During a doctorate, doctoral researchers are encouraged to develop a range of skills, knowledge and experience. These will be invaluable to you in completing your doctorate on time and in your future chosen career.
The Doctoral College offers a variety of free workshops, events and other resources through our Doctoral Development Programme.
Training workshops
Doctoral researchers can access a variety of different workshops in the Doctoral Development Programme. Workshops mostly run online, and take place in both semesters. Themes include:
- Academic skills such as reading strategically and critical thinking
- Social media for researchers
- Influence and negotiation
- Presentation skills
- Career development
- Research methods
- Writing masterclasses to support you writing your thesis
- Information skills and data management
- Open research/open access
- Time management
- Imposter syndrome
- Motivation
- Productivity
- Project Management
- Supervision
Development programmes
We offer a number of development programmes for doctoral researchers to develop their skills:
Resilient Leadership in Action
A three week online leadership development programme, in collaboration with 10 other UK institutions, for doctoral researchers to practice their leadership skills in various contexts under the observation of a Coach. During the programme, each participant will get the chance to lead and reflect on their learning. The programme makes use of buddies, peer learning groups as well as a little bit of theory.
3MT Development programme
Our 3MT competition has a built in programme of support. Throughout the programme, doctoral researchers will get the chance to attend workshops, access feedback on practice sessions and work with a 1:1 coach to develop their communication skills.
Writing Retreats
During Research Focus Weeks, we offer both in-person and virtual writing retreats to support doctoral researchers with their writing goals. Writing retreats give you protected and focused time to work on your writing in the company of a facilitator and other peers.