Rights exist behind the wire
In 2004 the ACT Legislative Assembly enacted the Human Rights Act, the first Bill of Rights to be passed into law in Australia. In essence the Act provides that no one may be treated or...
SHARE
Research Students
The Institute is a centre for high quality graduate education with the aim of nurturing a new generation of PhD educated scholars and teachers in public management and public policy to meet the national and international skills deficit in this area. We currently have over 100 research students studying for PhDs and DBAs on Australian, comparative and international governance themes.
ANZSIG is host to 78 research students studying for PhDs, DBAs and SJDs on Australian, comparative and international governance and justice themes. By our own admission, we have been less successful in achieving improvements in the quality of the research student body, increasing completion rates and enhancing the quality of student theses. It is important to note that we have been very active in striving for improvement as we strongly believe that the key measure of the excellence of an academic community lies in the ‘quality’ of its research students. ANZSIG therefore aims to establish a centre for high quality research student education. What are the ingredients of a world class research student education? In our view this requires the achievement of a collective ethos which values the form of academic community where research students:
- play a central role in the activities of the community and begin to set the research agenda;
- are embedded within vibrant research programs which possess a critical mass of scholars who share ideas, challenge each other and are dedicated to pushing forward the frontiers of knowledge;
- are supported by a research program which provides them with methodological choices to build their capacity not just to complete a thesis but to pursue a career in academia or other research led careers;
- are taught the rudiments of good academic and professional practice;
- are encouraged to innovate in thesis design;
- are provided with regular opportunities to communicate their ideas and debate other key disciplinary concerns; and,
- work in an environment where problems with academic progress are shared and debated in a reflexive, professional manner.
With these aims in mind, ANZSIG supports its Faculty partners in building an inclusive and dynamic research student community. In particular, this involves providing all PhD students pursuing critical governance research with: Institute scholar status and membership of a research program; access to all Institute research activities (e.g. conferences, seminars and symposia), support services (research support office), thesis development and professional skills workshops; access to a high quality research training program encompassing the philosophy of the social sciences, quantitative and qualitative methods, and research training for practice; further opportunities for advanced methodological training in partnership with NATSEM; opportunities for paper presentations and feedback through our Research Student Workshop, Research Discussion Forum and Institute lunch-time seminar series. We also host a themed annual graduate conference, a ‘hot knowledge workshop’ and co-convene research workshops with the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU and NATSEM on specific topics (e.g. 8-9 August 2011, ‘What are the ingredients of successful policy transfer?’). In sum, we have taken some important steps towards establishing a centre for high quality research student education but it will be extremely difficult to consolidate these gains without adequate investment in research infrastructure and leadership.
Professor Anne Daly The economic status of Indigenous Australians, the gender pay gap, immigration and the economics of educationview profile