Postgraduate Research Projects Research Articles

"We are families too": LGBT experiences and demands for access to Surrogacy in Argentina

Surrogacy (GS) has been established as a means of access to male homoparenting and, despite not being regulated in Argentina, it is negotiated in a "paralegal" scenario. For some time now, LGBT organizations have proposed regulation based on the argument that GS represents the only option available for a male homosexual couple to have a child with a genetic link, albeit with only one of them, and consecutively acknowledge the family ties of both. By means of ethnographic work carried out within the scope of a postgraduate research project, our objective is to ascertain the experiences of male homosexual couples who seek the legitimacy of GS processes and equal access to the healthcare system. With this in mind, we seek a reflection that articulates the construction of public health policies and the claims of sectors of the LGBT movement, focusing on the meanings of the collective experience, on the ways in which these actors organize their family demands, and on the conceptions and practices that articulate these claims with the production of public policies.

A beginner’s guide to bioinformatics

Bioinformatics has revolutionized the modern life sciences and has become a component of many undergraduate training courses and post-graduate research projects. As such, we are seeing more bioinformatics and programming aspects within undergraduate training and so it is important to understand what bioinformatics is, why it is a necessity in modern research and how young academics can begin their journey as bioinformaticians. This article outlines the broad spectrum of what bioinformatics is used for within research labs and provides several resources for beginners to learn how to code and perform bioinformatic tasks.

Support mechanisms for research generation and application for postgraduate students in four universities in Uganda

BackgroundA large proportion of postgraduate students the world over complete a research thesis in partial fulfilment of their degree requirements. This study identified and evaluated support mechanisms for research generation and utilization for masters’ students in health institutions of higher learning in Uganda.MethodsThis was a self-administered cross-sectional survey using a modified self-assessment tool for research institutes (m-SATORI). Postgraduate students were randomly selected from four medical or public health Ugandan universities at Makerere, Mbarara, Nkozi and Mukono and asked to circle the most appropriate response on a Likert scale from 1, where the “situation was unfavourable and/or there was a need for an intervention”, to 5, where the “situation was good or needed no intervention”. These questions were asked under four domains: the research question; knowledge production, knowledge transfer and promoting use of evidence. Mean scores of individual questions and aggregate means under the four domains were computed and then compared to identify areas of strengths and gaps that required action.ResultsMost of the respondents returned their questionnaires, 185 of 258 (71.7%), and only 79 of these (42.7%) had their theses submitted for examination. The majority of the respondents were male (57.3%), married or cohabiting (58.4%), and were medical doctors (71.9%) from Makerere University (50.3%). The domain proposal development for postgraduate research project had the highest mean score of 3.53 out of the maximum 5. Three of the four domains scored below the mid-level domain score of 3, that is, the situation is neither favourable nor unfavourable. Areas requiring substantial improvements included priority-setting during research question identification, which had the lowest mean score of 2.12. This was followed by promoting use of postgraduate research products, tying at mean scores of 2.28 each. The domain knowledge transfer of postgraduate research products had an above-average mean score of 2.75.ConclusionsThis study reports that existing research support mechanisms for postgraduate students in Uganda encourage access to supervisors and mentors during proposal development. Postgraduate students’ engagement with research users was limited in priority-setting and knowledge transfer. Since supervisors and mentors views were not captured, future follow-on research could tackle this aspect.

Coordinating invasive alien species management in a biodiversity hotspot: The CAPE Invasive Alien Animals Working Group

