Things to do in your first few months

Attend a PGR induction. There are two types of PGR induction: A central induction, which oulines all the support and opportunities available to PGRs from the central services, such as the Researcher Environment Team, the Library, Wellbeing and Disability Services, the Students' Union etc., and School inductions, which outline the training and opportunities specific to your School. Central inductions are run three times per year in September/October, January and April. If you have missed the induction and would like to attend the next one, contact the Researcher Environment Team by emailing pgrskills@hud.ac.uk. Alternatively, if you have missed induction you can view a video and/or the PowerPoint slides from the central induction by logging into Brightspace, clicking on the Researcher Environment module, and viewing the Central Induction folder. Questions surrounding central induction should be directed to the Researcher Environment Team by emailing pgrskills@hud.ac.uk. Questions regarding School inductions should be directed to your School research administrators in the first instance. A list of email addresses for each School can be found here.

Activate your IT account and login to the Researcher Environment module in Brightspace.

Explore the campus. Each building on campus has a one, two or three letter code. For example, R is the Ramsden building, RH is the Researcher Hub and QSB is the Queen Street Building. Room RH02/07 is the Researcher Hub, level 2, room 7.
Set up introductory meetings and objectives with your supervisor(s).

Complete your Skills Audit and Research Support Plan. View your Research Degree Timeline for guidance on when to submit.

Familiarise yourself with the resources available regarding ethics, integrity and plagiarism.

Familiarise yourself with the courses and support available via SkillsForge.
Learn more about the Researcher Development Framework (RDF) and how you can use this to help progress through your degree. To help identify skills strengths and gaps, use Vitae’s “Getting Started in Research” lens, which links to the RDF.

Familiarise yourself with the PGR Programme Guidance (you will need to login with your University username and password).

Investigate reference management software such as Endnote, Mendeley, RefWorks etc. to help you keep track of your references throughout your degree. Library staff run training courses for Endnote and RefWorks that are bookable through SkillsForge.
For international PGRs, undertake a language assessment through the Academic English Centre.

Have a look at Vitae’s Starting a Doctorate webpage, much of which is also applicable to Master’s level researchers, for useful tips and advice.
Ask more experienced PGRs what they wish they had known at the start of their research.

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