Future Students

The UNE’s Faculty of Medicine and Health has a strong research culture and reputation for excellence. The Graduate Research School coordinates and has academic oversight and administrative responsibility for all aspects of Higher Degree Research within the Faculty of Medicine and Health. This encompasses three schools: School of Health, School of Psychology, and School of Rural Medicine including the Pharmacy discipline. The Faculty has over 100 active PhD and Masters Students in all discipline areas of the Schools including: Counselling, Health Management, Mental Health Practice, Nursing Social Work; Psychology; Medicine and Pharmacy.

The Graduate Research School works closely with the Research Services Directorate to offer a broad range of learning opportunities to enhance the HDR experience. This includes research, technical and academic skills training and the Three Minute Thesis competition. The Faculty supports all HDR students to achieve their professional research goals within a vibrant, collegial and interdisciplinary research culture. The Faculty of Medicine and Health takes advantage of UNEs strengths in data science and developing strength in rural and tele-health to develop new approaches to healthcare based on increasingly available data, information and communication technology capabilities. The government’s focused funding for research translation plays to UNE’s strength as a university embedded in its community.

Now is an exciting time for all people wanting to become a health professional. UNE has a growing reputation for intellectual innovation, courage, and community-focused achievements through strong excellence in research. The Faculty of Medicine and Health look forward to inspiring new generations of students who contribute to solving the problems facing our rural and regional society and global communities.

Information for Future Students

Areas of Research

The UNE’s Faculty of Medicine and Health has a strong research culture and reputation for excellence. The Graduate Research School coordinates and has academic oversight and administrative responsibility for all aspects of Higher Degree Research within the Faculty of Medicine and Health. This encompasses three schools: School of Health, School of Psychology, and School of Rural Medicine including the Pharmacy discipline. The Faculty has over 100 active PhD and Masters Students in all discipline areas of the Schools including: Counselling, Health Management, Mental Health Practice, Nursing Social Work; Psychology; Medicine and Pharmacy.

The Graduate Research School works closely with the Research Services Directorate to offer a broad range of learning opportunities to enhance the HDR experience. This includes research, technical and academic skills training and the Three Minute Thesis competition.  The Faculty supports all HDR students to achieve their professional research goals within a vibrant, collegial and interdisciplinary research culture. The Faculty of Medicine and Health takes advantage of UNEs strengths in data science and developing strength in rural and tele-health to develop new approaches to healthcare based on increasingly available data, information and communication technology capabilities.  The government’s focused funding for research translation plays to UNE’s strength as a university embedded in its community.

Degrees Options

Postgraduate Research Courses are available to candidates with appropriate undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications.  These include a:

  • Research Masters for a deeper level of study
  • PhD for a significant body of research work in a particular field of study

If you are studying a Masters by coursework and want to undertake a higher degree by research, ensure there is an approved research component to your Masters program. Faculty staff can assist and advise you with this.

The Faculty recognises that Higher Degree Research students and their supervisors make a significant contribution in maintaining a vibrant, interactive community of academic research scholars that is fostered through a collegial and interdisciplinary research culture. The Faculty supports all Higher Degree Research students to achieve their goals with a high standard of excellence in learning, research and supervision.

A Research Masters degree and Doctor of Philosophy are suited to candidates wishing to pursue a particular research topic with the aim of entering a research based career or learning valuable research skills to support a management career. When you enroll as a Higher Degree Research (HDR) student you will be supported with research training, knowledge transfer, and innovation.

The Faculty of Medicine and Health Graduate Research School offers Masters and PhD degrees in the following areas:

Determining a Research Topic

As a first step, you should determine your preferred field of study and create a Research Proposal.

Your Research Proposal should be a clear and concise outline of the objectives of your study and the means by which the goals will be achieved. The University looks for research proposals which demonstrate that the applicant has the capacity to translate the ideas into an appropriate research thesis, with potential outcomes appropriate to the level of study i.e. Masters Research or Doctoral.

Your proposal should be presented under headings that provide the following information:

  • Proposed title of the study
  • Summary of the proposed study
  • Purpose of the proposed study
  • Relevant background literature
  • Research questions or hypotheses
  • Definitions of key terms used in the proposal
  • Research methodology
  • Significance of the research
  • Ethical considerations
  • Timetable for the research
  • Anticipated problems and limitations
  • Resources required for the research
  • Bibliography
  • Appendix

The detail under each of these headings would normally be developed in consultation with your potential supervisor or the HDR School contact in the relevant UNE School.

Finding a Supervisor

The first step is to determine your preferred field of research and study. We encourage potential research students to use the Find an Expert search tool if they are looking for an HDR supervisor, a research collaborator, or an expert opinion on a range of disciplines. You can search for experts by name, discipline area, or by UNE School. Reading the biographies of the Faculty of Medicine and Health academic scholars and their recent research papers in your chosen area of study before you contact them, will allow you to ask specific questions about your proposed research project, and to secure their interest and/or support for your application.

Where a potential supervisor has not been identified, the submitted EOI form will be forwarded to suitable academic staff who will contact you to discuss your potential research project if they have the specialist expertise and/or capacity to supervise the project.

Expression of Interest and Admission Process

Once you have explored opportunities for study in a particular area, we encourage you to complete the Faculty of Medicine and Health Expression of Interest (EOI) for Higher Degree Research Students for your chosen discipline area and return it to the email address provided on the form, hdr-mh@une.edu.au.

Certified copies of all your academic qualifications and transcripts will need to be provided with the EOI.  The EOI process is a Faculty of Medicine and Health pre-assessment process to determine your eligibility and to identify potential supervisors for your research project.  This is completed prior to submitting a formal UNE candidature application.

Where the required information is not provided with the EOI, the Faculty Research Office will write to you by email and advise you what needs to be provided. This means that your EOI will not progress until all the information requested is provided.

The Faculty of Medicine and Health Research Office will advise you by email if your EOI was successful or unsuccessful in gaining pre-approval. The EOI application turnaround time can take up to 6 weeks. If you have not been notified beforethis time, please contact the Faculty of Medicine and Health Research Office by emailing hdr-mh@une.edu.au to enquire about the status of your EOI.

If your EOI is successful we will email you and advise you to formally submit a UNE candidature application either an as International Student or a Domestic Student (Australian Citizen, Australian Permanent Resident and New Zealand Citizen).

Click here for a copy of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Expression of Interest form.

Scholarships

UNE offers a number of different competitive scholarship schemes for postgraduate research students. To find out more about these scholarships, or to apply for a scholarship please visit our UNE HDR Scholarships page.