Academic Year 2022-23 

Welcome to the UL Postgraduate Research Community. 

Details of many of our PGR training and professional development opportunities can be found below: 

PGR Orientation, Autumn Semester, 27th October, 2022 

Orientation for incoming and existing PGRs takes place in The Pavilion, UL North Campus, from 9am to 1pm on Thursday, October 27th. Click on the link above to register and to find out more details. 

NVivo Workshops for PGRs, November 7th & 8th, 2022 

QDATRAINING will provide two NVivo workshops for UL PGRs on November 7th and 8th. 

GPS Weekly Webinar Series, Autumn Semester, 2022-23 

The GPS Webinar Series, which has run on a weekly basis for UL PGRs since March 2020, consists of interactive seminars on aspects of research skills in doctoral studies, as well as professional development and career preparedness.

Shut Up and Write! for UL & Ulster University PGRs, Autumn Semester, 2022-23

Graduate and Professional Studies (GPS) in UL has collaborated with the Doctoral College at Ulster University since 2020 in hosting ‘Shut Up and Write! workshops for PGRs, every second Friday between 2pm and 4pm. Click the link above for more details. 

 

Teaching Workshops for PGR Tutors

The UL Centre for Transformative Learning (CTL) offered a workshop with Dr Michael Wride (Transformative Pedagogies Lead, CTL) during Autumn Semester 2022-23 aimed at PGRs who are new, or relatively new, to teaching at UL. The workshop focused on key areas related to teaching in Higher Education and provide a set of ideas and methods to help prepare PGRs for a new role in relation to developing their approach to teaching and learning. 

CTL also provides ‘Introduction to teaching in Higher Education’ workshops which are open to UL PGRs. 

In Spring Semester 2022-23 CTL will offer the following to UL PGRs:

A workshop in January 2023 on 'Writing Your Teaching Philosophy’. 

Two online REAP project modules from January 2023:  (i) Essentials for teaching and learning online (ii) Essentials of e-moderating (see more details below). 

Essentials for teaching and learning online

PGRs at UL can register for the “Essentials for teaching and learning online” programme, developed by the REAP Project, a collaboration between UL, MIC and TUS.

This short course, which takes about 7 hours to complete, is aimed at those who are new to teaching.

The course offers theoretical background to best practice in teaching and learning, along with practical strategies and resources to help tutors and teachers.

    Research Integrity 

    • UL offers online Research Integrity Training through the Epigeum training portal. All research students should undertake Research Integrity Training. 
    • Click on this link to find out how to access the programme, along with guidelines around usage, content, and data protection. 

    NVivo and SPSS available for PGRs via Topdesk

    NVivo and SPSS are now available for all PGRs online.

    NVivo helps you discover more from your qualitative and mixed methods data. 

    SPSS (“Statistical Package for the Social Sciences”) is a very useful programme used for statistical analysis. 

    Guidelines for Postgraduate Researchers using Thesis TURNITIN Checker

    • Postgraduate researchers (PGRs) who wish to run a similarity report on a piece of your work may use the ‘Thesis TURNITIN checker’ on SULIS for this purpose. The Thesis TURNITIN checker facility is to enable you to identify similarities between your work and published material already in the public domain. These Guidelines will help to ensure your compliance with the academic and research integrity policies of the university

    Library Resources for UL PGRs

    As a currently registered PGR or prospective applicant, you can familiarise yourself with some library resources and supports to identify some of the critical skills you will need to carry out the research required for your thesis. e.g. information/source appraisal and academic referencing.   

    The Glucksman Library runs a series of workshops throughout the academic year which have particular relevance for PGRs, such as, 'Doing a Literature Review Using the Library's Resources', 'Critically Evaluating Sources', and 'How to use EndNote Web for your academic referencing'.

    Details of all such workshops can be found at the Library Events Page. 

    Transferable Skills workshops 

    Throughout the academic year, GPS coordinates transferable skills workshops for postgraduate research students as required. Workshops taking place during the academic year 2022/23 include:

    • Questionnaire Design
    • Survey & Sampling
    • Introduction to SPSS
    • Basic Statistics
    • Exploring Relationships & Regression Theories
    • Working with Long Documents
    • Endnote
    • Advanced PowerPoint
    • Intermediate Excel
    • Presentation Skills
    • Careers Briefing
    • Project Management for Researchers
    • Interview Skills
    • Planning your Academic Career
    • Effective Communication
    • CV Preparation
    • Perfect Pitch
    • Thesis Writing

    For further information on the above workshops please contact Anne O'Dwyer, Research Training Coordinator, GPS, at 061 202672 or email anne.odwyer@ul.ie

    LinkedIn Learning for UL PGRs

    Access thousands of courses and videos developed by LinkedIn Learning to help you add to your range of skills.

    Also, take a look at the excellent open-access platform developed by King’s College London, Centre for Doctoral Studies, mapping LinkedIn Learning resources (videos and courses/modules) against the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF). 

    PhD Writers Group (Regional Writing Centre) 

    The UL Regional Writing Centre (RWC) supports PhD Writers’ Groups by offering PhD writers a quiet, distraction-free space for writing  and by sharing knowledge of how writers’ groups can be motivating and productive. The RWC also offers PGRs various workshops and training events throughout the academic year. More information about these events can be found at the RWC website 

    GPS Webinars - YouTube Recordings

    Click on the above to find links to previous GPS webinars on Research Skills. 

    UL PhD Research Video Podcast Series 

    Watch interviews with UL PGRs and faculty for some great insights about their research journey at UL. 

    Thesis-in-Three Final for UL PGRs, April 28th, 2022 

    Watch the highly-acclaimed final of the 2022 Thesis-in-Three competition in which UL PGRs talk about their research and its impact in just three minutes! 

    GPS Summer School in Generic and Transferable Skills 2022 

    The GPS Summer School in Generic and Transferable Skills (18 ECTS) took place between May and August 2022. It consisted of a Residential Week (in separate face-to-face and online formats) for UL PGRs followed by a series of online activities in three different blocks, with each block consisting of two separate modules over a four-week period. The next Summer School for UL PGRs will begin in May 2023.