Background: The effectiveness of invasive alien species management in South Africa, and elsewhere, can be mproved by ensuring there are strong links and feedbacks between science and management. The CAPE Invasive Alien Animals Working Group (CAPE IAAWG) was established in 2008 to enhance cooperation among stakeholders such as implementing agencies and researchers, and thereby improve the management of invasive animals in the Greater Cape Floristic Region.Objectives: In this article we highlight where and how the working group has advanced our understanding of research and the implementation of management objectives and consider the working group’s successes and failures.Methods: We analyse the attendance of meetings by different stakeholders and the frequency of discussion topics on meeting agendas throughout the sequence of meetings from 2008 to 2019. We document insights based on published accounts or the experiences of the authors from eight different management projects.Results: Meetings are attended by stakeholders from NGOs, universities, and local, provincial and national government agencies as well as private individuals. Topics of discussion ranged from details of specific alien animal invasions (e.g. the House Crow in Cape Town), to considering the risks posed by broad groups (e.g. earthworms), to specific management techniques (e.g. guidelines for trapping invasive alien birds). Through the eight projects described here the CAPE IAAWG has: (i) contributed to capacity building through funding and advising on post-graduate research projects; (ii) provided ad hoc support to staff of agencies that implement invasive alien animal control; (iii) acted as a focal point for a community of practice that is supportive of decision making and policy development; and (iv) played a vital role in linking research, management and policy in a manner accessible to a broader range of stakeholders. The projects undertaken by the group reveal several lessons for managing invasive animals: (i) the importance of logistics and contract efficiency, (ii) the need for effective stakeholder engagement by the project team, (iii) the need to effectively address conflicts between role players, and (iv) the importance of including ethical and animal rights considerations in the decision making processes.Conclusion: The CAPE IAAWG has been a valuable forum to improve management effectiveness and support implementation decisions. Due to its small cost and time footprint, the working group has remained viable and retained a core of committed members, ensuring ongoing institutional buy-in. The working group will remain successful so long as the group is supported by its members and their organisations.

Applying Gadamer’s “Prejudices” to a Grounded Theory Study

Interpretation and analysis of qualitative data inevitably involves a collision with one’s own lived experience. This paper reflects on a postgraduate research project that employed the methodology of grounded theory to determine themes around the meaning that individuals in a school community give to the term spirituality. Reflecting on the process has highlighted ways in which unexamined personal assumptions were at play as the researcher conducted analysis, influencing the interpretation of data. It is argued here that in researching the concept of spirituality, which is both nebulous and highly subjective, becoming aware of one’s own assumptions throughout the process is integral to an interpretation that illuminates the data with greater clarity. I argue here that engaging with Gadamer’s understanding of “prejudices” can assist researchers in considering their own perspective, regardless of the methodology employed, as well as providing an analytic method of engaging with these assumptions. The method for this engagement is subsequently provided.

Estrategias para el desarrollo y consolidación de la línea de investigación alfabetización en información: el caso de la Facultad de Información y Comunicación de la Universidad de la República

Se presenta el estado de desarrollo de la línea de la línea de investigación Alfabetización en Información en la Facultad de Información y Comunicación de la Universidad de la República (Uruguay). A partir de un relevamiento de distintas fuentes de información que hacen al quehacer académico-institucional: los proyectos de investigación realizados y en curso tanto a nivel de grado como de posgrado; los proyectos de investigación y desarrollo, la producción bibliográfica, la formación de recursos humanos, la movilidad académica, la interdisciplinariedad, entre otros, se propone una sistematización de la información en un formato de líneas estratégicas. Al mismo tiempo que se describe, analiza y reflexiona sobre el proceso que ha permitido este desarrollo tanto a nivel académico como institucional. Se espera que esta comunicación resulte un insumo para seguir promoviendo la cooperación, el intercambio y las redes académicas tan necesarias para la construcción de conocimiento.

A systematic review on academic research productivity of postgraduate students in low- and middle-income countries

