Research education curriculum and pedagogy

Overview and research

Over recent years there have been substantial development in our views of research education and training. Even the use of the terms are relatively new with a raging debate at 2000 Quality in Postgraduate Research conference in Adelaide over whether the term 'training' should be used in the Research Training Scheme or whether it should be 'education'. The 'Quality' conferences, held biennially since 1994, provide a useful way of examining the development of research education and the substantial body of research and literature that now supports this.

At the 1994 conference the majority of workshops were related to student and supervisor interactions; particularly those related to international students. These were followed closely by papers on student support and the teaching of skills: e.g. Teaching library research skills, and statistical support.

The aim of the 1996 conference was to examine the development of quality assurance processes at the level of faculties and departments, that is, moving away from the individual supervisor being the only factor in a quality postgraduate experience. However, other than the keynotes, most papers focussed on either individual practices or institutional policies with little in the way of systematic implementation. However, unlike the 1994 conference, there were a few papers which were based on research findings rather than describing practices.

Two years later in 1998 the conference was strongly influenced by two reports. One was the recent government review of higher education which had a strong focus on financial aspects of education and value for money. The second was from the Australian Business Higher Education Round Table regarding graduate and employability skills, possibly the 'birth' of the current emphasis on generic/graduate skills. Again, there was clear evidence of an increasing number of research-based presentations and a growing sense of the importance of undertaking sound research in the area of research education.

By the 2000 conference the Australian Government had released its major report on the funding of higher education and, in particular, research education. The critical aspect of the funding was that in future the Government would provide performance-based funding for research student places, with this funding to include a significant factor for completion rates (rather than enrolments). In addition, funding for PhDs would be for four years only (full-time equivalent) and two years for Masters students. As well, the Government would require a quality verification framework e.g. Annual Research Training plans and reports from each University. There was a sudden flurry of activity (and research) related to the selection, retention and timely completion of candidates, much of it flowing into the 2002, and 2004 conferences.

It was at the 2000 conference where for the first time the number of research-based papers out-weighed the more anecdotal ones. Furthermore, it was at the 2000 conference where the discussion of the pedagogy of postgraduate/research education was clearly on the agenda.

By the time of the 2002 conference the Government's Research Training Scheme (RTS) had been established and so it is not surprising that '23 of the papers were specifically related to quality assurance/enhancement issues with a further nine addressing institutional and structural issues to do with the research environment. Of the others, only 13 related directly to supervision, in sharp contrast to only a few years ago where the majority of papers were on this topic' (Kiley, 2006).

The 2004 conference had a very strong focus on research training such as the UK GRAD Programme, which assists universities to integrate transferable skills' development into research degree programmes. It was in the final plenary session that the Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies (DDoGS) launched two important documents for discussion: 'Framework for best practice in doctoral education in Australia' and 'Draft national guidelines for the examination of Australian research higher degree theses'. The guidelines had arisen partly from the development in many universities of employment-related skills programs.

By 2006 the conferences, or as they had become known, QPR, had become a fixed agenda with groups of researchers working toward presenting findings from their research, or using the time to meet with colleagues to develop research proposals. The sub -title of the conference, 'knowledge creation in testing times' was an interesting reflection of the recent development in research education where research candidates have been referred to as 'knowledge workers' in an environment where knowledge, and the creation of knowledge, is seen as critical to a knowledge economy. Such a huge change in thinking since 1994

An analysis of the 2008 conference is likely to provide us with another 'update' on the development of research education in Australia.

The above text was based on the following research:

Boud, D., & Costley, C. (2007). From project supervision to advising: New conceptions of the practice. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(2), 119-130.

Grant, B. (2000). Pedagogical issues in research education. In M. Kiley & G. Mullins (Eds.), Quality in postgraduate research: Making ends meet (pp. 31-34). Adelaide: Advisory Cenrre for Univesity Education.

Johnson, L., Lee, A., & Green, B. (2000). The PhD and the autonomous self: gender, rationality and postgraduate pedagogy. Studies in Higher Education, Volume: 25(2), 135-147.

Kiley, M. (2006) Overview.

Sinclair, M. (2004). The pedagogy of 'good' supervision: A national cross-disciplinary investigation of PhD supervision. Canberra: Department of Education Science and Training.

Ideas and tools

The Quality in Postgraduate Research (QPR) web site houses all of the papers from the conferences and is a rich source of information on research education issues.

It is also possible to join the QPR Discussion

ANU information 

For College-specific information contact:

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Alternatively, contact the College Associate Dean (HDR) for more general college information.