Induction and Orientation

All higher degree students enrolling in the School of Medical Sciences (SOMS) must be inducted and a couple of months later fill in an orientation form with their supervisors.

Graduate Student Induction

The supervisor should, within the first few days of the student's arrival, introduce the student to the Head of Department, Postgraduate Coordinator and Research Administrator, the Grievance Officer, and to as many of the school staff and postgraduate students as is convenient. The student should also be familiarised with the departmental procedures and regulations for after hour’s entry into the building and security, photocopying, telephones, library procedures, stationary, ordering process, etc.

Initial Orientation Meeting and Form

Following detailed discussions about the proposed project, the student and the supervisors (joint supervisor or co-supervisor) will fill in and sign the Orientation Report Form (.doc) which will then be forwarded to the Research Administrator .The Orientation Report Form covers the following points.

1. Enrolment Details

Student ID and name, etc. For email address, please use University email account (…..@unsw.edu.au).

2. Candidature Details

Course codes are:

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD): 1750 (Anatomy), 1780 (Pathology), 1790 (Physiology and Pharmacology)
• Master of Science (MSc): 2800 (Anatomy), 2840 (Pathology), 2850 (Physiology and Pharmacology)
• Doctor of Medicine (MD): 0420 (Anatomy), 0360 (Pathology), 0370 (Physiology and Pharmacology).

Supervisors. It is the policy of the University that every student should have at least 2 supervisors: either 2 joint supervisors or 1 supervisor and a co-supervisor.

Review Panel. The supervisor chooses the review panel that is most appropriate to review the student's progress. The membership of each review panel can be found on Review Panels in the Review Process Section. Both the supervisor and student should be aware of the review procedure in the School as outlined in that document.

3. Project Details

The title is only provisional. The overview must be brief.

4. Training and Resources

Skills and Training. In some cases, the student may have been chosen because of certain skills or a certain knowledge in a particular field. In other cases, the supervisor may want to give additional training to the student for the project to proceed (eg animal handling).

Agreed Resources. The resources which will be provided for the student by the supervisor in the laboratory or the School. The minimum is a desk, a computer with internet access and a draw in a filing cabinet.

5. Guideline Awareness

Both the student and the supervisor should have read and understood the rules and procedures for postgraduate studies and supervision. Generic rules can be found at Policy and Procedures on the Graduate Research School Website. Both the student and the supervisor should also have read the Review Process rules of the School.
First time supervisors will have to attend a compulsory training workshop organized by the Graduate Research School. Further information is available at Supervisor Training.

6. Comments

Any comment regarding the candidature or the project.

7. Occupational Health and Safety Training Checklist

It is essential that all new postgraduate research students complete Occupational Health and Safety training in areas relevant to their field of research as soon as possible after commencing study. To ensure that this training is completed, the student and supervisor should complete the checklist provided.

The courses listed are provided free of charge by the Occupational Health and Safety and Workers Compensation Unit (OHS&WC) and many are held at regular intervals (for list and dates of courses, programs and on-line registration form, see OHS Training on the Human Resources website.

The student is responsible for booking into these courses using the on-line registration form provided at OHS Training . Please note: under training coordinator, enter Jennifer Hartley, the SOMS OHS Coordinator

Supervisors should also note that the RMU provides training programs in OHS Risk Management for Supervisors.

8. Signatures

The student, the supervisor, the co-supervisor or joint supervisor will then sign the induction form indicating that they have read and understood their responsibilities. The Form will be forwarded to the Postgraduate Coordinator and a new entry will be made in the School Database.

Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement

Both the student and the supervisors should disclose any potential conflict of interest at the beginning of the project (eg, personal or familial relationship between supervisor and student and private or commercial financial support). Both the student and the supervisor fill and sign a Part 1 Declaration form. Part 2 declaration form should only be filled if a potential conflict of interest has been declared in Part 1