Friday 11 March 2016 2:03pmReal world issues pepper the inaugural Graduate Research Month calendar of events with workshops and seminars designed to help you achieve your best now and in the future, and, yes, there's more than a little to entertain, too.
Dunedin, Wellington and Christchurch campuses are hosting a plethora of practical events. Some are designed to help prospective postgraduate candidates take their first steps toward graduate research. Most are aimed at helping current postgraduates gain the working skills and habits needed to successfully progress their research from day-to-day. This naturally leads to career advice for your post-postgrad future, so that's in the events calendar, too. You can also join in the excitement of the final of the Three Minute Thesis competition, and celebrate your supervisor's success at the OUSA Supervisor of the Year awards. And don't forget the ball!
To help your research attain all its potential depth and breadth, there are specialised workshops offering tips on how to write a dream thesis, how to produce quality literature reviews, how to avoid plagiarism and more. Key library staff will run workshops revealing how you can make use of the Library's specialised graduate research services and how to manage your information like a pro.
A series of Postgraduate Information Evenings is being held in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin for prospective students considering postgraduate study at the University of Otago. Current postgraduate students and staff will speak about courses, scholarships, distance education and the unique Otago experience. Staff will be present to provide the information you may need.
The much anticipated 2010 Three Minute Thesis competition is underway with the Wellington Campus heat setting the pace last month. The University of Otago final takes place on 19 August in the College of Education auditorium. Get your seat early so you can witness the enormous challenge of taking years of research and bottling it up into three entertaining, informative minutes. The overall winner will go to the first ever Australasian final at the University of Queensland on 21 September. Three Minute Thesis competition coordinator, Chris Stoddart of the Doctoral and Scholarships Office, says that equally exciting is Invercargill's QTV initiative of filming the competition for a three show series screening on Freeview and Sky television.
The Graduate Research Gala ball on 28 August gives you and your friends the chance to get glammed up and dance at Larnach Castle. Tickets, subsidised by Graduate Research Services, cost $60 per person. They include transport, dinner, drinks, live music from Girl Friday and a few surprises. You will be able to register for tickets online after 20 July.
Graduate Research Month has input from many areas of the University, including the Higher Education Development Centre, the Career Development Centre, Graduate Research Services and OUSA, all focused on helping you discover more of what Otago offers. Take advantage.
