The Doctoral College run several events throughout the year that give you an introduction to the research community at Queen Mary as well as chance to develop new skills and meet and collaborate with other researchers.
Queen Mary's PGR Student Induction is open to all beginning PGR students. Induction runs three times a year, once at the beginning of each semester. It is a chance for the Doctoral College to welcome you formally. You will be able to meet the Doctoral College Director as well as the faculties Deputy Deans for research and find out more about the life of a PGR student at Queen Mary and the training and support you can expect to receive.
Induction week for 2023-24
The 2023-24 Semester 3 PGR induction will take place as a single online sessions on Thursday, 13th June 2024. This session will be held via Zoom.
To register, please go to CPD Training System and search for ‘PGR Induction’.
Registered attendees will then be sent the session link on the day before the session.
The recordings and session slides from the October 2024 induction are available on the PGR Induction October 2024 page.
Skills days provide specific researcher development training tailored to a specific stage of PGR research. Not only will these help you to make the most out of your time as PGR student but you will have the chance to meet, chat and work with fellow PGR students from different disciplines across Queen Mary.
Early Stage Skills Day - First Year Foundations
This one-day event is designed specifically for first year PGRs. This event will help you gain an understanding of the doctoral process, the skills you need to succeed in your doctorate – and beyond! – and how to navigate this process in a way that works for you.
2024/25 date: 18 February 2025 - book via the CPD Training System.
Middle Stage Skills Day: Mid-stages Motivation
This one-day event will help you, as a second year PGR, gain an understanding how to navigate the middle stage of the doctorate successfully.
2024/25 date: 2 April 2025 - book via the CPD Training System.
Late Stage Skills Day - Completing Successfully
The Late Stage Skills day focuses on helping PGRs develop plans and strategies to complete their doctorates successfully.
2024/25 date: 7 May 2025 - book via the CPD Training System.
Writing Up Year Skills Day - Setting Up for Success
The Writing Up Year Skills Day focuses on helping PGRs develop plans and strategies to complete their doctorates successfully.
2024/25 date: TBC - book via the CPD Training System.
The Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition was founded by and originally run at the University of Queensland, Australia. It since has grown to involve local and national competitions all over the world. In the UK the competition is run by Vitae and sponsored by The Taylor & Francis Group. The rules are simple: PGRs get up to 3 minutes to present their thesis research, using no jargon, no props, and only a single, static slide.The first round of training for Queen Mary's internal competition is now complete, and our PGRs are preparing for the online competition which will run from 7-11 April 2025. See our blog post for complete details of the 2025 competition, and you can also check out last year's participants on our QMPlus 3MT page.
GradFest is a series of training and development events organised by PGR students for PGR students.
The Doctoral College is excited to announce the return of GradFest in 2025! Join us from 12-23 May 2025 for two weeks of workshops, seminars, training sessions, networking events and symposia across the university.
Please mark the dates in your calendar so you can join in, learn some new things, meet some new people, and enjoy the opportunities GradFest has to offer.
To help us make GradFest a success, we’re looking for sessions proposed and developed by PGRs and we’d like to invite you to apply for funding to organise an event. Your event can be on any topic – for example, research-related, personal development, entertainment – so long as it’s relevant to PGRs from all disciplines across the university.
Our PGR GradFest Steering Group will be funding up to 10 events for up to £500 each, so if you’ve got a great idea for a session you’d like to see, please fill in our event application form.
Event applications are open until Friday 28 March and the Steering Group will make final decisions on success applications by 4 April.
If you have any questions about GradFest or your event application, please contact us at DoctoralCollege@qmul.ac.uk.