Postgraduates benefit from conference

July 10, 2007

More than 75 postgraduate students at the University of New England participated in a conference last week designed to help them "bridge the gap between ideas and doing research".

The students, enrolled in masters, honours and PhD programs in the Faculties of Economics, Business and Law and Education, Health and Professional Studies heard more than 25 papers and keynote addresses, as well as attending workshops on topics including data analysis, theoretical frameworks, and methodology.

Dr Terrence Hays, who convened the conference with Associate Professor Rafat Hussain, said the conference gave the students "a forum where they can talk about their research, attend sessions on data analysis and discuss their results with other students and academics".

Many of those attending the conference were distance education students who usually worked in isolation, Dr Hays said. "This conference allows them to get together and share their research in a collegiate atmosphere," he said.

Dr Prawit Taytiwat, who is studying for a PhD in UNE's School of Health, said the sessions were highly informative and that he enjoyed listening to presentations by researchers in other fields.

Dr Taytiwat said, "The sessions this morning were very interesting, because my research deals only with qualitative data, and these sessions showed me how qualitative and quantitative data can work together [to illustrate a research question]."

A highlight of the conference was the launch of the conference proceedings of the inaugural postgraduate conference held in 2006 by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Peter Flood and Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean Professor Victor Minichiello. The proceedings have been published by the Australian College of Educators and contain 31 papers based on student projects.

For more information, contact Dr Terrence Hays on (02) 6773 3649 or Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771.

Posted by Leon Braun at July 10, 2007 05:09 PM