Pro Vice-Chancellor's message

The University of Adelaide is committed to delivering a Higher Degrees by Research (HDR) experience that combines research and innovation excellence with an outstanding candidature experience.

As part of that, we proactively seek feedback from, and jointly work with, our HDR students to shape their experience.

Feedback received from HDRs resulted, for example, in initiatives focused on building community through social events, the first-ever University-wide HDR Achievements Celebration, an HDR Peer Mentoring Program, and a strengthened network of HDR representatives across all Schools and Faculties. New offerings were also introduced to support wellbeing, career development and industry engagement.

Recently, we invited our HDR students to participate in the 2025 HDR Experience Survey. We received 780 responses (>40% of eligible HDRs) to the main questions of the survey.

Pleasingly, results indicate strong improvements across all HDR experience indicators and there was broad and positive agreement (≥87%) about factors including overall quality of the HDR experience, a supportive research environment, effective supervisory panels, and prompt and helpful feedback on writing, with more than 90% of respondents perceiving their principal supervisor as effective, positive, respectful and proactive.

Almost 80% of the respondents also contributed detailed feedback, providing excellent input for us on what to do next; input we will use to strengthen what our HDRs enjoy, and improve on other parts of the experience.

The future of research and innovation lies in the hands of the researchers we inspire and train now. They will, in turn, help to shape the future of our society, economy, culture, and environment. Our ambition is that they will inspire and educate future researchers, propelling an exciting virtuous cycle.

Professor Carolin Plewa
Pro Vice Chancellor (Researcher Education and Development) and Dean of Graduate Studies