Make the most of Professional Development

Make the most of your Professional Development opportunities during your candidature

Doctoral candidates at JCU must undertake the subject RD7003 Professional Development.  This subject requires completion of a minimum number of hours of professional development.  The number of hours depends upon when you started your degree:

RD7003 allows you the flexibility to put together a program of professional development that best suits your career aspirations.  Make the most of it, and start planning early.  Whether you wish to become an academic, or go on to a career in the many sectors that welcome the skills you hone during HDR candidature, you and your advisory team can design a PD program that will give you the attributes that employers are looking for.  Professional development activities undertaken during your candidature will be formally recorded on your Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement.

While the Graduate Research School offers a wide range of both face-to-face workshops and online modules that you can use to build your PD program, you are not restricted to the GRS offerings.  You can choose to undertake a JCU undergraduate or postgraduate subject (at no cost to you), or you may look further afield to courses and workshops outside JCU.  The Elective Component of your program can be what you want it to be, within broad guidelines.  You can check the subject outline to see what is and isn’t accepted as a Professional Development activity by downloading the document which can be also found on the Policy and Procedure page under the Course Components & Operational Procedures link.

All face-to-face GRS workshops are listed here on our website. For candidates who are external or who would like to explore flexible online options for PD training, this list shows GRS courses that may be undertaken online, through the LearnJCU Higher Degree by Research Students Organisation:

Epigeum Research Integrity Additional Modules: contains not just the compulsory core course, but also a range of elective courses such as Human subjects protection, The humane use and care of animals in research, Conflict of interest, Safety and health and Intellectual property. Completion of each course, including the end-of-course quiz, will gain you three hours that you can count towards the Elective Component of RD7003.

Epigeum Research Integrity Modules: contains discipline-specific research integrity courses including Biomedical sciences, Natural and physical sciences, Engineering and technology, Social and behavioural sciences and Arts and humanities.

Epigeum Research Skills Master Program: contains not just the compulsory research methods course, but also a range of elective courses such as Transferrable skills, Entrepreneurship and Ethics.

Epigeum Statistical Methods for Research: highly recommended for all candidates who need to use statistics in their research. Training is available in stats for Biomedical sciences, Business, Engineering and technology, Natural sciences and Social Sciences.

Epigeum Avoiding Plagiarism:  useful training for all research degree candidates who need to be clear on exactly what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

Epigeum University and College Teaching:  especially recommended for HDR candidates who are planning a career in academia.  Learn about Lecturing, Resources to enhance student learning, Making the most of discussion, Supervising projects and dissertations, Marking and giving feedback, Understanding the principles of course design, Developing your teaching and Teaching with patients.

You are also welcome to make your selection from the wide range of external courses offered by other providers.  You may use your student funds to pay for external courses, so long as your advisory team agrees.  For a range of external courses, see External Training Opportunities. Of particular interest are the eGrad School, which offers highly regarded training that many JCU HDRs have undertaken.

Also, the Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated (ACSPRI) runs excellent courses.