This pedagogical framework for higher degree research student development at UTS aims to embed the capabilities required to develop research knowledge and skills relevant to a diverse range of careers and to deliver a range of research outputs meeting the requirements of the discipline or field of study.

This framework is a specialised HDR student version of UTS’s wider Research Outcomes Capability Framework. It serves to situate UTS HDR students as highly valued members of the research community and forms a key aspect of the HDR student experience at UTS. Using this dedicated framework HDR students will develop a distinctive research identity—a UTS researcher.

The UTS HDR Capability Framework has five interlocking components:

  1. Research Knowledge and Skills
    Disciplinary knowledge capabilities: the development of research questions, and competency in research methods. This is the traditional focus of research study, now recognised as needing to be complemented by a range of other areas of capability.
  2. Research Communication
    Researchers need to be able to communicate their research and its implications to a diversity of audiences, using a range of media, from the thesis and journal articles for academics and scholars, to presentations, broadcasts, videos and social media aimed at audiences in the community, including journalists and funders.
  3. Research Governance and Research Management
    Researchers have a responsibility to act with integrity, engage in ethical research practices, and understand the policies that govern the management of research projects and programs.
  4. Impact and Engagement
    Researchers learn to look beyond themselves and their own project, as they create and develop relationships within scholarly and professional networks. Through these networks, they can engage with real world problems and with the impact and changes their research can make, directly and indirectly.
  5. Career Development
    Acknowledges that research education leads to a wide range of careers, drawing on the specialist knowledge and skills developed in the higher degree programs, and that planning for a career after graduation will involve learning how to present those skills to optimise career potential.

To find out more about the capabilities and outcomes identified in the UTS Capability Framework, please use the interactive graphic below (descriptions of each component will appear underneath the graphic) or refer to our plain-text version.

UTS HDR Capability Framework An illustration of the UTS HDR Capability Framework. The five capabilities are depicted in an inner ring of elements: Research Knowledge and Skills, Research Communication, Research Governance and Research Management, Impact and Engagement, and Career Development. The seven outcomes are in an outer ring of elements: Ownership of Research Expertise, Interrelated Teaching and Research, Valuing Disciplinary Diversity, Indigenous-Led Knowledge and Research, Research Impact and Engagement, Research Reputation, and Creativity and Innovation. When any element is selected, a description of that capability or outcome appears underneath the graphic.>

Research Skills and Knowledge

Stage 1

  • Conduct literature reviews
  • Develop research questions
  • Demonstrate an understanding of research methods used in the discipline
  • Demonstrate an ability to design a research project using methods that are appropriate to the project and discipline

Stage 2

  • Implement and defend choice of methods and proposed parameters of research (e.g. to an ethics committee)
  • Undertake preliminary analysis of collected data
  • Critically reflect on emerging findings
  • Modify/adapt research questions, projects and methods to meet expected ethical or integrity standards, or in response to emerging findings
  • Demonstrate progress of research project

Stage 3

  • Conduct sophisticated analyses
  • Synthesise findings and develop a coherent story from the results
  • Make critical contributions to improving local, institutional, scholarly and/or professional research communities
  • Produce the knowledge and artefacts of the scholarly community
  • Demonstrate near completion of thesis

Career Development

Stage 1

  • Plan interactions with the broader research, industry or professional community

To support that, the student should:

  • Create ORCID identity
  • Establish an online professional profile (for example, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, and/or your UTS researcher profile)
  • Set up a Portfolium account
  • Use an online tool to develop a skills profile
  • Enrol in Career development modules in Canvas
  • Consider an internship/placement and/or industry mentoring

Stage 2

  • Demonstrate interactions with the broader research, industry or professional community

To support that, the student should:

  • Update online professional profile(s)
  • Revise cv/resume with support from SSU
  • Continue with career development modules in Canvas
  • Consider an internship/placement and/or industry mentoring program
  • Identify one or more preferred areas of work, including professional opportunities in those areas and career skills required
  • Participate/engage in external professional networks, associations, or events
  • Enrol in Learning & Teaching credential

Stage 3

  • Plan next steps in research career

To support that, the student should:

