HDR Update

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue52 1–30 June 2024

Hi everyone,

We recently had our annual HDR student review talks, which highlights the quality of the research done by our HDR students and their supervisory teams. I would like to thank the students, supervisory teams, and the TOC for their hard work in making RSAA one of the world-leading places to do a PhD and in advancing research at the highest level.

Some notable changes to HDR procedures that I would like to share:

1. Many of you already know that the Thesis Proposal Review milestone has been replaced with the Confirmation of Candidature milestone for HDR students commencing this year. However, there are no significant changes compared to how we have run the Thesis Proposal Reviews. Emily, Stu and I will have further updates on this in the next few months, and we will update the student information handbook accordingly in due course, when we know the details from CoS HDR. Thesis proposal talks by our new students will therefore likely happen towards the beginning of November.

2. Following significant discussion initiated and led by RSAA, HDR scholarships will no longer end at the moment of thesis submission, provided there is still time left on the scholarship (normally 3.5 years since start of PhD), and instead, the scholarship will only end after that time (3.5 years) has run out or the outcome of the program has been determined, whichever comes first.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this or anything else related to HDR.

Christoph Federrath