Training, Events and Exchange Opportunities

Research training has several purposes; most directly it is to help you complete your thesis or project i.e. subject specific research training (RT). Equally important, is the development of other, broader capabilities – generic skills – in managing your research, personal effectiveness, communication, networking and team-working, and career management. These are the skills that you may develop directly as part of your everyday research work (in the archive, the laboratory, the hospital, the field, the classroom), but they can be significantly enhanced through dedicated courses and specialist training.

Please see below for full details of the training opportunities offered within your Research Institute, across the wider University and externally.

We offer a range of funding schemes to help support your participation in external events - please select the external training tab for more details.

Your supervisors and PGR Directors will be happy to discuss training opportunities with you.

Internal Training

A wide range of training modules are provided through our MRes courses. Please see below for the full handbooks for both the MRes in the Humanities and the MRes in Social Sciences.

The nature of Research Training is such that, together with your supervisory team, you may identify a modules / course elsewhere in the Faculty or the wider institution.

 

 

External Training

The Research Institutes for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Keele have strong collaborative links with a wide range of institutions providing research training. Details of external opportunities will be posted on this page on a regular basis, but these are examples of the programmes that you may wish to consider:

Training in Arts and Humanities - Arts Methods North West

Artsmethods North West intends to support research training in the arts and humanities across 7 institutions who are currently seeking AHRC BGP 2 funding to create the AHRC North West Consortium (NWC).

It will bring together institutions that have large volumes of world-class research with those that have smaller pockets of research excellence in the North West. Through its continuing partnership with the AHRC, the NWC will develop world-class postgraduates through high-quality subject-specific and interdisciplinary training. A distinctive feature of the NWC will be its combination of student learning and skills for employability through productive engagement with the creative economy in the region. It is uniquely positioned to build on disciplinary groupings, collaborations, established media and major knowledge exchange hubs such as the AHRC KE hub at Lancaster University and Salford’s MediaCityUK campus.

The NWC is committed to fostering excellence and diversity in arts and humanities training and research, and responding to the needs of the community.

Find out more on the website: http://www.artsmethodsnorthwest.ac.uk/

As part of this collaboration, a range of events at Manchester University are open to students at Keele. Please click here for the latest details of the events calendar run by Artsmethods@Manchester: ArtsMethods@Manchester Events 2012-13

 

Training in Social Sciences - MethodsNorthwest

MethodsNorthWest highlights the depth and breadth of methodological expertise in the social sciences within the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster. It promotes and facilitates methodological excellence, innovation and inter-disciplinarity - within and beyond the social sciences. They run events aimed primarily at doctoral students throughout the year. These events are styled and targeted to provide something a little different to the standards methods training, and many of them are open to students at Keele University.

Find out more on the website: http://www.methodsnorthwest.ac.uk/

 

Vitae Training

Vitae is the national organisation that provides research skills training on behalf of RCUK, the overarching body of
all the UK research councils. These courses offer the opportunity to meet and network with other PGR students from across the UK. All our research students are encouraged to attend at least one Vitae course during the three years of their research at Keele.

Find out more on the website: http://www.vitae.ac.uk/

Our Vitae contact at Keele University is Jen Smith: j.h.smith@keele.ac.uk

 

Research Funding

If you are considering attending an external event, please contact your supervisors and also the Faculty Research Office Finance Administrators to discuss an application for funding support.

Sue Humphries, Finance Administrator for Social Sciences Centres for Economics and Management, Psycholgical Research and Social Policy - s.e.humphries@keele.ac.uk

Yvonne Lomax, Finance Administrator for Social Sciences Centres for Law, Ethics and Society and for the Study of Politics, International Relations and the Environment (RC4SPIRE) and for the Humanities - y.lomax@keele.ac.uk

We offer two funding schemes for PGRs. Our Research Support Fund (RSF2)‌, provides support for individual focused activities such as conference attendance, costs associated with fieldwork or archival work, and other project-related expenses.

Our Researcher Development and Transferable Skills Fund (RDF) provides support for a broad range of training activities, including support to attend external courses, the costs of coordinating research events at Keele, and generic skills training.

You can apply for both streams of funding by completing our Research Funding Form 2012-13

Learning and Professional Development Centre

The Learning and Professional Development Centre support all staff in their learning and development and many of their programmes are open to postgraduate research students. 

Details of a range of workshops in 2012-13 are available to download here: LPDC Training 2012-13

Visit the Centre webpages for more details on the training available and to book onto a course.

One of the training opportunities currently featured by the LPDC is the Introduction to Teaching Programme, which is compulsory for all Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). Full details on the programme are available at the following site:

http://www.keele.ac.uk/lpdc/coursesworkshops/

See the course flyer here: Teaching Support for PGRs

 

The Centre can be found at:

59 and 60, The Covert (See map and photo)

Keele University

Staffordshire

ST5 5BG

Seminars, Workshops and Conferences

We have a busy programme of research events across the University. Virtually all of our research events are free to attend, and where there may be a charge involved, you can apply to one of our research support funds for financial assistance.

To see the full programme of Research Seminars and Events in the Research Institutes for the Humanities and Social Sciences, please visit our Calendar or Events

If you are interested in coordinating a research event, please contact your PGR Representatives and Directors.

 

Annually the RI hosts a Humanities Symposium coordinated by the Director of Postgraduate Research in the Humanities and the PGR Students:

2013

Vitae Resources for Postgraduate Researchers