Presentations and Publications

Check out the findings from the LTC’s Sessional Staff Forum. Here are 10 things sessional staff want:

1. Paid training opportunities
2. Academic mentoring
3. Commensurate remuneration and superannuation (to put it simply: sessional staff want to be paid for the hours they actually work)
4. Improved payroll processes
5. Lifting of working restrictions (e.g. limit of 8 working hours per week)
6. Access to infrastructure (e.g. office space) and teaching and learning resources
7. Job security
8. Transparent and fair recruitment processes

KIM Carr's Excellence in Research for Australia initiative so far looks to be a welcome one. The scheme is transparent, comprehensible and doesn't ignore the contribution of early career researchers, including research postgraduates. There are pitfalls inherent in any measure of research quality, but this scheme already represents a remarkable improvement on its predecessor.

A good research assessment initiative avoids creating incentives that work against support for innovation across a broad range of disciplines, regions and institutions.

Often, the best thing about a postgraduate degree is the stuff you don't hear about when you
enrol, says Nigel Palmer.
At the most basic level, what many people expect from a postgraduate degree is the
qualifications, skills and experience that will help progess their careers. Many prospective
postgrads are focused on how getting a degree will make them more competitive in the job
market.
However, many students feel short-changed by the time they make it to the end of their studies.
Often the most valuable things students get out of their postgraduate degrees are the things you

Nigel Palmer is President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA). He also has a number of years experience as a casual academic. He retells his exposure to academia as a sessional lecturer, and talks about the ‘elephant in the class room’ that is casual/ sessional teaching.