer advice on what you can do now to help ensure that your thesis is ready to be examined and you are equipped to defend it successfully.
Book your place on PhD Manager (log in required)