  • Update online professional profile(s)
  • Revise cv/resume with support from SSU
  • Use an online tool to develop a skills profile
  • Identify job opportunities requiring your knowledge and skillset
  • Discuss career paths with members of the broader research, industry or professional community
  • Participate in practice interviews and seek feedback on written application materials
  • Participate/engage in external professional networks, associations, or events

Impact and Engagement

Stage 1

  • Manage the relationship with supervisors
  • Manage relationships with other internal and external stakeholders (e.g. research group, other researchers, research managers, industry partners)
  • Appreciate the broader perspective of research and its impact in society
  • Demonstrate the ability to balance and prioritise competing interests in managing one’s time

Stage 2

  • Articulate the potential impact of one’s work in the broader context of society and community
  • Demonstrate the development of research contacts/potential collaborations beyond the local research group and/or UTS
  • Demonstrate the leadership and teamwork skills required to work in industry

Stage 3

  • Demonstrate the potential impact of one’s work in the broader context of society and community
  • Establish strong relationships with key people and create links in order to, for example, plan future research projects and take up opportunities for the development/implementation of the research outcomes

Research Governance and Research Management

Stage 1

  • Explain the principles of research integrity and relevant governing policies or legislation
  • Develop a data management plan relevant to research proposal
  • Develop a project plan within the limitations of available resources
  • Demonstrate the ability to balance and prioritise competing interests in managing one’s time

Stage 2

  • Demonstrate an understanding of the principles in the ethical conduct of research
  • Implement a project plan within known constraints and modify the plan as new constraints emerge from the context of the research (e.g. ethics committee stipulations, changes in the field, rights and obligations of the researcher and research team, standards of research practice)
  • Modify and update data management plan in response to emerging data requirements
  • Revise graduate research study plan where necessary

Stage 3

  • Demonstrate that research has been conducted to the highest standard of transparency and ethical behaviour
  • Publish data to standards expected of discipline/project

Research Communication

Stage 1

  • Use the language of the discipline/s in oral presentations to expert audiences
  • Communicate impact to lay-audiences
  • Write research proposals

Stage 2

  • Demonstrate emerging expertise using the language of the discipline or field across a number of spoken and written genres for different audiences
  • Rigorously distinguish between their work and others in the field, based on experience, expertise and literature

Stage 3

  • Successfully argue the nature and impact of their contribution to the field, based on experience, expertise and literature
  • Contribute to and/or change the direction of the conversation within the discipline/field/profession through publicly available communication of new knowledge/insights

Ownership of Research Expertise

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture.

Academic and professional staff at UTS are …

  • Committed to ownership of talent development and prioritization of quality as value propositions that underpin excellence.
  • Personally committed to delivering excellent research through a collaborative and enquiring research culture.

Interrelated Teaching and Research

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture.

Academic and professional staff at UTS are …

  • Practiced in embedding research as an integral element in curriculum design and empowering students to be active researchers in the construction of knowledge.
  • Able to mobilise pedagogical practice to benefit research practice.

Valuing Disciplinary Diversity

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture.

Academic and professional staff at UTS are …

  • Skilled at mobilising their own disciplinary capabilities, and aligning with others, to create cross-disciplinary or transdisciplinary collaborative networks.

Indigenous-led Knowledge and Research

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture.

Academic and professional staff at UTS are …

  • Committed to enhancing the capacity for Indigenous researcher development in Indigenous-led, community-driven research that embraces Indigenous self-determination. This will ensure the commitment to the cultural continuity and empowerment of Indigenous Knowledges, protocols, practices and governance.
  • When non-Indigenous, respectfully engaged in research collaborations that advances Indigenous researchers and/or communities with research strategies that empower Indigenous Knowledges, sovereignties and self-determination.

Research Impact and Engagement

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture.

Academic and professional staff at UTS are …

  • Equipped with the expertise and skills to create knowledge exchange and research translation that deliver research outcomes for positive societal benefit.

Research Reputation

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture.

Academic and professional staff at UTS are …

  • Knowledgeable in how to build and maintain a research profile and establish a reputation that enhances research impact locally, nationally and internationally.

Creativity and Innovation

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture.

Academic and professional staff at UTS are …

  • Able to draw on capabilities in creative, professional and entrepreneurial practice to enhance the relationship between academic research programmes and transformation of practice.