Doctoral College Professional Development Programme

At present we're unable to offer face-to-face training for PGRs through the Doctoral College Professional Development Programme. This is also true of external training and development opportunities for the time-being. There's no need to worry - we've taken our training and development opportunities online and you'll find that many of the external training and development opportunities you might wish to access are available online too.

We support all postgraduate researchers to achieve their potential both through the successful completion of their doctoral research project but also in the development of a wide range of high level professional and transferable skills. Our postgraduate researchers (PGRs) can access a wide range of high-quality training and support both centrally through the Doctoral College and through their Faculties and Centre for Doctoral Training (where applicable).

Through a high-quality Professional Development Programme, the Doctoral College supports PGRs’ professional development at every stage of their studies to enable them to meet fellow PGRs, develop into excellent research professionals, and complete their doctorate fully equipped for the next stage of their career.

In addition to an engaging induction programme welcoming them to doctoral study, all PGRs are also able to access a suite of high-quality interactive workshops, webinars and online learning modules offered at both discipline level and centrally via the Doctoral College in a variety of key development areas aligned with the Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

· Academic, information and digital literacy skills
· Research governance
· Collaboration, communication and cultural awareness
· Getting started with research design
· Moving beyond the proposal: research methods and data collection
· Making sense of your data: analysis and presentation
· Being an effective doctoral researcher
· Engagement, influence and impact
· Researcher employability and career management

As well as formal training, our PGRs are also encouraged to engage in a wide range of development opportunities to support their wider professional and career development. These include attending and presenting at relevant academic and professional conferences; communicating their work in a variety of formats including, but not limited to, academic publications; networking with their peers within the University and outside; undertaking research visits and exchanges to experience other research environments and network. Moreover, PGRs can undertake placements, policy internships, experience teaching through The Brilliant Club™, compete in the 3-minute thesis®, and take part in many other public engagement initiatives running at the University.

If you are a current PGR, you can find out more about managing your professional development and access the wide range of University of Southampton and external training and development opportunities available to you at the PGR Development Hub SharePoint site.

If you would like to find out more about the full range of professional development training and opportunities available please email doctoral-college@southampton.ac.uk.