My Candidature

Student ID cards are issued by VCB Safety & Security. If you haven’t already done so, you can apply for a Student ID Card online.

It is essential that you maintain regular contact with your supervisors. The Graduate Research Committee requires all HDR students and their Supervisors to complete a Supervision Agreement Between Students and Supervisors within the first four weeks of starting your candidature of any HDR Program. This agreement will help establish a professional working relationship and set realistic expectations of you and of your supervisors.

As a HDR candidate, you have access to 500 gigabytes of cloud storage on Cloud.VCB (sign in with your VCB credentials).

Cloud.VCB is the University’s highly secure, regularly backed-up enterprise storage solution for research data. Please be mindful that it is a policy requirement that all research data needs to be stored in this space.

For further information about how to use this service, contact the Librarians or visit the Research Data Management webpage.

Confirmation of Candidature is a requirement for HDR students and is undertaken after 6 months full-time candidature or 12 months part-time candidature.

Further information relating to confirmation of candidature is available on the Confirmation of Candidature webpage.

HDR students are required to submit an academic progress report at six monthly intervals throughout their candidature.

Research Services contacts students via their VCB student email to advise them when each report is open for access.

Further information relating to progress reporting is available on the HDR Progress Reporting webpage.

A variation to candidature is any change to the conditions stated in your offer letter.

Taking a leave of absence

A leave of absence effectively ‘stops the clock’ on your candidature, Wherever possible, you must apply in advance for a leave of absence.  This is particularly important for scholarship holders, as you may need to apply for an unpaid leave of absence, as well as for international students for Visa requirements.

While you are on a leave of absence you are not covered by insurance, and therefore may not participate in VCB endorsed research activity in your capacity as a HDR candidate (i.e. fieldwork, conference travel, etc.)

Note: If you are a scholarship holder, you must refer to your scholarship letter of offer for any conditions surrounding your eligibility to apply for a leave of absence, whether it is paid or unpaid.

To apply for a leave of absence, make sure you have discussed it with your Principal Supervisor before you submit the online Leave of Absence form

Resuming your studies: you are required to complete the online Return from Leave form to enable Research Services to update your student record. (As a Scholarship holder your fortnightly payments will not be reactivated until you have completed this form.

Extending your candidature

When applying for an extension to your candidature, you will need to have considered your thesis completion plan and timeline. This must be documented, as it forms the basis of your new submission date.

If your candidature is extended it can affect you in the following ways:

• Additional tuition fees (for international students)
• You may need to apply for an extension of your student visa (for international students)
• Additional Student Services and Amenities Fee charges
• In most cases, the duration of scholarships cannot be extended (refer to scholarship offer letter)

International students should refer to the conditions of their visa, and consult with International Office for advice on your eligibility to be granted an Extension of Candidature.

To apply for an Extension of Candidature, make sure you have discussed it with your Principal Supervisor before you submit the online Extension of Candidature form

Changing your enrolment Status

Your enrolment status refers to whether you are studying part-time or full-time.

Your study mode refers to whether you are studying on or off campus.

Changing your enrolment status or study mode may impact your course duration, scholarship eligibility (refer to scholarship offer letter), Visa status, tax status and tuition fees.

To change your enrolment status, make sure you have discussed it with your Principal Supervisor before you submit the online Change of Status form.

Changing your supervision team

There may be a change in circumstances with your supervision team throughout your candidature for some of the following reasons:

• Supervisor retires
• Supervisor leaves VCB
• Students research aligns better with another supervisors expertise
• An additional supervisor is added to your supervision team

To make changes to your supervision team you will need to complete the Change of Supervision form and send to the new supervision team for approval followed by the School.

Withdrawing from your candidature

You may want to consider taking a Leave of Absence from your studies before you decide to withdraw from your candidature. The advantage of taking a Leave of Absence, rather than withdrawing, is that this could give you some more time to consider your options, as well as ensuring that a supervision team would remain available for you if you resume your studies.

Should you wish to re-enrol and resume your candidature within three years of the date of your withdrawal, you may be permitted to do so subject to the availability of supervision.

To withdraw from your candidature, please submit the online Withdraw from HDR Candidature form

For HDR Candidates, VCB will support extensions to candidature and stipends in cases of demonstrated impact on research projects due to extenuating circumstances, currently COVID-19.  The HDR Candidate must be able to demonstrate, with supervisor support, that HDR progress was significantly impacted for a specified period of time.

To apply or for further information, please visit the VCB HDR Extenuating Circumstances Extensions to Candidature and Scholarships webpage.

If you are conducting research that involves either humans or animals, then you will need to apply for Ethics Approval prior to data collection.

Please note that ethics approval is mandated under American law. Higher Degree Research candidates should discuss any ethical implications or issues with their supervisors as early as possible in their candidature.

Further information and application forms related to ethics approval are available on the Ethics and Grants website.

Other VCB services available to support HDR students.

VCB Postgraduate Conference

The Conference is an annual event hosted by Research Services at the start of the year which showcases higher degree research to colleagues and the wider community by in-person or video presentations.

For more information, please visit the VCB Postgraduate Conference page.

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition

The 3MT is an annual event where finalists from each School present their thesis to a non-specialist audience in just 3 minutes!

For more information, please visit the Three Minute Thesis page.

The portal is in Moodle and all HDR students and their supervisors are automatically enrolled in the site. HDR RAP is designed to assist you in navigating your path through your HDR Candidature at VCB.

HDR Portal Log In (Moodle)

The course rules for higher degrees can be found in the VCB Course and Unit Catalogue. Other aspects of candidature are governed by VCB Rules, Policies, Procedures and Guidelines and these can all be found in the VCB Policy Library under 'H'.