1. Research Student Development Programme
Dr Richy Hetherington
My name is Richy Hetherington, I organise the research student development programme. In 2002 UK Government and British Research Councils recognised that research students weren’t meeting their full potential, they weren’t fully confident in the full range of skills they are developing through completing their degrees. So measures were introduced by the Universities to help researchers build skills, boost confidence and recognition of those skills and increase employability of their research students. At Newcastle one of the steps was to fund more 4 (1+3) year research degrees so students could get more research training before beginning on their PhD, the 1 being the Mres. Of course the Mres provides an excellent research training by itself.
Two other ways were to introduce the ePortfolio system to help research students record and reflect on their skills and to formalise a development programme so research students could get an organised series of opportunities to develop a range of skills. The Development Programme is there to support PhD students and some sessions such as the Induction and Managing Your Research Degree are specifically for PhD, MD or Mphil students, some of the sessions duplicate parts of the Mres programme such as Bioethics, Endnote and Document Management 1. However the majority of the Programme is independent and different from the Mres. You are welcome to book onto any of the sessions and if you are going to do a PhD afterwards the more skills you develop now the more prepared you will be before starting your PhD.

2. Inside the booklet Welcome to attend any event Duplicate events
No events are compulsory
Apart from Safety Sessions
Your Masters course work MUST take priority
Inside you will find a chronological list of events starting on the inside cover of the front page, with a page reference next to each session. There is information about opportunities in and around the university. Then there is more detailed information about each of the sessions there is a description for each session. You are welcome to book and attend any of the events, none of them are compulsory for you and you must attend your Mres course as first preference. We don’t indicate which sessions are also part of the Mres in case that is confusing for PhD students so if in doubt you can ask by ing

3. Session Details
In information about each session there is a brief description of what the session is about with who is presenting or facilitating the session. There is a list of skills we hope the session will help you with, the skills are charted against a national framework the Joint Skills statement skills headings which you can find in the back pages of the booklet and some feedback on the session from researchers who have attended previously including ratings and comments. Then the date and the room the session takes place, there is a map of the rooms in the back page of the booklet.

4. Graduate School Website
ncl.ac.uk/fms
The booklet however is only a guide, the graduate school website is the place to find all the information. The front page will contain any major news items. Links on the left hand menu will take you to other items of interest. It is easy to get to the site from the Newcastle university home page and it is /FMS

5. Booking system Appropriate staffing Monitoring Evaluation
Accommodate Changes
Additions
Taking the left hand link for skills development will take you to a list of workshops that should include all of those in the booklet, but throughout the year there may be additions to this list. It is important that all items are booked through this site. This allows us to make appropriate staffing arrangements, monitoring the uptake so we know whether to put more courses on or to cancel them. It also allows us to send out evaluations so we can see how to improve items. We may need to change rooms or times and those who have booked can be informed.
You will be automatically sent an electronic evaluation after attending, please do take the time to complete this, we need this information to make improvements where they are needed but also as evidence that what we are doing is useful and appreciated. When you do attend a record of your attendance will be made in your ePortfolio, this will be important for those of you continuing on to a PhD as these records might be looked at.
Your address is the unique identifier for bookings so it is essential you use your Newcastle university address for a record to be made.
There is also an option to register your interest if you can’t attend or if a session is fully booked, we will endeavour to get back to everyone registering their interest in a session to see if there is a way they can get advice in this area.

6. Online Resources
Where possible we have tried to make the materials delivered available online, we are trying to develop a system for login to access of these materials so we can updates peoples records but that is an ongoing process. The majority of the materials are presented open to access without any login.

7. Interactive Online Training & Guidance
Library Information sessions
(Endnote, Library Databases, Further Research Resources,)
and
IT sessions (Managing Your Essay, Data & Spreadsheets, Presentations using PowerPoint etc.
Interactive materials accessed as ONLINE workshops

8. Which Sessions to attend

9. Safety Sessions Biological & Genetic Modification (GM) Chemical
Attendance recorded in your ePorfolio & training record for supervisors to check
The only part of the development programme that is mandatory for you are the safety sessions. It is a university requirement that you have attended the appropriate training before working independently in the lab (your project). Your project supervisor will know which of these sessions you will need to have attended before you can start on your project so you might not need to attend them all. I would suggest it is worth going as if something comes up that means you will need that training it will be easier if you have already had it.
Attending sessions will mean a record will be made in your ePortfolio and your project supervisor will be able to see that record. This will allow your supervisor to check whether you have had the appropriate training, they are could do this before the last sessions in February and ask you to go then if you haven’t already. Please go before the February sessions if you can because if they become oversubscribed you may not have the appropriate training you need to start in the lab.

10. Varied Development opportunities
Research Seminars
Other graduate schools (SAgE and HaSS) development programmes
Library, ISS, Maths Aid, Writing Centre
Bright Club
Biotechnology YES
Three Minute Thesis
Vitae (UK Grad)
Postgraduate Conference
We are keen to promote the range of external development opportunities and relate them to the development programme sessions where possible.
Remember to record the things you do in your ePortfolio

12. Why should I go?
See what has been achieved by last year’s MRes and 1st year PhD students
Find out about the variety of research in the region & meet the researchers of all stages of their careers
Hear from excellent Guest speakers
Free food and drinks courtesy of generous sponsors

13. Free registration Visit www.ne-pg.co.uk

14. Summary Development Programme Attend what you want to
Only safety is compulsory
Your MRes coursework MUST take priority
Please Book to attend Sessions
Care with booking some sessions are duplicate some are PhD/MD/MPhil specific
Look out for other opportunities
e.g. conference etc
Plan, Record and reflect using ePortfolio

15. I wish you every success in your Studies and beyond them
Finally I’d like to wish you every success with your research but beyond that too, with your career and making name for yourself in research and beyond here are a few of our researchers who have done this in recently, here are some great examples just last month Rhys Anderson winning the people’s choice vote in the Vitae national three minute thesis competition, a couple of years ago Pete Chater presenting a poster of his research at the House of Commons, and Graciela Rocha and I after Gracilea had won a prize for her public engagement poster at a national event hosted at Leeds university.
Thanks and any questions?