Skills Training and Graduate Academic Programme
Training for Researchers
Developing research, subject specific, personal and professional expertise is crucial to the success of your future career. The skills and experience that got you to where you are now will not necessarily be sufficient to get you to where you want to go next, and so it is important that you continue to develop both depth and breadth of your expertise. The importance of this has been recognised by stakeholders such as the Research Councils and RCUK, and is now supported by two documents - the Researcher Development Framework (RDF) and Researcher Development Statement (RDS).
The RDF describes the knowledge, behaviours and attributes that researchers might be expected to develop at different stages in their career. It has been designed to support the personal, professional and career development of individual researchers, helping them to plan their own professional pathways. Details of the RDF, including background information about its development, can be found at www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/234301/Researcher-Development-Framework.html.
The RDS is a more concise document that has been derived from the RDF. The RDS is intended to be used by organisations that provide training for researchers. Further details of the RDS are at www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/275981/Researcher-Development-Statement-RDS.html.
The following information provides details of the training available for researcheers in the MPLS* Division and departments.
Graduate Academic Programme (GAP)
The GAP brings together all the training available in this and all other MPLS* departments, comprising an extensive range of courses for graduate research students and postdoctoral researchers. There are around 350 courses available throughout the academic year, including
- Academic subjects and skills
- Research skills and techniques
- Ethics and Intellectual Property
- Transferable, professional and personal effectiveness skills
- Communication, interpersonal and teaching skills
- Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Career development
For details of the courses available and to sign up, please log into the Graduate Academic Programme (you will need your Oxford Single Sign-On).
*MPLS (Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences) is one of the four academicd divisions of the University. The departments that meke up MPLS are Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Materials, Mathematics, Physics, Plant Sciences, Statistics, Zoology, the Oxford eResearch Centre, and the Doctoral Training Centres in the Life Sciences Interface, Systems Biology and Systems Approaches to Biomedical Science.
Skills Training
Departmental
Divisional
The Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division aims to provide a range of courses you will find useful at various stages during your research and will support you in your study and/or professional development and future career.
We hope these courses will help you hone your research and scientific skills, work with other people, communicate with the world around you about your research and help you to manage your own work and career effectively. Courses from the following areas are available:
- Ethics and Intellectual Property
- Transferable, professional and personal effectiveness skills
- Communication, Interpersonal and teaching skills
- Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
- Career development
You will also develop skills and expertise during your day to day work in your research group and department. It is therefore worth developing awareness of training and keeping records of your skills and professional development. An account of students' skills training must be presented at transfer and confirmation of status. For more information on the Division's courses, please see our courses page