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ABSTRACT
A survey was conducted across three Australian universities to identify the types and format of support services available for higher degree research (HDR, or MA and Ph.D.) students. The services were classified with regards to availability, location and accessibility. A comparative tool was developed to help institutions categorise their services in terms of academic, administrative, social and settlement, language and miscellaneous (other) supports. All three universities showed similarities in the type of academic support services offered, while differing in social and settlement and language support services in terms of the location and the level of accessibility of these services. The study also examined the specific support services available for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students. The three universities differed in their emphases in catering to CALD needs, with their allocation of resources reflecting these differences. The organisation of these services within the universities was further assessed to determine possible factors that may influence the effective delivery of these services, by considering HDR and CALD student specific issues. The findings and tools developed by this study may be useful to HDR supervisors and university administrators in identifying key support services to better improve outcomes for the HDR students and universities.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank past project team members namely Dr Prasad Gudimetla, and Project Managers Ms Christine Percy and Ms Tamara Playne and other professional staff from QUT, Curtin and UWA for their contributions and support.
Notes on contributors
Dr Pujitha (Puji) Silva holds a Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and is sessional academic at the QUT. Currently, he is appointed as the sessional academic advisor for the school of chemistry physics and mechanical engineering at QUT, where he advises and supports sessional staff. Puji also served as the project manager on the Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) priority project aimed at developing a holistic model for higher degree students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Puji is also a certified professional coach (CPCP) and has a keen interest in developing engineering graduates to be well rounded in the work place
Dr Karen Woodman is Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator of the Master of Education (TESOL), Master of Education (TEFL) and Graduate Certificate (TESOL) in the School of School of Cultural and Professional Learning, Faculty of Education at QUT. As former Chair of the Teacher Education Interest Section (TEIS) for the International TESOL organisation, Woodman has extensive research and academic experience and expertise in the areas of Second Language teaching and learning, teacher education and cross-cultural issues.
Professor Acram Taji is the Director of International Graduate Research at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She has supervised the theses of 48 Masters and Ph.D. students from 15 countries to successful completion. Acram has been the recipient of 16 distinguished national and international awards including the Japanese Prime Minister Senior Fellowship Award, Australian Award for University Teaching, the International Association for Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology, Flinders University's Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of her endeavours in the developing countries, the Iranian government highest Science and Technology Research Award, and the International Society for Horticultural Science's Medal. Acram is a highly experienced international educator who is passionate about outstanding educational experience for students. Her philosophy underpins her teaching and research. She believes that education is not just about job skills but about teaching people to be good global citizens, is about building cohesive societies and is about caring for the environment and for each other.
Professor James Trevelyan is Winthrop Professor in Mechanical Engineering and chairs the Mechatronics Discipline Group at The University of Western Australia (UWA). He is an elected member of the Council of the International Federation for the Theory of Machines and Mechanism (IFToMM). He chairs the Engineers Australia National Panel on Mechatronic Engineering. Trevelyan is internationally recognized for his pioneering research in sheep shearing robots. His most recent work is research on engineering practice to understand what engineers and technologists actually do in their work.
Dr Shamim Samani is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre of Muslim States and Societies. She is a sessional academic and researcher at the university of Western Australia (UWA). Her post-doctoral research at the CMSS focuses on Muslim women in the WA workplace. She has also worked in the public and NGO sectors. Her research interests are social sustainability, human and gender development, community development and engagement, and multiculturalism.
Professor Hema Sharda is Winthrop Professor and Director of South Asia Relations at the University of Western Australia. In this position, she has been establishing sustainable and meaningful strategic teaching and research partnerships with Indian Institutes, universities and research organisations. Prof. Sharda possesses over 20 years of experience with internationalisation of education with a major focus on multidisciplinary research and has published widely in the area of quality of engineering education, internationalisation of curriculum, staff student mobility, multi-cultural teaching and learning environment, and international student issues. Prof. Sharda has served on many committees and teams in the area of internationalisation of education. Sharda speaks at various forums and conferences on teaching and learning in a multi-cultural environment. Prof. Sharda is also committed to promoting women in engineering.
Dr Ramesh Narayanaswamy is Senior Lecturer at Curtin. Besides supervising Ph.D. students in heat transfer research, he teaches core and optional units for undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is currently the postgraduate coordinator and co-chairman of the Staff Student Liaison Committee. A combination of his overseas academic background together with continuing work experience at Curtin University enables him to possess a unique maturity and competence which enables him to deliver positive outcomes while interacting closely with the student community when addressing teaching, learning and research issues for discrete cohorts of local, international and mature age
Professor Anthony Lucey has over 35 years of engineering experience during which time he has held many academic positions across the world including Dean of Curtin Engineering Faculty. Lucey led the re-designing of the national-award-winning Engineering Foundation Year at Curtin (2006). At Warwick University, Lucey co-designed, introduced and led the Masters of Research and the Master of Science in Advanced Engineering (1993–1998) and while as Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering re-cast the Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering degree programmes.
Dr Tony Sahama is Senior Lecturer in Science and Engineering Faculty at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Dr Sahama was awarded a teaching fellowship during 2006 and published several articles in the Teaching and Learning space. Sahama completed three small to medium Teaching and Learning projects during the past 4 four years as a contribution to the academic community. These include a method of providing instant feedback to computer programming students when completing final examinations. This addressed assessing students in a group and electronic examination environment including question paper distribution electronically.
Professor Prasad KDV Yarlagadda is Professor of Smart Systems at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and possesses over 30 years of engineering education experience. Yarlagadda has managed over 350 higher degree research students, with over 55% of them from non-English speaking background countries such as India, China, Indonesia, Germany, Norway, France, Turkey, Iran, Iraq among others; in addition to supervising over 20 Ph.D. students to completion and 17 more in progression.
Yarlagadda has gained international and national recognition as a researcher working in several discipline areas including the 2001 QUT Outstanding Academic Contribution Award in Research and Scholarship, 2004 Global Research Award (GCMM) as recognition to his contribution to Manufacturing Engineering Discipline and Fryderyk Staub Golden Owl Award from World Academy of Manufacturing and Materials, Poland. He is also an editor/guest editor to many engineering journals including ASEEAP Journal of Engineering Education (1995–1998) and ACEME-2002 (Engineering Management Educators Conference).