BackgroundWhile several individual studies addressing research productivity of post-graduate students are available, a synthesis of effective strategies to increase productivity and the determinants of productivity in low-income countries has not been undertaken. Further, whether or not this research from post-graduate students’ projects was applied in evidence-informed decision-making was unknown. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of literature to identify and assess the effectiveness of approaches that increase productivity (proportion published) or the application (proportion cited) of post-graduate students’ research, as well as to assess the determinants of post-graduate students’ research productivity and use.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review as per our a priori published protocol, also registered in PROSPERO (CRD42016042819). We searched for published articles in PubMed/MEDLINE and the ERIC databases through to July 2017. We performed duplicate assessments for included primary studies and resolved discrepancies by consensus. Thereafter, we completed a structured narrative synthesis and, for a subset of studies, we performed a meta-analysis of the findings using both fixed and random effects approaches. We aligned our results to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement.ResultsWe found 5080 articles in the PubMed (n = 3848) and ERIC (n = 1232) databases. After excluding duplicates (n = 33), we screened 5047 articles, of which 5012 were excluded. We then retrieved 44 full texts and synthesised 14, of which 4 had a high risk of bias. We did not find any studies assessing effectiveness of strategies for increasing publication nor citations of post-graduate research projects. We found an average publication proportion of 7% (95% CI 7–8%, Higgins I-squared 0.0% and Cochran’s Q p < 0.01) and 23% (95% CI 17–29%, Higgins I-squared of 98.4% and Cochran’s Q, p < 0.01) using fixed effects and random effects models, respectively. Two studies reported on the citation of post-graduate students’ studies, at 17% (95% CI 15–19%) in Uganda and a median citation of 1 study in Turkey (IQR 0.6–2.3). Only one included study reported on the determinants of productivity or use of post-graduate students’ research, suggesting that younger students were more likely to publish and cohort studies were more likely to be published.ConclusionsWe report on the low productivity of post-graduate students’ research in low- and middle-income countries, including the citation of post-graduate students’ research in evidence-informed health policy in low- and middle-income countries. Secondly, we did not find a single study that assessed strategies to increase productivity and use of post-graduate students’ research in evidence-informed health policy, a subject for future research.

How to do a postgraduate research project and write a minor thesis

Many universities and colleges in low-income and middle-income countries require a masters dissertation or thesis for as part of postgraduate training, and some colleges offer a 1-year to 2-year diploma...

Participatory Action Research For Peacebuilding

For many years, as supervisors of postgraduate research projects, we encouraged exploratory research—uncovering and developing new knowledge—in the hope that this would somehow bring about social c...

Training Indigenous actors in Australia

For Indigenous students in Australia who aspire to a career in acting there is a diverse range of formal institutional training opportunities available. Whatever institution they choose to attend, the way in which Indigenous acting students make sense of their training does not depend so much on the specific content or structure of classroom and studio-based learning activities; rather, it is essentially defined by the much larger cultural and pedagogical frameworks within which these learning activities are embedded. This article is based on a postgraduate research project on the diversity of cultural experiences Indigenous students encounter during their training to be an actor. Becoming an Indigenous actor is, the article suggests, more than just mastering the technical aspects of training. It is also about an understanding of the day-to-day negotiations of the social, cultural, and artistic practices and processes involved in making Indigenous theatre. It involves navigating these entangled social and cultural traditions in institutional contexts.

A pilgrim's progress: Armenian and Kurdish literatures in Turkish and the rewriting of literary history

ABSTRACTJohn Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is a narrative that has been translated into Turkish several times. Strangely, histories of Turkish literature and of literary translations into Turkish rarely make any reference to it. The fact that the early translations were in Armeno-Turkish and that they were promoted by Protestant missionary organizations might explain why they were ignored in the historiography of a field in which the contributions of non-Muslims are hardly acknowledged. In recent years, however, Armeno-Turkish literature has become a new area of study in Turkey. Young scholars, mostly in Turkey's leading private universities, have started to explore Armeno-Turkish literature and the exchanges between western Armenian and Turkish literatures in the Ottoman Empire, and have challenged the nationalist discourse underpinning traditional Turkish literary historiography. Mignon's paper gives an overview of Armeno-Turkish literary studies from the rare early republican scholarly publications on the topic to the latest postgraduate research projects on the Armeno-Turkish novel and on nineteenth-century Turkish and western Armenian dramatic traditions. His paper also discusses recent debates on Kurdish poets writing in Turkish and ‘literature in Turkish’, in contra-distinction to Turkish literature, which have opened new spaces of freedom that should facilitate an integration of Armeno-Turkish literature into mainstream Turkish literary history. Beyond academic debates on the challenges to cultural historiography and literary theory, the rediscovery of Armeno-Turkish literature and the acknowledgment of Armenian contributions to Turkish literature represent a major opportunity in the Turkish context to reassess the place of non-Muslim ethnoreligious communities in late Ottoman political and cultural history.

