Milestones
The University is committed to providing structured progress management to all HDR Candidates to ensure satisfactory progress is being made by identifying and supporting you to address progress issues which may arise during enrolment. Your progression is supported by a sequence of activities that include up to three milestone reviews. They are designed to support and facilitate your progress towards your thesis submission date, providing you with an opportunity to receive structured feedback on progress to date.
Milestone reviews must consider quality and progress, your plans for professional development to facilitate and finalise high quality, ethical and timely research, under the guidance of appropriate supervision.
Milestones provide an opportunity for HDR Candidates to raise any issues that are affecting progress, so that action to address these issues can be considered and implemented where appropriate.
For more information about the HDR Milestones, please see the following pages and refer to the HDR Milestones Policy.
Confirmation of Candidature - Milestone 1
Mid-Point Milestone - Milestone 2
Annual Review (For candidates without a milestone review in a twelve month period)
Doctoral Candidates must undertake three milestones and Masters by Research Candidates must undertake two. Draft chapters of the thesis, or Yes – PHD ONLY Thesis Chapter or writing sample - drawn from introductory section of the thesis (e.g., developed literature review or methodology). Creative Practice PHD ONLY– includes a sample of creative work and a piece of scholarly writing of about equal length from the critical project. The Milestone Review Panel is responsible for assessing and making determinations as to whether a HDR Candidate has met the relevant criteria to pass a milestone. Panel Membership will consist of: The discipline representative may also be called the expert reader and is the panel member who will review any written requirements as part of the milestone. During the meeting you will be interviewed separately and together with the supervision team. During the meeting the supervisors exit and you will have the opportunity to have a confidential discussion about supervision, to review your Study Access Plan (if applicable), or to raise other concerns. Subsequently the candidate exits while the committee discusses the supervision and the candidate’s progress in confidence. The decisions available to the Milestone Review Panel are: You may apply for an extension to your milestone given extenuating circumstances. The Milestone Extension form must be completed and submitted to the Graduate Research School no later than two (2) weeks prior to the originally timed milestone. You may only be granted a maximum of two (2) months extension to the milestone deadline. If an extension is granted, future milestones will not move forward and it will not extend any period of candidature. If you are undertaking mandatory coursework as part of your degree, you may be eligible for a milestone extension.Full-time equivalent Milestones Masters by Research Candidate Timing Doctoral Candidate Timing Induction including Supervision Agreement form submission 3 months FTE after commencement 3 months FTE after commencement Confirmation of Candidate (Milestone 1) 6 months FTE after commencement 12 months FTE after commencement Mid-Point Review (Milestone 2) N/A 24 months FTE after commencement Thesis Review (Milestone 3) 18 months FTE after commencement 36 months FTE after commencement Milestone Requirements Confirmation of Candidature Mid-Point Review Thesis Review A research proposal (confirmation of candidature) including a budget and completion timeline. Yes No No Progress
report outlining what has been achieved since prior milestone and a
timetable for completing the remaining research and writing, achievement
of the goals set and obstacles encountered. No Yes Yes Evidence of completion of compulsory Inductions and Training and listed in the Research Development Training Guide Yes No No
equivalent in draft or published papers, as deemed appropriate for the discipline. No set word count- seek advice of Principal Supervisor for discipline norms.Yes — draft
dissertation
requiredYes — draft
dissertation
required
in addition to preliminary pages (abstract, declarations, keywords,
table of contents) plus a sample page of the works cited.Evidence of peer review of written work since the previous milestone OR
Submit a writing sample for review to a discipline representative/expert reader who is not a member of the supervision team.
OR
A
referee’s report on a journal article based on a thesis chapter,
editorial feedback on a book chapter or a sample of creative writing
from the thesis, or an email containing feedback on a draft thesis
chapter from an academic mentor or a member of a disciplinary research
network.No Yes – feedback on at least one piece of new written work (from or directly relevant to thesis – 2,500 words Yes Sample page of works cited in the thesis (bibliography). No No Yes Any other requirements the school deems necessary. Yes Yes Yes
