Research student training in Aberdeen

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The School of Law's own training programme

The School of Law runs an extensive research student training programme, approved by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in 2003/04.

Each research student, upon commencement of their research degree, receives a copy of the Law School’s Research Student Training Handbook. The Handbook sets out procedures governing research student training and contains a menu of the training courses available.

All students receive training in core generic skills by attending the compulsory Core Skills for Research Students course, taken in year 1 of the degree programme. This comprises 14 two-hour seminars covering topics including: an introduction to being a research student in the Law School; information strategy and sources; the nature of a thesis; legal research methods; planning and time management; managing the student-supervisor relationship; writing skills; citation, referencing and plagiarism; and presentation skills. At the end of the course, a research student conference takes place, at which all research students are required to give a presentation.

Personal and career development skills are addressed by workshops aimed at students in their second or third year of study. Workshops are normally offered on subjects such as Preparing for the Viva, Preparing for an Academic Career, and, for students undertaking teaching duties, Teaching Skills.

Subject specific skills are developed in conjunction with the research student’s supervisory team: all students in the Law School have two supervisors with different areas of expertise. Research students are welcome to draw on the full range of expertise within the 40+ full-time academic staff of the Law School if they need subject specific advice outside the expertise of their supervisors. In addition, research students are normally welcome to take any of the taught courses offered by the Law School, subject to the number of students already registered for the course and the approval of the course co-ordinator.

Research student training is supported by the co-ordinator of the research student training programme, Dr Catherine Ng, and research students are encouraged to discuss with him any training needs they have that are not covered by the programmes presently on offer.

Other training opportunities within the University

In addition to the training opportunities that take place within the Law School, research students in law are welcome to take advantage of the research training opportunities offered elsewhere within the University of Aberdeen.

Every October, the College of Arts and Social Sciences (of which the Law School is part) runs a two-day induction programme for new research students, covering information about the University and the research degree process and allowing students studying within the College to get to know each other. The College also supports an annual postgraduate conference bringing together a range of different disciplines, including law: for more information, click here.

The University’s ASPIRE programme (Aberdeen Skills for Postgraduate Innovation, Research & Employability) offers courses in a variety of generic skills. ASPIRE has been specially designed to offer research students training opportunities with the aim of helping them complete their project successfully and on-time, and of enhancing their employability once they graduate. For more information, click here.

The University of Aberdeen Language Centre offers language classes at a variety of levels and courses on Academic Writing and Communication Skills for students whose first language is not English. For details, click here.

The University of Aberdeen’s Directorate of Information Systems and Services offers courses in software packages including Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint and RefWorks. For details, click here.