Guidelines to apply when research undertaken in relation to employment overlaps with enrolment
Research associated with the thesis should normally be completely separate from any work undertaken as part of full-time or part-time employment.
It is acknowledged, however, that separating out paid work undertaken for a group or collaborative project from what may contribute, even indirectly, to the student's own work is probably impossible.
The following requirements must therefore be met:
1. Application for research masters enrolment
Note: The standard form for this purpose should be submitted with the formal application for admission.
Where the research undertaken by the prospective student as an employee overlaps with the research pursued as a research student, the following must apply:
- The student's role as a research employee on the one hand, and research student on the other, should be negotiated and clarified before commencement. Specifically, the prospective student must be allowed sufficient time to pursue research in a manner which allows the exercise of a level of academic initiative appropriate to a doctoral or masters degree
- At the time of application for admissionit must be certified in writing by all relevant parties (prospective student, supervisor, head, dean and employer) that:
- the prospective student's employment work load will be such as to enable him/her to meet the requirements of his/her enrolment
- the prospective student will not be required to change research direction in order to meet the requirements of his/her employment or the research grant from which they are funded
- Agreement has been reached on relevant intellectual property matters, for example:
- the data collected for enrolment may be reported by the student without restriction in the dissertation
- the student retains copyright in the thesis
- research carried out as part of the concurrent employment may be included in the thesis only where all parties agree to this
- the examination of the thesis will not be delayed by externally funded research work undertaken by the student (ie in accordance with the Code of Practice for the Supervision of Doctoral and Masters by Research Students, the student's research program may not be unreasonably influenced or redirected by political, commercial or industrial factors). Arrangements may be made, however, to have the thesis examined in confidence, if necessary
- publications arising from the thesis work will not be delayed beyond the 12 month limit set by the Graduate Research Committee.
Please complete Declaration when Research Undertaken in Relation to Employment Overlaps with Enrolment form if required.
1.1 Thesis submission
There shall be a statement in the thesis, which explains:
- the relationship between the thesis as a finished and authored work and the research context (team/collaborative project) in which the research may have been undertaken
- the levels of indebtedness to the research background (including if necessary, some description of the work undertaken in parallel to the thesis).