Support for Research Students

THE AUSTRALIAN CENTRE POSTGRADUATE CENTRE

The Australian Centre offers postgraduate students a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with a variety of resources in its Postgraduate Centre. Located in Building B at 149 Barry Street, facilities include both PC and Mac computers, a laser printer and a telephone for study-related purposes. A kitchen is also available for postgraduate use. In addition, the Chris Wallace-Crabbe library is available for postgraduate use as a study and discussion area.

The Postgraduate Centre is open during regular office hours. Out of hours access for full-time postgraduate students can be organised through the Postgraduate Officer, Ms. Rachel Ritson.

Other support and resources provided by the Faculty of Arts.

LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

The Australian Centre has a small but very rich collection of reference materials in its library.

The Chris Wallace-Crabbe Library
Housed in Room 211, Building A at 137 Barry Street, the library contains a wide range of poetry, fiction, history and biography, with a strong emphasis on Australian literature. The Centre also has a substantial collection of Australian journals and magazines. The collection is available to researchers and postgraduate students for research use, but there are no provisions for borrowing. The library is also available to postgraduate research students as a study and discussion area.

The Davies Collection
Professor Alan Davies was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Melbourne in 1946, and was Professor of Political Science from 1968 until his premature death in 1987. Mr Stephen Davies generously donated his father's library to the Centre in 1991. The collection comprises over 2,000 books and periodicals with particular strength in the fields of politics, sociology, psychology and psychotherapy, and reflects Professor Davis’ professional interest in dream interpretation.

Examples of past theses
Past Masters and PhD theses are available for consultation by current students and researchers. For access to these collections, contact the Postgraduate Officer, Ms. Rachel Ritson, rachelr@unimelb.edu.au, 8344 6864

FUNDING SUPPORT

Australian Centre funding support for conferences and research expenses
The Australian Centre makes available by application an annual grant to support postgraduate research expenses, such as funding conference registrations, research travel or field research purposes, and other expenses such as commercial transcription of interviews and archival photocopying expenses.

A maximum of $500 per annum is available for each full-time student and $250 per annum for each part-time student. Grant applications are submitted to the postgraduate officer, Ms. Rachel Ritson, by 30 May each year.

Arts Faculty and University funding support
The Faculty of Arts funds postgraduate research students’ research travel (for fieldwork or for conferences) under the Travel for Research in Postgraduate Study (TRIPS) scheme.

The Faculty also funds Completion and Publication schemes. These provide scholarships of up to 3 months (full-time) for students who are close to completion (Completion Awards), and for students who have submitted their thesis to prepare their work for publication (Publication Awards).

In addition, the University has several programs including Postgraduate Overseas Research Experience Scholarships (PORES) and the Melbourne Abroad Scholarships Scheme (MATS).

OTHER RESOURCES IN THE AUSTRALIAN CENTRE

Student representation
The Australian Centre currently supervises well over 40 postgraduates researching and writing in a wide range of disciplines and interests. Each year a postgraduate representative is appointed from the student body to represent the interests of postgraduates at meetings, circulate postgraduate information and help coordinate postgraduate seminars.

Tutoring opportunities
The Australian Centre offers postgraduate students the opportunity to apply for sessional tutoring during their candidature, to gain experience in teaching as well as earn extra income. The Centre Manager will send out a call for expressions of interest at the beginning of each semester. You should discuss with your Principal Supervisor whether it is advisable to take on tutoring, to ensure this work is balanced with making progress on your research.

University of Melbourne Postgraduate Association
The University of Melbourne Postgraduate Association Inc. (UMPA) is the student representative body for postgraduate research students. UMPA has over 9,000 members and speaks up within the university and in the wider community to help postgraduates and improve postgraduate education, research and welfare. For information about services provided by UMPA, visit the gradcentre website.

Photocopying
Students have access to a PIN-operated photocopier, and are given an allowance of 200 free copies. Additional copying may be available in special circumstances.

Equipment
The Centre makes available for loan to its postgraduate students a range of equipment, including laptop computers, interview recorders, transcription machines and digital cameras.

Mail
A postgraduate student pigeonhole is provided in the Centre Office for students to collect incoming mail. Research-related mail may be posted out from the Centre Office.

Dial-in access entitlements
All PhD, Masters and Postgraduate Diploma students in the University are entitled to dial-in access, enabling external access to university email and internet accounts. There is currently a guaranteed allowance of ten hours per month for each postgraduate student. Further information on dial-in access can be obtained at http://www.its.unimelb.edu.au/dialin.html.

Inter-library loan vouchers and how to get them
The University library imposes a $6.00 minimum charge on inter-library loans (whether or not the loan request is successful). Vouchers for paying the cost of these loan requests are available from the Centre Office, 137 Barry Street.

Gradflash
The School of Graduate Studies distributes an excellent email newsletter, with notices about upcoming seminars, skills sessions and policy changes. It is well worth subscribing to Gradflash at http://www.gradstudies.unimelb.edu.au/gradflash/.