A bachelor's thesis can be characterized as a proof of basic research and a trajectory of academic writing. This study addresses students' ways of experiencing the writing process at the halfway stage, a stage that has been ignored in research. In a phenomenographic interview-study design, semi-structured interviews with 15 nursing students were…

This article critically investigates the impact of a program of professional learning for education-focused academics (EFAs) in an Australian university, focused on developing their education research capability. The 'Higher Education Research' (HER) program employed a three-pronged strategy: skills development workshops; sustained small group…

A fundamental responsibility of higher education institutions, across disciplines, is to develop student research skills. The exponential growth of digital scholarship, however, challenges traditional definitions of research. There is a need for deeper understanding of the ways in which students can develop and implement academic research skills…

In this article, the authors, based on a process developed in the context of US higher education, demonstrate a model for undergraduate student research skill development that involves academic staff writing collaborative book reviews with undergraduate students and librarians, especially librarians that are also academic staff with relevant…

Globally there is recognition that doctoral programmes need to offer the opportunity for career pathways beyond academia, as PhD graduates are entering a range of careers. Consequently, some doctoral programmes now provide opportunities to develop a broader skill set. However, most PhD programmes in the United Kingdom and Australasia still…

Systematic reviews are common in disciplines such as medicine, nursing, and health sciences and students are increasingly being encouraged to conduct them as a component of their thesis (Pickering & Byrne, 2014). Fortunately, the tedious old days of writing a thesis by gathering mountains of hard-copy papers are long behind us. Privileged…

International fieldschools to developing countries have become an important component of the university curriculum because they provide experiential learning and research skills, while also contributing a range of soft skills such as resilience, empathy, resourcefulness, critical thinking, and cross-cultural communication. Yet, with the increasing…

This study considers the conceptual space, or extent of autonomy, given to coursework Masters students before, during and after a Business Ethics course that explicitly developed and assessed their research skills. This vocationally oriented and academically challenging course used the "Research Skill Development framework" as its…

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are still grossly under-represented in Higher Degrees by Research (HDRs) when compared to non-Indigenous students. Developing the pipeline of Indigenous students from undergraduate to postgraduate study remains key to increasing the number of Indigenous students undertaking HDRs. While much of the…

As in other Anglophone nations, a large percentage of Australia's postgraduate international students come from English as an additional language (EAL) backgrounds, and many require development of their academic language and learning (ALL) capabilities to successfully navigate a higher degree. This paper investigates those capabilities through the…

The focus of this paper is on student learning pathways--with particular reference to the factors motivating coursework master's students to seek entry to a doctoral programme--along with the implications for higher education policy and practice. It is argued nationally and internationally that although a number of challenges continue to confront…

This paper examines the research practices in Art and Design that are distinctively different from those common in research into higher education outside those fields. It considers whether and what benefit could be derived from their adaptation by the latter. The paper also examines the factors that are conducive and obstructive to adaptive…

The "alternative" methodological approach that I discuss in this paper is one that I suggest can be employed for exploring higher degree research student "becoming," that is, for exploring the relationship between learning, writing and identity or subject formation. This approach is informed by an unlikely amalgam of…

With increasing complexity in the world, universities continue to face pressure to demonstrate that their graduates have acquired skills beyond discipline-based knowledge. These are generic skills like critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, problem-solving and so forth. In order to demonstrate this, universities have to show how their teaching…

This paper presents an example of constructive alignment in practice. Integrated technology supports were deployed to increase the consistency between learning objectives, activities and assessment and to foster student-centred, higher-order learning processes in the unit. Modifications took place over nine iterations of a second-year Marketing…