Faculty of Engineering

Postgraduate
Research Students
Training Programme
2016-2017
Introduction
The Faculty of Engineering has developed a structured programme of training for
postgraduate research students which was originally designed in 2011 and has since been
updated each academic year.

There are several external frameworks that are used to inform Postgraduate Research
training at UK universities. These include the Research Development Framework (RDF) and
the Research Council guidance. These frameworks provide detailed requirements for
research training and have been used as a basis for the development of the Engineering
Postgraduate Research Training Programme. The RDF has been adopted by RCUK and forms
part of the QAA Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in
higher education. The Engineering and Science Research Council (EPSRC) has recognised our
Faculty programme as a sector leading standard of postgraduate research development and
training.

This document outlines the programme and describes the way in which the training has been
implemented for all postgraduate research students in the Faculty of Engineering.

Programme Aims and Background

The programme aims to:

 Provide a clear indication to students and supervisors of available training activities

and resources from a range of providers, including the Graduate School, Careers and
Employability Service, Information Services, the standard undergraduate and
postgraduate taught modules, self-learning resources and specialist training sessions
from internal and external providers.

 Provide guidance regarding areas of training in which students are expected to

demonstrate competence via a combination of attendance at courses, recognition of
prior experience or learning or record of self-study activities.

 Enable collection and sharing of good practice and opportunities for training across the
Faculty of Engineering.

These aims are underpinned by the understanding that the Faculty of Engineering supports a
diverse range of types of training. In some cases there may be training requirements that
are generic to all students in the Faculty and provide core skills, but in many cases there is a
need for individual students to identify their own training needs and take advantage of
specialist training activities particular to their doctoral degree topic.

One of the intentions of the programme is to collect information about new training needs
and for students across the Faculty to identify particularly useful training activities. They can
now record events attended and training undertaken in their personal area of Portico, the
Faculty’s on-line postgraduate database.

The Faculty has been working with the Graduate School to provide more courses specific to
engineering and launched new technical courses during the 2015-16 academic year. More are
in discussion for 2016-17.

2 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

A key element of the Engineering Postgraduate Research Training Programme is the process
of reflective audit. Each doctoral student is required to complete a ‘training needs audit’, in
collaboration with their supervisor, within six weeks of registration. The audit has been
designed to be ‘light touch’ and in particular to provide opportunities for students to indicate
how any past training or work activities have provided them with skills that may support
them through their doctoral degree. The audit document will initially be used as a training
needs specification record, but during the doctoral degree should become populated with
records of activities completed.

All students in the Faculty are expected to complete the process of recording their training
requirements and activities, but the diversity of research topics and activities within the
Faculty mean that it is not expected that all students will be required to complete the same
training programme. Student background must also be taken into consideration; a student
who comes to a doctoral research programme with a large amount of industrial experience,
or a specific research methods qualification for example will have very different training
needs to a student who has progressed onto a doctoral degree straight from an
undergraduate programme for example.

A series of ‘core courses’, provided by the Graduate School, have been identified. These
courses are intended to represent the core skills that a student is expected to demonstrate,
rather than be a list of ‘compulsory’ courses.

Where students take undergraduate or postgraduate modules there is no expectation that a

student will be required to take the assessment element of this module, unless; it is
specifically agreed as useful between the student and the supervisor, and an agreement is in
place over the assessment fees. In all cases where PGR students take UG or PG modules
they should obtain the agreement of the module convenor in advance of taking the course,
and should clearly state on their audit document whether or not they are completing the
assessment part of the module. By default it will be assumed that a doctoral student will not
be formally assessed on a UG or PG module via marked exam or coursework, but that they
are expected to demonstrate the benefit of the module on their research activities. If a
doctoral student agrees to be assessed on a module they should formally register via Saturn.

