research supervision professional development program...(research outline, cv, transcripts, english...

Finding the Right StudentGraduate Research School Seminar

Research Supervision Professional Development Program

JUN 2019

Program

10.00am WelcomeDr Jo EdmondstonGraduate Education Officer, GRS

10.05am BackgroundDr Sato JuniperAssociate Director, GRS

10.15am Prospective HDR Student EnquiriesMs Robyn OliverHDR Support, FABLE

10.30am ICRAR panel process for assessment of HDR student suitabilityDr Barbara CatinellaResearch Fellow, ICRAR

10.45am Q&A

FABLE HDR Support (Admissions)Robyn Oliver HDR Support CoordinatorAdam Hearman HDR Support Officer

Applications Scholarships Support for • Associate Dean (Research)• Graduate Research

Coordinators• Commencing students

[email protected]

Enquiries

• All Faculty HDR enquiries forwarded to [email protected]

• HDR Support requests an Expression of Interest plus all supporting docs (research outline, CV, transcripts, English test, prior research output etc)

• HDR Support assesses eligibility then forwards to School GRC for Supervision determination. GRC liaises within the School to determine whether a supervision team is feasible then advises supervision details to HDR Support (names, roles and percentages)

• HDR Support advises applicant of outcome and directs those eligible to submit either standard or scholarship application as appropriate

FABLE HDR Support (Admissions)

Applications (non-scholarship)

• Applicant submits standard application following the EoI process

• HDR Support prepares and forwards the following documents to GRC– application – supporting documents – School Assessment Form (SSAF)

• GRC liaises with Coordinating Supervisor re completion of the SSAF then approves. Finalised SSAF is returned to HDR Support for submission to GRS Admissions for offer


Scholarship Applications


• Applicant submits via iAthena as requested following EoI process • HDR Support assesses applications which have bypassed the EoI process• HDR Support enters relevant data into iAthena and drafts School

Assessment of Research Potential (SARP) points• School GRC reviews iAthena entries• HDR Support prefills SSAF for Coordinating Supervisor completion and

GRC approval• Scholarship Ranking Meeting scheduled in the days leading up to the

Ranking deadline. The meeting reviews each ranked applicant and GRCs can motivate for their applicants

• ADR determines Faculty Discretionary Points• Committee agrees final ranking order• ADR submits the finalised Faculty ranked scholarship applications

Support for ADR, GRCs, and commencing students

• Providing systems and process support for Associate Dean (Research) and Graduate Research Coordinators for pre-admissions

• Ensuring seamless support for commencing students– Commencement details are tracked and sent to Academic Services teams for

provisioning of resources (desks etc.)– Enrolment lists produced weekly and forwarded to Academic Services,

Purchasing, IT, and FABLE Librarians – Newly enrolled students emailed comprehensive information on getting started

and for the duration of their candidature. Advice provided on who to contact for ongoing support


Barbara Catinella Supervisor seminar Jun 17 2019 1

PhD selection process at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research

(ICRAR)

Barbara Catinella


PhD selection at ICRAR — overview

Process set up in 2016 to address following needs:increase number and quality of prospective PhD students applying for UWA/ICRAR scholarships to work with uspre-select the best candidates for the institute (not particular individuals/groups)act as point of contact for prospective PhD students and potential supervisors

PhD selection panel spanning range of expertise at the institute (3 faculty members, 1 postdoc, 1 member of Data Intensive Astronomy), serving for 3 years

Expression of Interest process, with deadline 1.5 months before formal UWA scholarship deadline. This includes:

advertising of UWA/ICRAR scholarships to astronomical communitycollection of application materialsrankinginterviewsfinal shortlist and recommendation to proceed to UWA formal application (or not)


1. Advertising

Advertisement posted on American Astronomical Society Job register ~3 months before UWA deadline, runs for a month (~300A$)

Circulated to ICRAR staff, and various email exploders (Australian Astronomical Society, survey teams, colleagues and collaborators…)

Produced booklet to showcase research areas at ICRAR and advertise PhD scholarships.

2 versions: with and without short biographies of ICRAR members offering projects

given out at conferences and to ICRAR visitors


Advertisement on AAS Job Registerhttps://jobregister.aas.org/ad/2f9e12f4


How to applyApplicants must submit a cover letter (indicating project(s) of interest), a detailed CV, academic transcripts, and arrange for two letters of recommendation to be sent to us.

https://tinyurl.com/UWA-phd2019

https://tinyurl.com/UWA-phd2019


How to apply: projectshttps://www.icrar.org/study-with-icrar/postgraduate-opportunities/postgraduate-research-projects/

https://www.icrar.org/study-with-icrar/postgraduate-opportunities/postgraduate-research-projects/


2. Collection of applications and ranking

EoI application materials (including reference letters) are collected by the HDR-EMS team (huge thanks in particular to Heather Gordon!), who: (1) sorts applications in separate folders, (2) checks eligibility, (3) compiles a spreadsheet with key info for each applicant.

Each panel member independently reads and ranks the applications according to our guidelines (based on CV, grades, astrophysics research experience, reference letters). Exact alignment of previous research experience with proposed project is a plus but not required. Our goal is to identify students that show potential to do research and successfully obtain a PhD. Ranking scheme:

1 Outstanding 4 Border line low 2 Above the line 5 Below the line 3 Border line high 6 Well below the line

We keep track of gender distribution at the different stages of the process to minimise unconscious biases, and give the same consideration to applicants regardless of ethnicity, background, institution etc.


PhD selection: interviews

We use zoom or skype (also for local candidates if any)

~20-25 min each

Same set of questions for each candidate:

Q1: why did you apply, what attracts you to astronomy? Q2: tell us about your thesis work and key findings (+ follow-up questions) Q3: general physics knowledge Q4: general astronomy/data intensive astronomy knowledge Q5: general (e.g., which skills do you think you need to acquire to complete your PhD?)


PhD selection: summary and timeline

Advertise EoI (3 months before UWA deadline)

EoI deadline (1.5 months before UWA deadline)

Rank applications

Face-to-face meeting to make shortlist for interviews (~3 weeks before UWA deadline)individual rankings are averaged, conflict of interest declared, disagreements discussed, a threshold is set below which we do not further support applicants

Communication with applicants (support and rejections letters), ICRAR staff; zoom interviews organised

Interviews (~3 weeks before UWA deadline)

Panel members send final ranking (after interviews) to chair. Rankings combined. Final shortlist (via email or F2F meeting), decide on threshold below which advise applicants not to apply for UWA scholarships

Outcome communicated to applicants, ICRAR staff, HDR-EMS


PhD selection: challenges

Still difficult to attract PhD students

ICRAR is a relatively new institute, challenging to get visibility at undergraduate levelUWA does not offer an astronomy major or a master in astronomyDomestic students in our field tend to do PhD in hometownPerth seen as very isolated, and perhaps not as popular as Sydney, Melbourne etc.

Separate domestic and international UWA scholarships rounds; UWA study terms offset with respect to Europe, US

Long time delay between UWA deadline and scholarship decision; RTP offers are sometimes declined

UWA scholarship rankings do not always reflect our own assessments (too much weight to published papers, regardless of position in author list, compared e.g. to submitted 1st-author papers made available to us; theses should not be assessed by proposed supervisors for obvious conflict of interest…)

Upcoming Supervision Eventswww.postgraduate.uwa.edu.au/staff/supervisors/workshops

research supervision professional development program...(research outline, cv, transcripts, english...

Documents