HDR Supervision Development Workshops

The Higher Degree Research (HDR) Supervision Development team offer a series of HDR Supervision Development Workshops, complementing those offered by Colleges, Schools and Centres.

These workshops address a range of topics, issues and experience relevant to good practice in HDR supervision. Participation in any of these is a 'qualifying renewal activity' for HDR Supervision Annual Registration Renewal under the ANU HDR Supervision Development Framework. The 2025 program will be listed below as it is confirmed, and in the monthly Research News.

HDR Supervision Development Workshops are open to all HDR supervisors, and are free; please enrol to receive the Zoom link or location details.

Foundations of HDR Supervision Workshops are offered to those new to supervision, as part of the HDR Supervision Initial Registration process. Please visit the Foundations of HDR Supervision Workshops webpage for more information, and to enrol for one of these workshops.

HDR Supervision Topic Workshops, Issues Forums and Masterclass Panels

The 2025 program is posted below*

* The HDR Supervision Topic Workshops, Issues Forums and Masterclass Panels are offered online (unless otherwise indicated), via Zoom (Zoom information). Subject to demand, other workshops may be scheduled as the year progresses. We’ll update the schedule on this webpage and in the monthly Research News.

Supporting HDR Conceptual Development: A Practical Workshop for Supervisors

The Challenge 

Research shows that HDR candidates often struggle to move from conceptualising research ideas through to forming conceptual frameworks which can effectively communicate their research to others. As part of ANU’s Conceptual Frameworks project we are looking to share supervisor experiences which will enable candidates to better translate their research, from early development into a valuable scholarly contribution.

Workshop Purpose 

This workshop will focus on the confirmation stage as a key milestone to address a common supervision challenge: how can we best support candidates to make the transition to communicate conceptual aspects of their research? By exploring supervisor perspectives on the role and value of the conceptual framework in framing research and, ultimately, in contributing to new knowledge, we will also consider specific skills and understanding necessary for a candidate's development of their research practice.

Areas we’ll share and explore with you include: 

• Insights from recent research on supervisor-candidate experiences with conceptual frameworks
• Practical strategies to support students through the conceptual development process
• Understanding how different domains approach theory and conceptualisation
• Approaches to make the often invisible process of research thinking more explicit and teachable

Example of workshop activities 

Through guided discussions and practical exercises, you'll:

• Share experiences and compare approaches to supervision during the confirmation phase
• Work through real scenarios and challenges supervisors commonly face
• Explore strategies for helping students clarify their research phenomena and key relationships
• Identify potential strategies to support your role, as well as supplementing support for your HDR candidates and broader cohorts, by development and delivery of valuable training materials and information sources.

Who Should Attend 

HDR supervisors at all experience levels. New supervisors will gain proven strategies, whilst experienced supervisors can share insights and refine their approaches. Particularly useful if you supervise students who struggle to articulate their research thinking clearly.

Details 

Facilitators: Dr Megan Power, Professor Henry Linger (Monash University), and Emeritus Professor Craig McDonald 
Format: Interactive, in-person workshop with lunch included 
Location: Building # 95 - Fulton Muir Building - Fulton Muir 2.04 
If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation plan please contact hdr.supervision@anu.edu.au . 
Thursday, 17 July 12 - 1:30pmDetails and enrolment.

Myth busting statistical methods

What has happened in statistical methods since you were a PhD student?! This workshop will examine three statistical myths (1) nothing has changed in statistical methodology since the 1980s (2) traditional methods work fine even when assumptions are not met (3) when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I will introduce exciting new concepts such as hierarchies of variability, bootstrapping, machine learning and imputation.

Lead - Professor Alice Richardson, Lead of Statistical Support Network

Thursday, 14 August 12-1pm.Details and enrolment.

Beyond Red Pen: Transforming Writing Feedback

Are you spending hours editing your candidates' drafts? There's a better way. This workshop shows you how to shift from editor to writing mentor, helping candidates develop as writers while actually reducing your workload.

In this interactive online session, you'll learn:

• Why traditional editing approaches often slow down candidate progress
• How to give feedback that develops writing capability
• Practical strategies for supporting neurodivergent writers
• Ways to intervene earlier in the writing process
• Time-saving frameworks for giving effective feedback

You'll leave with practical tools and techniques you can implement immediately with your candidates. Perfect for new supervisors, but experienced supervisors will also gain fresh perspectives on writing development.

This workshop challenges traditional approaches to supervisor feedback, showing you how to:

• Break the cycle of waiting for complete drafts
• Help candidates become independent writers
• Create clear expectations around writing and feedback
• Support different thinking and writing styles
• Speed up progression to submission

Lead - Professor Inger Mewburn is the Director of Researcher Development at The Australian National University, but she is better known as @Thesiswhisperer on the internet. Aside from running workshops for ANU researchers, she creates new posts on the Thesis Whisperer blog, writes scholarly papers and authors books about research education. She has special interests in post PhD employability, research communications and neurodivergence.

Tuesday, 23 September 12 - 1pm.Details and enrolment.

Giving and receiving feedback

Giving feedback is a fundamental part of a supervisor’s role, and a key component of the supervisory relationship. Receiving and acting on feedback can be challenging. In this workshop, we will explore feedback from both staff and student perspectives, and we will consider what recent research has to say about effective HDR feedback practices. 

Lead - Susy Macqueen is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics. Her research is on language assessment in education, health and migration contexts. Her doctoral studies focused on English language learning for university study.

Wednesday, 15 October 12-1pm.Details and enrolment.

Respectful Relationships training

The ANU Respectful Relationships Unit (RRU) offers a range of training for University staff. They are designed to increase understanding of sexual assault and sexual harassment and support preventative strategies. The training resources include the Rights, Relationships and Respect in Research online module, which you can undertake at any time

Various dates. Details and enrolment.

Recordings of the HDR Supervision Topic Workshops and Masterclass Panels

You can access recordings of the HDR Supervision Topic Workshops and Masterclass Panels at the .

More information or suggestions

We welcome your feedback and suggestions for workshop topics. Contact us at hdr.supervision@anu.edu.au or via telephone on +61 2 6125 1503.