Student Support and Feedback

Students and their supervisors are expected to meet regularly, at a minimum of once every 2 weeks, to ensure that progress is being maintained.

Your supervisor should be following your progress by:

1. reviewing your recent progress and activities;
2. making sure you have a plan for the following few weeks;
3. helping deal with any barriers to progress; and
4. making sure the pace of your progress will meet the AMS deadlines.

The first step is to complete the Project Supervisor and Student Checklist in order to establish the working relationship you will have with your supervisor, and to determine the frequency of your meetings. This should be completed, signed by both of you, and returned to the AMS office as soon as possible after the commencement of the AMS year.

Almost all of you will need to clarify if your project requires Ethics Approval. If so, you will need to work with your supervisor to complete the relevant Application for Ethics Approval and make sure it is submitted to the appropriate Ethics Committee in good time for the next meeting of the Committee. Please refer to these two PDFs, for further advice on the issue of Ethics. AMS Ethics Issues , Ethics Approval Advice.

You will be asked to submit a project outline by the end of week 6. Feedback will be provided by the AMS Academic Coordinator.

Throughout Semester 6 & 7 we will run a number of student support workshops and lectures to assist you with your AMS project. These include:

• Introduction to writing a Research Report
• Managing a long document
• Using Endnote
• Data Analysis
• Oral Presentations
• Final Editing of your report

Please look out for notices on Topclass and by email for notification of these sessions.

During the AMS year you will be required to submit two Progress Reports so that we can monitor your progress. These also provide the opportunity for you and your supervisor to alert us to any potential problems.

Back-up your files

Throughout the year you should always be thinking about backing up your work/email/other files on to alternate media (CD, DVD, Zip disk etc).

You should always work on the premise that if you came into your research unit and your computer had gone, would you have all your work backed up, or at most, only lose a day or so of work?

When you burn your cd's, make two copies - one to store in your research unit and one to store at home.

As a general rule, you should be backing up your data as often as possible. At around $1 each for a good quality cd there's no real excuse.

Do you have a problem with your research?

If you have a problem or are experiencing difficulty with your research you should, in the first instance, discuss this with your supervisor. You may also approach your unit coordinator for assistance.

Please remember that at any time you may make an appointment to see either the Academic Coordinator or the AMS Administrator to discuss your concerns (email: ams-adm@unimelb.edu.au). Do NOT leave it until it is too late.