Training and development

Supporting Postgraduate Researchers at Exeter

Our Researcher Development Programme (RDP) is designed to support you at all stages of your research degree. The programme is organised into five strands:

You can find out more about each strand on their individual pages.

As well as being organised into strands, our Researcher Development courses are recommended for different stages of your research degree. These are designed to enable your development and build on your skills holistically throughout your time at Exeter.

  • Early (within the initial stages of your research degree, i.e. the first 1-2 years or pre-upgrade)
  • Mid (those in the middle stages of their research degree, i.e. 2-3 years or post-upgrade)
  • Late (those who have finished data collection and are entering the writing-up stage of their research degree)

If you have any enquiries please contact us on researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk. Make sure to read the Doctoral College newsletter and connect with us for the latest opportunities, news and information on Twitter: @ExeterDoctoral.     

Please check out our Researcher Development site - a suite of online resources, made by PGRs for PGRs, to support their training and development.                                            

Bookings should be made through our iTrent for PGRs system. Course links on these pages will automatically open up the PGR iTrent booking system; please ensure you are connected to the University network, either on campus or through the VPN if working remotely.

Please contact us at reseracherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk as soon as you are able to about any specific needs you have to access the Researcher Development Programme. You can contact us to ensure you're able to get into the physical venue or have the resources in the format that you need, or even to discuss what happens at the workshop itself if you have any concerns.

The Researcher Development Programme is carefully designed to support you throughout your research degree and bring PGRs together as part of an inclusive and enriching community. Being a part of the Exeter research community requires that you are respectful to others. By booking onto our courses, you are agreeing to our Code of conduct.

Much of our core programme runs online to ensure PGRs across all our campuses, and studying at a distance, have access to our full range of training and development opportunities.  We will also be delivering a number of sessions face to face both in Exeter and in Cornwall.  

The majority of our webinar courses are delievered through Microsoft Teams. To assist your use of Teams in attending our programme, we have developed the folloiwng guides:

Z‌ooms is used for a small number of sessions.  Guidance on using Zoom is available from the University's Digital Hub.

If you register to attend a learning event and cannot attend, you will need to provide a reason via the iTrent system when you cancel your place. If you fail to attend without cancelling the following escalating process will be put into place:

  1. If you book, but do not attend a learning event, you will be contacted by the Researcher Development Manager (PGRs) to find out why you did not attend and will be reminded that you were booked to attend and that you may have taken the place of someone else who was able to attend.
  2. A record will be kept and where a PGR student repeatedly does not attend or cancels less than 48 hours before a learning event the Head of Researcher Development and Research Culture will contact the PGR to discuss their attendance.