Hello HDR crew,
As you might have read in an email a few weeks back, we will be making some changes to the HDR Connect discussion space and adding some HDR social events to the calendar to improve the ways you can connect with the HDR community. To help us provide the experiences and opportunities you want, we are seeking your feedback through two short surveys. Feel free to jump straight to the survey buttons, or you can continue reading to find out more about the surveys and how we used last year’s Annual HDR Student Satisfaction Survey results to inform their content. We appreciate you taking the time to provide us with feedback about the HDR community you want us to help you build.
What are the surveys about?
In the HDR Connect Survey, we would like you to provide feedback about the discussion channels you would like to see added to HDR Connect so we can make it the space you want. The survey also includes a place to submit name suggestions for the new discussion channels.
In the HDR Social Events Survey, we want your feedback to help us understand the types of social events you want the OGR or your college to offer.
How did you decide what to include in the surveys?
In both surveys, the suggestions you are voting on are based on the feedback provided in last year’s Annual HDR Student Satisfaction Survey. However, if something is missing from the list, there is also a space for you to provide feedback about additional activities or Teams channels for the HDR community to consider.
Why two surveys?
This is out of respect for those candidates who have previously expressed that they have an established peer and/or professional network and are not interested in OGR social activities. If this is you, we would still really value your feedback about HDR connect, as this is a space for research-related discussions as well as forming social connections. Note: The Annual HDR Student Satisfaction Survey and these surveys are anonymous – so if you have changed your perspective about the value of social events feel free to respond to both😊
I’m busy doing my research, why should I care about being social?
During your HDR journey, your social connections play an important role in shaping your sense of belonging. Friends and family may not understand what you are researching or why you spend such long hours locked away from the world. Your supervisors, colleagues and officemates may be helpful soundboards for your work, but they are probably not the best outlet to regularly vent to – especially if they are the source of some or all of your frustrations. This is why connecting with peers who are also on the HDR journey is important. However, forming and maintaining social connections during the research journey can be challenging. The pressure to stay on track with your research can be difficult to juggle with the other responsibilities in your life. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking you do not have time to be social, but the doctoral literature reveals that your social network contributes to both your researcher identity and success (see Manatai, 2019). Additionally, poor work-life balance and lower levels of social support are risk factors for poor well-being among doctoral students (see articles by Hazell et al., 2020, and Okoro et al., 2022). So we encourage you to reflect on your PhD network and look for opportunities to nurture existing or form new social connections.
HDR Connect Survey
The HDR Connect space was created earlier this year, in response to last year’s Annual HDR Student Satisfaction Survey. This was because some of you requested a place to connect with the HDR community outside of the constraints of FLO discussion forums. The general sentiment concerning FLO was that the pace of communication (time delayed posts and slow notification system) impacts the quality of your connection with others. However, aside from the fortnightly seminar, the HDR Connect discussion space has been pretty quiet. We want to change this by creating new discussion channels within Teams so you can find a place to converse with others who have similar questions and concerns.
To tell us about the discussion spaces you want please click this survey link or click the yellow speech bubble survey button below.
HDR Social Events Survey
In last year’s Annual HDR Student Satisfaction Survey results there were many requests for opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals through in-person and online social activities. COVID has continued to limit the delivery of in-person workshops and social events, where you would usually connect with other HDR candidates from across the university. However, we are currently evaluating what opportunities we can provide in the coming months. We have gathered the individual suggestions from last year’s survey and would now like to know more about the ways you want to connect with specific HDR groups (I.e., within colleges, with candidates at similar points in their research journey and/or enrolment mode such as part-time, external etc.) for social networking and to discuss research related matters.
Click this survey link or the yellow speech bubble survey button below to tell us about the opportunities you want to experience during your HDR journey.
