Resources and support

Resources and support

RMIT offer a vast range of resources and support services for Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates to give you the best chance of success.

Your HDR support team

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The University provides academic supervision for all Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates to make sure you’re fully supported during research projects. Candidates are assigned at least two supervisors who are experts in a specific field. Learn more about supervisor relationships.

The School of Graduate Research supports research training at RMIT. This includes: 

  • Admissions 
  • Scholarships 
  • Research Training Services or RTS (administration and support throughout candidature) 
  • Submissions and examinations.

Contact the School of Graduate Research’s Research Training Services (RTS) team via Student Connect.

Each School has a HDR DA who provides support for HDR candidates. Talk to your HDR DA about any issues that can’t be resolved by your supervisory team. They can also help you get access to resources for conducting your research.

Contact your HDR Student Representative if you have suggestions for improvement or would like to raise issues of concern. They may be able to help improve the student experience for you and your peers. 

HDR Student Representatives also organise regular catch ups with their respective College to make sure the student experience is kept front of mind. 

Your HDR DA can provide you with contact details for your College and/or School representative.

For more information on HDR travel and funding, please refer to the following sites:

Platforms, tools and resources

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Systems you may use during your candidature include:

  • Enrolment Online – Use Enrolment Online to manage your enrolment at RMIT at the start of your HDR and throughout your candidature
  • Canvas – Use Canvas to access course content and announcements, submit assignments, and receive grades and feedback
  • Student email
  • Researcher Portal – Includes information about research integrity and ethics, and resources on research engagement and impact
  • iThenticate – checks text similarity in research outputs including draft manuscripts, journal articles, book chapters and books, and draft theses prior to publication and/or HDR examination. It protects intellectual property while allowing researchers to identify potential errors in citation and attribution
    RMIT research staff, students and HDR candidates can access the service via this link: http://www.rmit.edu.au/iThenticate
    Need help using iThenticate? Check out iThenticate resources, turnitin's iThenticate user guides or turnitin's Support Centre
  • Qualtrics – Used to conduct and analyse online surveys. Log in to Qualtrics with your RMIT details
  • SafetyNow, RMIT’s Safety Risk Management System – used to report safety hazards and incidents
  • Val GenAI Chatbot – Val is RMIT’s generative artificial intelligence tool – it’s just like ChatGPT, but private, secure and free for RMIT students to use.

IT provisions:

For information on HDR IT provisions, please refer to the following sites:

Storage of research data must comply with all relevant RMIT policies and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. For more information about research data and how to manage it, visit RMIT Library's Research Data Management Subject Guide.

What date do you need to store?

Storage solution

Key features

How to access

Store small to medium amounts of data. Cannot provide access to other researchers.

 

 

OneDrive
  • MFA protected
  • One user access (can be shared for draft purposes)
  • Version history available
  • Off-campus access
  • 1 TB storage (individual file size of 250 GB).

Go to free software and apps to download the whole Microsoft 365 (Office 365) suite, including OneDrive.

For more information on OneDrive, visit the M365 Information Hub.

Store research data and provide access to research collaborators.

 

Nectar
  • Supported by Australian government and linked with RMIT
  • You can retain the data here after your research project.
  • Secure cloud based system.

Contact the Australian Research Data Commons for Nectar access and support. 

Temporarily storing data when working offsite.

Laptop, removable disc, hard drive
  • Vulnerable to loss or damage
  • Should only be used as a temporary storage solution
  • No back up

Remember to back up this data at RMIT.

You can set up your laptop so that the data is backed up every time you log in at RMIT

Qualtrics is an advanced web-based application for building, distributing and analysing online surveys. Qualtrics is free for all RMIT students and staff. It is easy to use and makes developing sophisticated web surveys simple.

Data collected using Qualtrics is secure and the RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee recommends Qualtrics for collecting privacy-sensitive surveys.

If you need access to research resources throughout your candidature, contact your HDR Delegated Authority (HDR DA). Resources they can help you with include: 

Make sure to learn about your Responsibilities as a Researcher.

RMIT uses a lot of acronyms. Check out the research acronym glossary to discover common terms you may come across throughout your research career.

Study support

Study pods in the RMIT City Campus library.

RMIT Library

The RMIT Library offers a range of resources across campuses and online including a specialised research support team for HDR candidates.

Two students study together on campus.

Research Plus

The Research Plus program offers PhD and Masters by Research candidates a range of workshops, seminars and short courses to build research knowledge and skills.

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Learning Lab

The Learning Lab offers modules and resources that will familiarise candidates with functional skills that are crucial for HDR courses, including referencing, writing and research integrity.

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A simple guide to excellent research presentations (PDF)

This presentation and panel discussion outlines the important things that any researcher should and should not do when giving a presentation.

Further assistance

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Personal and wellbeing support

RMIT offers a vast range of student support services including counselling, study support, legal support and financial support.

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Information Technology (IT) support

IT Service Connect can assist with information technology requests, enquiries or issues.

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International students

Support and resources for international students studying with RMIT, including accommodation and health cover requirements.

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Candidate Action and Support Plan (CASP)

Sometimes HDR journeys aren’t smooth. A CASP is designed to help candidates get back on track by enabling tailored academic and wellbeing assistance.

Statistical consultancy service

Looking for some help with your stats? The School of Graduate Research offers a non-cost consultancy service that might be just what you need to push your research project to the next stage. Our consultants work with you to help you understand published quantitative results, research design, software and data analysis. 

  • You can arrange up to seven no-cost sessions, and then by negotiation.
  • 45 minutes per session.
  • Online or in person at Building 80, RMIT City Campus.

We encourage you to meet with consultants before your first milestone so that you get the most out of their expertise.

This service is led by Professor Ashton de Silva in the Department of Economics. Ashton has over 20 years of HDR management, supervision and consulting experience. The team includes Dr Yonatan Navon who has international consultancy experience. 

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

More information