Activities

Although there are many activities that students can complete and claim for CaRST, some activities are not eligible for CaRST. These include:

• Activities completed prior to your candidature start date; activities must be completed while you are active in candidature
• Activities where you cannot supply required evidence
• Any activities that you have already claimed for credit. Activities can only be claimed once for CaRST and should also not be double-counted towards the Adelaide Graduate Award
• Activities that directly contribute to your major research project, e.g. literature reviews, experimental research, field work, research proposals, and thesis preparation
• Attendance or presentation at normal/routine research group, lab, or team meetings or individual meetings with your supervisor
• Standard reviews of progress, i.e. the CCSP, Major Review, and Annual Reviews
• Informal training of equipment or software
• Informal mentorship/supervision of another student or researcher
• General social events or informal catchups such as morning or afternoon teas organised by your Faculty, School, Centre, or Institute
• General volunteer work, including participation in University Open Day
• Activities for which you were paid
• Activities that don't align with the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, are outside the scope of the profession, and unrelated to your career advancement
• Private study (excluding online courses)

Although CaRST seeks to offer as many development opportunities as possible for students, our list of approved activities will not be exhaustive and or cover training in specialist areas of a research discipline. As such, HDRs are able to seek credit for other formal training organised in-house by the University/School/Faculty/Institute or sought through an external training provider.

To claim a training that is not offered by CaRST or already registered with CaRST, it is important that it is relevant to your HDR and/or contributes directly to your career advancement. It must also clearly map to one of the four domains of the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

If you are unsure whether an activity could be claimed for CaRST, please view what can’t be counted for CaRST credit. Students are encouraged to use their best judgement when recording training activities, and feedback will be provided via CaRST Online when the activity is reviewed by the CaRST team. 

If you believe your activity is relevant for CaRST, you are able to self-record this and submit it for consideration in CaRST Online.

When recording, the following evidence should be provided:

• A copy of the official course description, which states the course duration or participation requirements (hours per week). A URL link to the course page or email confirmation is also suitable.
• A course program, schedule or timetable which confirms the date/times of the training
• A completion certificate (or similar)

Please note that a maximum of 30 credits should be claimed for any single training activity, even if time spent on the activity exceeds this amount. This cap is in place to ensure that students are distributing their hours on a variety of different activities throughout candidature.