Starting this year a Postgraduate Skills Training Package is being introduced across the University. This fully funded package, developed by the Academic Development Group (ADG) is being made available to all PhD students on a voluntary basis. The package consists of 12 sessions aligning with the skills demands across the tenure of the doctoral candidate. It will run twice in 2012.

Last week, as part of this programme, the Academic Liaison Team together with Macmillan Brown Library staff provided four sessions each of 90 minutes on Researching Tools and other Library Essentials . As well as discovering and giving hands on practice in exploiting e-resources, EndNote etc, the sessions also featured a short introduction to the Library’s Maori,Pasifika and special collections. Healthy numbers signed up for each session, actual attendance in brackets, as follows:
Engineering 24 (22)
Science 32 (20)
Education 10 (3)
Arts, Commerce and Law 12 (12)

Full feedback via ADG is still awaited but informal feedback seems positive “It is (a) must attend seminar for new students” was one comment. We will review and revise for the next cohort in July and in light of actual attendance will probably merge the Education ands Arts, Commerce and Law sessions. Many thanks to all who delivered these sessions.

Peter Lund