English

Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is still a major public health problem in developing countries such as India. Present study was conducted in urban population of district Srinagar of J&K state (India). A study had been conducted in the same population in 1983 & the prevalence at that time was 5.9 / 1000. The aim of the present study was to know the present status of Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) & RHD in the same population since we have observed a significant decline in the attendance of these patients in OPD & wards of Sheri-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Srinagar. A survey of school children aged between 6-16years studying in randomly selected private and government schools of Srinagar-city was done as a post-graduate research project at SKIMS Srinagar- a tertiary care hospital. A total of 5661 school children were examined. Eleven school children were found to have heart disease. Of these 4 had RHD, confirmed on Echocardiography while 7 had congenital heart disease (CHD) and were excluded from the study. No case of ARF could be identified. As per our study the prevalence of RHD is 0.7/1000 school children. The results observed were lower than that reported in earlier studies from developing countries, but are comparable to large studies conducted in Christian Medical College Vellore in 2003 & Gorakhpur in 2005-2006. Therefore it is concluded that there has been a dramatic decline in prevalence of RHD

Integrating assessment matrices in feedback loops to promote research skill development in postgraduate research projects

Assessment tasks can focus student efforts in what they choose to study. This paper describes the development and initial application of an assessment matrix to support student learning in postgraduate research studies at the University of Adelaide. Students and supervisors in the multi-disciplinary Master programmes also benefit from the clear descriptors to clarify expectations and standardise grading. This reflective paper explores the capacity of a matrix to improve constructive alignment between research course objectives and learning outcomes when it is an integral part of feedback loops.

Collaborating with the enemy

Practice-led research is by its very nature multi-disciplinary. This means that often both the student and the supervisor find themselves, from the very beginning of the project, working across a range of familiar and unfamiliar fields. The postgraduate students we have supervised in the visual arts and creative writing have engaged with ideas ranging from racism to erotica, from blindness to cannibalism; they have situated themselves in literary studies, in cultural studies, in feminist and art theory. The best of these projects produce innovative and challenging artworks/creative texts. The exegesis is often a hybrid and ‘messy text’ with multiple voices and perspectives. As a writer and an artist with experience working in a range of collaborative creative arts projects, and more recently as supervisors of PhDs and MAs in visual art and creative writing, we have found that some of the elements of, and processes used in, successful collaboration also enhance supervision of practice-led postgraduate research supervision. While higher degree research belongs to, and must always be the work of, the individual student, like any good collaboration it cannot be achieved without significant and engaged dialogue, and a joint commitment by student and supervisor to the project. In this article, we draw on our extensive experience as collaborators both in university research projects and in other contexts, on cultural-historical theories that place emphasis on the social sources of knowledge development, and on postgraduate supervision scholarship. We will distinguish the different elements of successful collaboration in a creative context and the way in which these elements can be applied to the supervision of practice-led postgraduate research projects in the visual arts and creative writing.

Writing your postgraduate dissertation: a basic framework

This paper provides a basic framework for those embarking upon a postgraduate dissertation. The dissertation experience can offer many opportunities for self and academic development once ethical approval has been obtained. A good dissertation is the result of a sound methodological framework, where some thought has been given to the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry. The research question needs to be given careful consideration so that the aims and objectives of the postgraduate research project are fulfilled.