Programme structure

The programme identifies three training categories:

 Research: This category represents skills required to directly support the process of
completing the doctoral degree. It includes courses from the Graduate School on
‘process’ elements such as the Nature of the Doctorate or Preparing for your Viva,
general research methods training provided by the Graduate School as face-to face or
online learning (e.g. Referencing for researchers) and may also be supported by
doctoral students attending UG or PG taught modules. The six elements identified as
of particular importance are:
1. Research management
2. Research methods (research design)
3. Research methods (data collection);
4. Research methods (analysis)
5. Thesis
6. Publication

3 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

  Professional: This category represents the range of skills and knowledge that will
support PGR activities during the doctoral degree process and afterwards, in both an
academic or an industrial career. The six elements identified are:
1. Copyright, Intellectual Property and ethics
2. Communication
3. Creativity
4. Business context of research
5. Team working and
6. Career management

 Technical: This category represents specific skills associated with the particular
doctoral research topic. Some generic requirements, such as safety training and risk
assessment, have been identified as being relevant to all across the faculty, but in
most cases it is expected that this category will represent the specific training
delivered by undergraduate or postgraduate modules (identified in the Catalogue of
Modules) or dedicated (in some cases ‘bought in’) course. The elements are:
1. Safety training
2. Information Technology
3. Risk assessment
4. Computational numeracy
5. Research project related technical skills

It is expected that the profile of courses and activities selected for each student will be
different, but it is hoped that best practice will be passed down, within individual research
groups, by collaborating research students within the Faculty. There is no expected
‘standard’ of training that will be required; for a student doing a highly technical doctoral
degree they may be required to achieve a higher level of expertise with software tools for
example; whereas a student who is conducting a large amount of field research may be
expected to engage with some advanced research methods training. It is therefore
important that the supervisor reviews the planned training and ensures that the level of
training is appropriate.

Some courses are year specific - they are related to specific stages of a doctoral degree. For
example, the course on finishing your thesis or the courses on applying for jobs would be
most usefully taken during the third year, while “Introduction to the engineering literature
review process” and the health and safety training courses should take place early in the first
year if necessary. The scheduling of course attendance must be considered when training
choices are being discussed with supervisors. Students should only book courses at the
appropriate time and if they find they cannot attend make sure that they cancel so that
others on waiting lists can attend instead.

A number of courses have been identified from the Graduate School portfolio as being
particularly relevant to engineering student needs. They are categorised as core and
recommended. Core courses are considered to be relevant to all students within engineering;
recommended courses are likely to only be relevant to some. Some core and recommended
courses are marked as suitable for ‘field researchers’. These courses are particularly relevant
to those students who will be collecting data from human participants, normally in field
contexts.

4 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

Students are also encouraged to review the Graduate School short course catalogue, or
complete a formal training needs analysis process using a framework such as the Vitae
Researcher Development Framework (RDF) when planning their training activities.

Safety
The Faculty runs a Safety workshop each year for new PGR students
There are no other specific safety courses provided by the Faculty. PGR students should
contact their area Safety Officer for advice.
Name Office Phone Email

Faculty of Aled Jones B105 Coates 86380 Aled.jones@nottingham.ac.uk

Engineering Building
Health and
Safety Manager

Area Safety Mark Rose L2-120 13798 mark.rose@nottingham.ac.uk

Officer

Tower Building Rod 1101A, Tower 15565 rod.dykeman@nottingham.ac.uk

(Engineering Dykeman
only) Electrical
and Electronic
Engineering

NTEC Jon Watson NTEC Building 68453 jon.watson@nottingham.ac.uk

Geospatial Sean Ince Geospatial 13737 sean.ince@nottingham.ac.uk

Building Building
(Innovation
Park/Jubilee
Campus)

Expectations for quantity and timing of training activities

The appropriate amount of training for each year should be agreed between the research
student and the supervisor team. This must be clearly noted on the audit document. The
amount and type of training for research students is expected to vary depending on the past
experience/skills of the student and the stage reached in the doctoral degree programme. A
typical doctoral student who has progressed directly from a BEng, MEng or MSc course can
expected to complete around 40 hours of training activities during each review period.
Examples of these activities may include Graduate School courses, attendance at taught
modules, dedicated technical training, self-directed learning, or participation in seminars.

5 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

An introductory session will be held for doctoral students to introduce the programme.
Additional events/sessions will be held in the ESGC throughout the academic year to support
students in the planning and completion of their training activities.

