PGSDP: For Part-time and Distance Students
Part-time and distance students bring a tremendous amount of experience and skills with them, which greatly benefit their doctoral research and the University community. However, at times beginning away from campus can make life more difficult. You may feel that you are unable to access the same support network that full-time on-campus postgraduate researchers (PGRs) do. Through the Postgraduate Skills Development Programme (PGSDP), we want to try our best to make sure that this is not the case. We have designed our programme so that even if you can not attend our face-to-face workshops, you can still benefit from our skills training. We have done this by developing a range of online resources and one-to-one support.
Online resources
We have created a new, interactive space for University of Surrey PGRs, The SurreyResearchers Blog. In this space is a variety of online training resources that compliment and extend our face-to-face training. We have also created online groups around specific topics: ‘Welcome to Your PhD’, ‘Confirmation and Beyond’, ‘the Writing Club’, ‘Everything Posters’ and ‘EndNote User forum’. Any University of Surrey PGR can join these groups, which have specific resource, advice and discussion boards. All you have to do is email us and ask to join.
We also have an online Action Planner to help you create a plan for your professional development. This resource is introduced in our ‘Welcome to YOUR PhD' workshop. The skills development training recommendations consist of advice, suggested online resources and face-to-face workshops to consider. If you cannot attend a face-to-face workshop because you are not able to make it to campus, please see our options for one-to-one support.
The Library has also put together an online repository, which includes an array of online materials covering a variety of generic topics such as writing, numeracy, statistics and presentation skills. It should be useful to students at all levels, including PGRs.
One-to-One Support
If you can not make it to our face-to-face workshops, because you are not able to make it to campus, we will still be able to support you. We are happy to make an appointment with you and provide one-to-one training on any of the transferable skills topics covered in our workshops, academic writing support, careers advice or presentation practice. The most popular way we do this is by making an appointment with you at a time when you are already scheduled to come to campus to meet with your supervisor. If you have a visit planned email us well in advance and we will do our best to accommodate your timetable. If this option does not work, because you are not going to come to campus or cannot fit in an appointment, we can make arrangements to talk via instant messaging, Skype or 'phone.
Please email for more information or to make an appointment:
Request a writing skills appointment
Request a transferable skills appointment
Request some careers advice
Arrange a time for presentation practice