Managing the student-supervisor relationship for successful post-graduate supervision: a sociological perspective

Supervision is an intensive, interpersonally focused one-to-one relationship between the supervisor and the student. In this process, the supervisor is designated to facilitate the student's academic development. This article will address supervision as a complex process that is influenced by many factors, including the social setting, the personalities of the supervisor and the student, the relationship that develops between them, the expertise of the supervisor, and so on. Patterns of thinking that have influenced supervision will be discussed, while an interactionist framework to project possible strategies concerning the importance of relationship skills in supervision will be highlighted. The article's thrust will be to highlight the social nature of the interaction between supervisor and student. This entails recognizing that as a social process, interaction is as much subject to limits imposed by the structural parameters within which supervision occurs as it, in turn, shapes them. In other words, whilst the interaction between supervisor and student allows a considerable degree of free expression, it is enacted within a wider context of institutional power which itself is continuously modified by that interaction. These arguments are based on the findings from a study that I carried out in the Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance of Africa University in July 2006. A qualitative research design was employed to establish how to manage the student-supervisor relationship for successful post-graduate supervision. The study revealed that supervision is a complex social encounter which involves two or more parties with both converging and diverging interests. Therefore, balancing these interests is very crucial to the successful supervision of post-graduate research projects.

Silencing the everyday experiences of youth? Deconstructing issues of subjectivity and popular/corporate culture in the English classroom

This paper investigates the influence of popular/corporate culture texts and discourses on the subjectivities and everyday social experiences of young people, and the extent to which such influences are critically analysed in the English classroom. I present two levels of synthesised information using data analysis born of a mixed-methods postgraduate research project with a group of 15- and 16-year-old high school students in Perth, Australia. First, I argue that popular culture texts position young people to assume subjectivities that are heavily informed by the ideologies and discourses of popular/corporate culture. Moreover, I argue that young people's social currency is often defined by the extent to which individuals demonstrate an alliance to such ideologies and discourses, and that individuals who deviate from popular norms experience subjugation and exclusion within peer and social settings. Second, I deal pedagogically with subject English and areas of it that hold relevance in terms of the integration and analysis of ‘the popular’. I argue that many students feel their teachers are ‘out of touch’ with the everyday realities of young people and their popular culture influences, and that there is a lack of commitment by teachers to critically analyse popular culture texts in the classroom. The paper concludes by arguing that such failures risk producing students whose everyday experiences are silenced and who are denied the critical learning spaces necessary to deconstruct the ways they are positioned to adopt certain subjectivities. Moreover, critical and progressive pedagogical praxis need to be further deployed by educators in order to effectively analyse the relationship between youth subjectivities and popular/corporate culture discourses.

Promoting midwifery-led care within an obstetric-led unit

In 2002–2003 an attempt was made to establish ‘normal birth’ rooms within the main delivery suite/labour ward of an inner city teaching hospital, with the aim of providing a less clinical environment for low-risk women to give birth in. The innovation formed part of an initiative to increase the normal birth rate at a hospital with a high caesarean section rate. The process of change, including the promotion of midwifery-led care within the unit was explored as part of a postgraduate research project. An action research approach was used to enable midwives to identify their needs for skills development appropriate to promoting normal birth and to facilitate the exploration of problems encountered. The project formed part of a process of change that has enabled a change in the culture of the unit, increasing the profile and value attached to normal birth and decreasing the caesarean section rate.

Too late for the learning: lessons from older learners

This article explores the interests and motivations of older learners, their learning experiences and the barriers faced in accessing education. The research was conducted at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in Ireland as a postgraduate research project. The aim of the research is to promote inclusiveness in education by investigating the educational needs of older learners and how academic providers can meet these needs. The research incorporates action research, qualitative methodologies and evaluative techniques to explore the educational experiences of older learners and identify their educational needs. The research documents the experiences of older learners in an access to higher education course at WIT, members of the University of the Third Age, and students on a computer course designed specifically for older learners.

COMPUTER BASED MONITORING AND CONTROL OF FEDBATCH FERMENTATION PROCESS AS AN AIM AND A TOOL FOR POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH

Education of postgraduate students raises questions not only for the teaching of problem-solving skills, but mainly for teaching of design skills and providing high-level research. Development of the postgraduate research projects very often requires interdisciplinary knowledge. For example the control-engineering project requires knowledge for the process under control characterizing it from chemical, biotechnological, mechanical point of view. Alternatively, the biotechnological research project requires knowledge how to monitor and control the process under investigation in order to obtain the necessary information for its specific characteristics. This paper addresses these educational challenges by presenting research between students from different engineering disciplines working on a common international collaborative project.