Monitoring PGR training activities

All training activities should be recorded in the audit document, and may refer to other
sources such as short courses records. The audit tool is intended to:
 Support discussion between student and supervisor of training needs.
 Provide a framework for recording all training activities, including formal courses,
formative activities such as conference attendance, seminars, etc. and self-study
activities.
 Allow the Faculty to compile a list of all courses taken across the Faculty, to enable
sharing of useful training opportunities between students from different parts of the
Faculty

Training progress will be assessed via informal discussion with supervisors and formal review
of the audit document by the internal assessor at the point of the year 1 and year 2 reviews.
The format of the document is shown in appendix A. The audit document will be completed
as follows:
a) Six weeks after registration:
Researcher training plan, with 300-500 word commentary
b) With year 1 report:
Researcher training record and plan, with 700 word (max) reflective
commentary
c) With year 2 report:
Updated researcher training record and plan from year 1, with 700 word (max)
reflective commentary.

The commentary can be purely discursive in nature. It is an opportunity to identify how you
can take forward elements of the training into your doctoral degree.

Before submission of report a) the supervisor is required to confirm that they have reviewed
and approved the planned training activities. The internal assessor is expected to provide
feedback on reports b) and c) during the year 1 and year 2 reviews and confirm that they
have done this on the internal assessor review report form.

Completion of the training record and plan is a compulsory step if the student wishes to
progress.

My PhD at Nottingham system

The Faculty has designed a bespoke on-line system for you to track your progress from
registration to graduation. It has an events tab that tells you about what is being organised
and how you get involved with the PGR Engineering Community. It also has an area where
you can store your training records and keep your CV up to date.

You will get an email shortly after registration with instructions about accessing
https://myphd.engineering.nottingham.ac.uk and then be able to use it for your training
records.

6 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

Appendix A

Faculty of Engineering

Professional, Research, and Technical Skills

Instructions for your audit of skills and training needs

2016-2017
Assessment requirements

7 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

Introduction to the Postgraduate Research Framework
Postgraduate research students are required to complete a programme of ‘core’ and ‘recommended’ training courses which have been
selected from the existing the Graduate School’s ‘Researcher Development Programme’; and technical skills courses provided within the
faculty.

Each doctoral student should complete an audit of their own skills in research methods and professional skills, including prior experiential
learning, and use this audit to identify their training needs for the year(s) ahead. If you have already received training in an area you
should note this; you are not expected to attend training courses for skills that you already have. Some of you may have a strong
background in research methods already, others may wish to develop specialist research methods skills, and some may wish to take an
introductory course in research methods. This booklet provides recommendations for training that you may wish to take, and specifies
some Graduate School training courses that all students are expected to complete.

The training activities that you should plan and record within this framework include:

 Core Graduate School courses

 Specialist courses provided by the Graduate School, the Faculty of Engineering or UG/PG modules (you may ‘sit in’ on modules for
example)
 Dedicated technical skills training (perhaps delivered by technicians, or external course providers)
 Self-study activities (including formal online learning courses and informal study)
 Other activities completed during your time as a research student (e.g. attending conferences, acting as a demonstrator or
teaching, participating in competitions, etc.)

By the end of the period of registration students will have appropriate research, technical, and professional skills to complete a doctoral
research degree programme and prepare for a future career. The process outlined here is intended to support the student in their
completion of their doctoral degree and ultimately improve the quality of doctoral research at the University.

Skills Audit and Reflecting on your Progress

As part of the training framework you are required to write two short reports. The first is the ‘Course/training selection plan and
commentary’; this will be used to plan the modules and courses that will be taken during the next 12 months. The second report will be
a critical reflection on your training activities. You can find electronic copies of these forms on the Engineering Faculty intranet ->Student
pages->postgraduate Research information->Postgraduate Research Students Training Programme.

8 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

Name: Student ID: Year of Study:

Research Group:

Skills Audit Report 1: Course/training selection plan & commentary

To help in discussions with your supervisory team you should prepare the following:

1. A research and professional skills course/training selection plan

2. A 300-500 word commentary

Guidance on completing report 1:

The course/training selection plan should outline how you will address the training needs listed in the following table below
during the next 12 months of your research project.

