The Graduate Research School Board provides governance oversight for matters relating to higher degree research (HDR) across UTS on behalf of Academic Board.
Contact
Jenny Luong
Senior Governance Support Officer (Electoral Officer)
telephone 02 9514 1235
email Jenny.Luong@uts.edu.au
Board details
2026 meeting dates
Tuesday 17 February
Tuesday 31 March
Tuesday 21 April
Tuesday 16 June
Tuesday 4 August
Tuesday 20 October
Tuesday 24 November (reserve)
Time: 10am to 12pm
Composition and membership
| Composition | Membership | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Pro Vice-Chancellor (Higher Degree Research) (Chair) | Professor Penny Martens | ex officio |
| Deputy Chair | Professor Jessie Hohmann | 14 October 2025 to 31 December 2025 |
| Director, Graduate Research School | Yamini Sandiran | ex officio |
| Director, Research Development and Training, Graduate Research School | Associate Professor John Rees | ex officio |
| Five elected representatives from across the university who have academic responsibility for graduate research matters at the faculty level (with no more than one from any one faculty or unit1) | Professor Christina Nikitopoulos (Business) | 1 August 2025 to 31 December 2027 |
| Associate Professor Bhuva Narayan (Design and Society) | 1 August 2025 to 31 December 2028 | |
| Professor Andrea Trianni (Engineering and IT) | 1 August 2025 to 31 December 2027 | |
Professor Rob Duffield (Health) Professor Jessie Hohmann (Law) | 1 August 2025 to 31 December 2028 | |
| Three elected academic HDR supervisors (levels D and E): one to represent Business, Design and Society, Law; one to represent Engineering and IT, Health, Science; and one to represent ISF, TD School, CIC1 | Associate Professor Ilaria Vanni Accarigi (Design and Society) | 1 August 2025 to 31 December 2028 |
| Professor Shui Yu (Engineering and IT) | 1 August 2025 to 31 December 2027 | |
| Professor Jason Prior (ISF) | 4 August 2025 to 31 December 2027 | |
| Two graduate research students elected by and from the graduate research students of the university | Ziyi Zhao Sandushan Ranaweera | 1 August 2025 to 31 December 2026 |
| Co-opted members based on the functional area relevant to HDR | Associate Professor Sarah Kinkel Miller, Deputy Dean, Graduate Research School Clare McKenzie, Director, Scholarly Services, UTS Library Associate Professor Mathew Arnold, HDR representative, Faculty of Science Dr Susanne Pratt, HDR representative, TD School | 11 September 2025 to 31 December 2027 |
| Lachlan McDaniel, Associate Dean (Research), Indigenous Leadership and Engagement | 14 October 2025 to 31 December 2027 |
1. Elected academic staff membership terms to be staggered such that one-half concludes their term each year.
Quorum
The quorum shall be one-half of the current members of the committee. If one-half is not a whole number, the next higher whole number shall be used.
Vacant positions on the committee do not count toward the total membership of which one-half is required to reach a quorum.
Terms of reference
The board provides governance oversight for matters relating to higher degree research (HDR) across UTS on behalf of Academic Board. The board is responsible for considering the following matters and making recommendations to the applicable decision-making authority:
- Governance and compliance:
- Ensuring compliance with relevant legislative frameworks and national codes.
- Strategic leadership and development:
- Leading the development and oversight of the university HDR strategy, including research and researcher training strategies, business planning and implementation.
- Overseeing governance of strategic initiatives and working groups.
- Inform HDR pan-university service delivery planning and decision-making.
- Quality assurance and performance:
- Making recommendations on graduate research training quality, performance and benchmarking, including accreditation of new and existing degrees, or removal of accreditation of degrees.
- Developing, overseeing, monitoring, and reviewing qualitative and quantitative performance and quality assurance measures in graduate research, and recommending actions to enhance performance and quality.
- Ensuring the development and implementation of consistent policies and procedures to support graduate research students.
- Student experience and innovation:
- Making recommendations on enhancing and improving graduate research student experience, and encouraging excellence through innovation and improvement, taking into account national and international trends, use of emerging technologies and new approaches to graduate research.
- Monitoring and enhancing the quality of the graduate research student experience, including community building, resource accessibility and policy consistency across faculties.
- Research integrity:
- Making recommendations on graduate research integrity, including promoting, preserving, and upholding research integrity for graduate research degrees by providing advice on the supporting UTS teaching and learning/research governance instruments.
- Funding and scholarships:
- Approving guidelines and selection processes for university internal graduate research funding schemes that are consistent and equitable.
- Setting conditions of award and procedures related to ranking and recommending applicants for graduate research scholarships.
- Emerging issues and trends:
- Identifying and making recommendations on emerging issues pertaining to graduate research training in alignment with national/international trends and future professional needs of graduands.
- Stakeholder engagement and communication:
- Facilitating effective communication and collaboration between the Graduate Research School, faculties and other relevant stakeholders.
- Engaging with HDR students, supervisors and other members of the UTS community to gather feedback and inform decision-making.
- Other responsibilities:
- Conducting such other business related to graduate research training and programs as the Chair, Graduate Research School Board sees fit.