It’s been a mere two weeks since we gathered in Adelaide for our National Member Meeting bringing together over 100 colleagues from across the country to engage in meaningful conversation and share ideas regarding graduate research. We would particularly like to thank our hosts, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. We were particularly pleased that we could be joined once again in person by a number of our New Zealand colleagues. Many of us also benefited from attending the Quality in Postgraduate Research conference also held in Adelaide after the ACGR meeting.
Several themes resonated during our National Meeting, particularly regarding the implications for graduate research in the recently released Australian Universities Accord Final Report. We are anticipating the initial government response to the Accord Report in May as part of the upcoming Federal Budget process. ACGR will ensure members are kept up to date as we continue to engage on your behalf regarding the impact of the Accord. To this end, we will be sharing with you a sector-wide survey that we have undertaken regarding HDR stipend rates and which we envisage will contribute to discussions regarding the base rates of stipends as reported in the Accord Report. We would like to thank many of you who have contributed to the survey.
In this month’s update, we bring you access to all the presentations delivered at our National Meeting and we once again thank all those who contributed to the sessions. We also acknowledge our 2024 ACGR Awards for Excellence winners. Coming together in person to celebrate the winners achievements for the first time since the Covid interruption was a highlight of the meeting and we look forward to continuing this celebration in person into the future.
If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to register for our May webinar Creating and Sustaining a HDR Supervisor Community of Practice at the University of Adelaide. In keeping with our theme of celebrating our ACGR Awards for Excellence winners, this webinar will be presented by our 2023 Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Leadership recipient Associate Professor Tania Crotti, discussing how the HDR Supervision Community of Practice is raising the quality of supervision across the university.
As the sector’s peak body for graduate research, and an organisation of members and for members, we’re committed to ensuring our activities and offerings reflect your needs and interests. As we move ahead planning our suite of webinars and meeting activities for the remainder of the year, we encourage you to reach out with any issues or topics you’re grappling with or would like to discuss with colleagues— we will endeavour to have these reflected in our future offerings.
Best regards
Clive Baldock, ACGR President
Tracy Sullivan, Executive Director