The commentary should describe your rationale in developing your plan. It is fine for you to be uncertain about some
elements at this stage; in such cases this document may also provide a useful basis for discussion within supervision
meetings, and you are encouraged to refer to it over the next 12 months of your doctoral studies to see how your training
needs are changing and being met.

Submission date:

Report 1 must be submitted six weeks after your initial date of registration.

9 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

 Supervisor to Students Graduate Students Technical training or Courses you
identify perception School research Faculty of would like to
importance of Has student of existing training activities that Engineering courses do but don’t
skill area to undertaken skill level in that will will (including UG/PG seem to be
student previous this area contribute contributed to modules) that will available
research training and (1-6) to this area new skills or contribute to this
project activity in this knowledge in area
area? For 1= weak, Please state this area
(1-6)
courses please title of Please state title of
6= strong course course or module and
1= state title and
unimportant provider provider
Skills & 6 = very
Knowledge important

Copyright,
Intellectual
Property &
Research Ethics

Interpersonal &
Communication
Professional

Skills

Creative thinking in
research

The business
context of research

Team working

Career
Management

10 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

 Research
management

Research methods:
Research design

Research methods:
Data collection
Research

Research methods:
Analysis

Thesis & Viva

Publication

Safety Training

IT & Information
Skills

Risk Assessment
Technical

Computational
Numeracy

Technical
(Research-project
related)

11 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

 Specify other
training you have
Other

agreed that do not

fit into above
categories

Course/training selection commentary

Please insert a 300-500 word commentary describing your rationale in developing your course selection/training plan. Continue on a
separate sheet if necessary

Your supervisor(s) needs to sign the following: I confirm that I have reviewed the planned training activities and consider them to be
appropriate to support the doctoral research of ....................................................................................................... (Student
name).

Supervisor signature.............................................................................. Date .................................................................

12 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

Name: Student ID: Year of Study:

Research Group:

Skills Audit Report 2: End of year critical reflection

Your doctoral degree annual review report should contain a training section with a brief discussion about how you have
followed and updated your ‘Course selection/training plan’ (in Report 1), and should show how the different training activities
that you have completed relate to the following areas:

Guidance on completing report 2:

You will need to produce:

1. A list of the training activities that you have completed during the last 12 months.

2. A 700 word (max) reflective report considering the relationship between your training activities and your doctoral
studies. This report can be purely discursive in nature. This is an opportunity to identify how you can take forward
elements of the training into your doctoral degree, so it would be useful to include some examples of proposed
applications of skills developed in the course in your report. You may wish to use this as an opportunity to describe
your strategy for selection of courses and your plans for future course. It may be appropriate to comment on
elements of the courses or training that you did not find useful, but this report is NOT intended to be an evaluation
of any specific courses that you took.

This report will be reviewed by your internal assessor as part of your end of year review process.

Submission date:

Report 2 must be submitted along with your end of year review in years 1 and 2.

13 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

 Students Your additional comments
perception
Have you applied the new Please add any additional comments that
Training and of new skill
skills/Knowledge that you you wish to make. For example is there an
activities level in this
have acquired? existing course that you plan to attend to
undertaken in area (1-6)
further enhance your skills in this area? Or
this area
1= weak, If yes, please describe how. would you like to request a new course in
this area that would help meet an
Skills & Knowledge 6= strong emerging need?

Copyright,
Intellectual Property
& Research Ethics

Interpersonal &
Communication Skills

Creative thinking in
research

The business context

Professional

of research

Team working

Career Management

14 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

 Research
management

Research methods:
Research design

Research methods:
Data collection

Research methods:
Research

Analysis

Thesis & Viva

Publication

Safety Training

IT & Information
Skills
Technical

Risk Assessment

Computational
Numeracy

15 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

 Technical (Research-
project related)

Specify other training

you have agreed that
Other

do not fit into above

categories

Reflective commentary
Please insert a 700 word (max) reflective report considering the relationship between your training activities and your doctoral studies.
Continue on a separate sheet if necessary

16 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17

Registering for a course

You can register for all courses that are currently available at Central Short Courses www.nottingham.ac.uk/csc

For information about new courses please contact alison.johnson@nottingham.ac.uk

17 Faculty of Engineering: Postgraduate Research Training Programme 2016-17