PhD workshops

UCD Graduate Studies invites all incoming graduate students on a research programme (i.e Doctoral, MD and Research Master’s degree programmes) to attend our graduate orientation programme on Wednesday, 5th February 2025 from 10:00- 13:00 in Quinn School of Business. 

This event is intended to give research students a helpful overview of key information and supports at UCD as well as an opportunity for you to meet other incoming research students from across the University.

Register for Orientation 2024/25 here.

Many graduate students cite getting and dealing with feedback from their supervisors as one of the most frustrating areas of candidature. You can wait for ages and when it comes it’s not what you wanted. Feedback is essential to help you make progress and improve the quality of you outputs. But if you just say “give me feedback” you are leaving it completely up to chance. So what can you do to ensure you get the feedback you need?

This workshop will look at asking more specific questions and being clear about the type of feedback you want. It will cover:

• create your big picture thesis plan
• when to get feedback
• how to ask
• getting timely feedback
• feedback on writing, feedback on performance, on everything
• written and verbal feedback
• interpreting feedback
• dealing with the emotional reaction to feedback
• how to respond to feedback
• how do you manage the feedback you didn’t want?

Toolkit and know how to use it to plan your PhD

Mapping your ideas is a creative way to organise your thinking. There are a range of tools such as concept maps, mind maps or idea maps.

These mapping techniques are used all over the world by students, teachers, researchers and in business as a way of improving learning and increasing creativity. They can be used to: organise the content and ideas in your thesis, structure a paper or report you need to write, prepare your lecture or presentation, or record brainstorming sessions. They are effective, easy to use and most of all FUN. In this workshop you will learn by doing. You will see how a idea map is created and then create your own using your own topic.

The workshop will include opportunities for you to use idea mapping with your own project. So bring along your ideas (and some coloured pencils)!

This is a learning by doing workshop. You will get to try out different approaches, see what others do and get guidance and suggestions on how you can get the most out of idea maps. In the workshop you will:

• Find out about the different types of maps (concept, mind, idea)
• Learn guidelines you can apply in developing maps
• See examples of idea maps
• Use maps to boost creativity
• Find out about further resources

Getting your thesis finished (quicker!)

This course will teach you how to maximise your writing output and how to overcome common obstacles that reduce your writing productivity by:

• setting a goal and guaranteeing you achieve it
• producing double the number of words compared to your usual output
• get more written in two hours a day than in eight
• dealing with writer's block and procrastination
• not obsessing over the quality of writing
• not letting distractions get in the way of your writing
• not thinking your writing or research is good enough
• working well with your supervisor to improve your writing
• actually finishing your research on the date you set!

A PhD is a major undertaking yet many people spend more time planning a weekend away than they do planning the next four years of their life. This generally leads to missing deadlines, running overtime, regular crises and lots of stress. If you want to finish on time and enjoy the process along the way then it is important to have a good plan.

You need some very specific skills and tools to plan a PhD. This workshop will introduce you to the PhD Planning Toolkit. You will learn how to use these tools to:

• create your big picture thesis plan
• unpack your thesis down into logical parts
• create tasks lists for each stage of your thesis
• estimate times and schedule tasks
• create a Gantt chart for your thesis
• keep on track as you implement your plan
• plan your writing
• manage the finances
• identify risks and deal with setbacks

At the end of the workshop you will have your own PhD Planning Toolkit and know how to use it to plan your PhD.

Why successful people often feel like frauds

How can it be that so many clever, competent and capable people can feel that they are just one step away from being exposed as a complete fraud? Despite evidence that they are performing well they can still have that lurking fear that at any moment someone is going to tap them on the shoulder and say "We need to have a chat".

The session will explain why high performing people often doubt their abilities and find it hard to enjoy their successes. It will also show the links to perfectionism and self-handicapping strategies such as procrastination, avoidance and overcommitment.

At the end of this session you will:

• know what the latest psychological research tells us about the impostor syndrome is and how it operates
• realise how widespread imposter feelings are and why highly successful people can feel like frauds
• be aware of evidence-based strategies that reduce impostor feelings

No matter how well you prepare for your presentation, the part that freaks out most researchers is question time.

• What if there are no questions?
• What if they ask really tricky questions that I can’t answer?
• Worse, what if they ask really easy questions that I can’t answer?
• What do I do if I don’t know the answer?
• What do I do if I can’t understand the question?

Fortunately, you can prepare for question time. You can predict and get ready for most of the obvious questions. And you can learn strategies to deal with the others. Topics will include:

• Preparing for questions
• Inviting questions
• Dealing with tricky questions
• What to do if you don’t know
• Coping with the anxiety
• Lists of typical questions
• Asking questions

The UCD Writing Centre provides free, one-to-one tuition and a range of workshops on all aspects of the writing process for UCD students. The Centre runs specific supports for research students, such as (opens in a new window)Writing on Wednesdays (WOW) starting October 2024. 

Suitable for all stages

The UCD Library offers a plethora of supports to help students become accomplished researchers. The Library has developed a bespoke suite of workshops for research students called theResearch Toolkit, covering topics such as:

• finding and using information
• your digital identity as a researcher
• promoting your research
• publishing with impact
• data management planning
• searching for systemic reviews 
• GIS
• mapping and timeline tools for visualising your research

Suitable for all stages

UCD has a dedicated Careers Consultant for Graduate Research Students. This position is currently occupied by Tara Hughes ((opens in a new window)tara.hughes@ucd.ie). Tara offers one-on-one consultations and a suite of career-focused workshops across the academic year, which support research students in identifying their career path, their strengths and skill sets as well as tools and tips for enhancing CVs and interview skills. These workshops are advertised on the Career’s Network and Graduate Studies Website. Tara can be contacted directly for one-on-one careers sessions.

Suitable for all stages

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23 Things International is a unique global collaboration of research universities (11 in 2022) in the northern and southern hemispheres. This online programme introduces researchers to powerful online research tools for all disciplines, has targeted blogs, podcasts and pods, where research students from around the world can get to know each other by working through the activities. 23 Things opens for registration in February each year.

Suitable for all stages

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