Feb 26 2021

 Making the Most of your Supervisor on 14 April, 10:00 - 16:00

The PhD student-supervisor relationship is arguably the most important professional relationship during the PhD.  So how do you make the most of it to help you complete your PhD successfully?  This practical course will explore insights into the benefits and challenges of the student-supervisor relationship, including examining yours and their needs and perspectives.  Participants will have the opportunity to learn and apply a three-step effective coping strategy to supervisory issues.  It will help you develop simple and effective strategies to enhance your listening skills and being assertive to help you make the most of your relationship with your supervisor. 

Exploration of the PhD-Supervisor relationship: how to be a proactive adult. 

Content includes examining different student and supervisor needs and perspectives throughout the process and cultural expectations.

How to Cope Effectively with Raised Issues. 

A discursive session in which participants are first shown a 3-step effective coping strategy, which they can then apply to help them tackle the issues that they have with the supervisor. 

Developing your listening and assertiveness skills

A hands-on practical component comprising exercises to develop listening and assertiveness skills in order to help them make the most of the PhD-supervisor relationship.

 

From Surviving to Thriving 5 week course starting 16 April, 10:00 -12:00

This 5 week course will help you become a bit more resilient, manage your procrastination better, be a little bit more productive and lead a slightly happier life…

It won’t change your life, but it might be a little bit useful

 This course will help you move out of the ‘panic mode’ and current struggles with research and towards being just a little bit more productive and happier.

The modules are 2 hours and hosted on Zoom. 

 

Week 1: Developing Your Resilience 16/04/21

-       The course would focus on what’s called the 6 Cs of Resilience – from how to Cope effectively, to seeing things as a Challenge through to devising your own self-Care strategies. 

-       This course seeks to help people get out of the ‘panic mode’ and respond to their struggles more effectively. 

 

Week 2: Managing Your Procrastination 23/04/21

-       Everybody has goals they want to achieve – such as getting a PhD – so why do they procrastinate?!  This 2 hour ‘essentials’ course explores what procrastination is from the psychological literature and outlines the two steps to help participants manage their procrastination.

 

Week 3: Cultivating Your Productivity 30/04/21

-       Building on the work done in the previous weeks’ courses, this session helps participants to manage their research and have a better day as they get on with their work.

 

Week 4: Nurturing Your Happiness 07/05/21

-       This ‘essentials’ courses explores the literature’s definitions of happiness as a foundation to help researchers become happier in their lives. 

 

Week 5: The Emotionally Intelligent Researcher 14/05/21

-       This final session explores developing participants’ emotional intelligence so that they can sustain the progress they made and work effectively with others. 

 

The order of the modules seeks to build a firm foundation to help participants move from surviving to thriving.

 

About Dr Matt Lane 

With over 9 and a half years’ experience as a Researcher Developer for doctoral researchers at the University of Cambridge, Dr Matt Lane has trained over 3500 early career researchers across all disciplines. In the process, in 2017, he was formally recognised by Cambridge for his ‘outstanding contribution’ for his strategic and practical development of early career researchers. A versatile trainer, Matt specialises in ‘People’ skills – teaching; personal effectiveness and resilience; leadership and collaboration – and Writing skills, particularly contrastive rhetoric. He holds the CIPD’s Certificate in Learning & Development and has practitioner accreditation in MBTI and Belbin Team Roles.  His AHRC-sponsored PhD was from Royal Holloway.

If you would like to sign up to one of these courses, please email pgrtrainingrhul.ac.uk