HDR Career Development Mentoring Program

The University of Queensland's Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Career Development Mentoring Program provides HDR candidates with the opportunity to engage with respected professionals working in a variety of sectors of society and the economy — both within and outside of academia.

An online mentoring platform, accessible by both mentors and mentees, guides participants through the program and facilitates engagement. Activities and topics are suggested at each stage of the program to encourage HDR candidates to:

Investigate potential career pathways,
Gain exposure to different perspectives and advice, and
Discuss topics such as networking, identification and communication of transferrable skills, and career development.

How is this different to an industry mentoring program?

The program’s focus is on HDR candidate’s broad professional and career development, rather than a focus on preparation for a specific industry setting. This is underpinned by the belief that HDR candidates can gain valuable insights into their career development from conversations with experienced professionals, irrespective of their disciplinary background or specific industry.

Key details

When is the program running?

The program runs for 12 weeks and involves 2 hours’ commitment towards the program each fortnight for preparation, meetings, or review of documentation.

The program runs twice each year. The dates for 2022 are:

Cohort 1	Early June to late August
Cohort 2	Mid September to early December

General expectations

Mentors and mentees selected for involvement in the HDR Career Development Mentoring Program are required to:

Maintain confidentiality and respect each other’s privacy,
Be respectful, non-judgmental and supportive,
Keep to scheduled meeting times or give adequate notice of change,
Behave ethically and safely at all times,
Advise the Graduate School (graduateschool@uq.edu.au) of any issues or concerns, and
Use the resources provided through the program to assist in establishing and achieving objectives.

Potential Mentors

The University of Queensland (UQ) is seeking respected professionals, like you, to mentor our higher degree by research (HDR) candidates in their career development learning.

You should ideally:

Possess a Higher Degree by Research (including PhD, Professional Doctorate, or Masters by Research), or have relevant experience (such as employing or supervising HDR graduates), and
Have at least 5 years of professional experience to draw from.

As a mentor, you will be asked to:

Provide information, guidance, support, encouragement, and constructive feedback,
Be willing to have regular contact with your mentee,
Encourage the exploration of ideas and facilitate self-directed learning,
Devote appropriate, uninterrupted time to meet with your mentee,
Create opportunities for learning and development,
Encourage your mentee to approach other people for information and to develop their own network,
Respond in a timely and professional manner to all mentoring commitments and communication, and
Maintain confidentiality regarding information obtained in the course of the relationship.

How to get involved

The online expression of interest (EOI) form is available through the Chronus mentoring platform and can be submitted at any time.

Access the program

Please note: When accessing the EOI form, potential mentors who are UQ staff should use the ‘Student & Staff Login’ function with their UQ single sign on credentials. For potential mentors who are external to UQ, please use the ‘UQ Alumni and External Login’ function and make a note of the email address and password that you use, as you will require these later to access the platform.

Potential Mentees

Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates from The University of Queensland (UQ) are invited to submit an expressions of interest (EOI) to receive career development mentoring from a respected professional. Mentors and mentees will be matched on the broad employment sectors in which the mentee has interest in.

Mentees will have the opportunity to view the profiles of all mentors currently participating in the program and to list up to three mentors with whom they would like to be matched. These preferences will be taken into consideration, where possible, when mentoring pairs are finalised.

You should:

Be actively enrolled in a UQ HDR program,
Have successfully completed your Confirmation Review (R1) at the time you submit your EOI,
Not have any overdue progress reviews,
Be able to complete the mentoring program prior to submitting your thesis.

As a mentee, you will be asked to:

Be proactive in introducing yourself to your mentor, in organising meetings, and instigating discussion of your goals for the program,
Record completion of milestones within the Chronus platform,
Be willing to explore ideas and demonstrate self-directed learning
Devote appropriate, uninterrupted time to meet with your mentor
Respond in a timely and professional manner to all mentoring commitments and communication
Maintain confidentiality regarding information obtained in the course of the relationship

Please note: It is not appropriate to use the mentoring relationship to ask for assistance with your research or to seek employment or a placement with your mentor (or their employing organisation).