Managing your Milestones
Milestones
Milestones are a vital component of your research journey, designed to support and facilitate your progress towards your thesis submission date.
Your Milestones are a critical opportunity for you to receive expert structured feedback on your research to date and your future research goals to strengthen your research project. Milestones support the overall management of your thesis towards completion. Importantly, milestones provide a platform for you and your supervisors to raise and discuss issues that might be impacting your progress so that action to address these issues can be considered and implemented.
Completion of Milestones are a condition of ongoing enrolment.
Milestone Due Dates
Milestone due dates are set at commencement. The number and timing of Milestones is dependent on your course of enrolment – see figure below.
You and your supervisors will be sent automated email reminders to help keep you on track.
- Reminder 1: 3 months before Milestone Due date
- Reminder 2: -1 month before Milestone Due date
- Action Required: +1 month after Milestone Due date
Note: you will continue to receive automated reminders until the Milestone is recorded as completed by your academic unit.
You can view your Milestone Dates at any time via your Research Enrolment Summary. The research enrolment summary also contains all your other key enrolment information such as scholarship details and thesis submission date.
Scheduling your Milestone
You should plan to complete your Milestone by the due date. To support the practicalities of finding a suitable date/ time and venue, you have up to two months from each due date to schedule your Milestone.
If your Milestone will not be completed within two months of the due date, you and your supervisor must contact your academic unit graduate research administrator research administrator as soon as practicable. Successful Milestones are a condition of your continued enrolment and you may be subject to termination if they are not completed.
Step Guide to Preparing your Milestone
This step-by-step guide can be downloaded here for easy reference.
Re-convened Milestone
It is not uncommon for panel to recommend additional work or amendments to be made prior to confirming you have achieved the Milestone. While that can sometimes feel a bit disheartening, it is actually a great opportunity to strengthen your research and get back on track.
If you find that you have been asked to re-present your Milestone to a reconvene panel, you will be given a clear set of tasks and period of time to complete them.
Your academic unit/faculty will provide clear instructions on how a reconvened panel will be managed.
If you want to learn more about Milestone outcomes, see Graduate Research Progress Management Procedures (section 6).
Additional Resources
For further guidance on Milestones, we recommend you find time to familiarise yourself with
If you are facing issues in managing or achieving your Milestones, your supervisor/s and Faculty graduate administration team can support you.