Hi, my name is James Arvanitakis. I'm the Dean
of Graduate Studies here at Western
Sydney University. One of the things that I do in
my work is make sure that students have
a successful candidature, be it a PhD or a
Masters of Philosophy or a Master of
Research, and key to this journey is
actually a successful milestone at
end of year one called the Confirmation of
Candidature. Now it doesn't matter which
university you go to, everyone has a
version of this milestone. We call it the
CoC or the Confirmation of Candidature.
It's done between six and nine months
during, from the beginning of your
studies, but definitely before the end of
the first year. So this video is to
actually give you some background of
what the CoC is and actually give you
some tips about how to have a successful
CoC. So the first thing is that the COC is made
up of two parts. The first is actually
quite a detailed document, that's between
3,000 to 10,000 words and that depends
on the discipline you're undertaking.
Some disciplines require a lot smaller,
shorter CoCs than other disciplines. And
it has a number of headings that you
need to fulfill, but mostly what's key is
that you list your project aims, your
research questions, a literature review,
where the gaps are in the knowledge and also
what you're going to try and achieve.
That is what question you're going to
try and answer. It's really important
that whatever CoC you're doing, you meet
those five basic requirements. The second
part of the CoC is actually to attend
a formal meeting where you, your
supervisory panel, the HDR Director, and
probably an independent scholar
will all be there and what you do is you
do a short presentation, probably about
ten minutes long, where you talk about the
key parts of your work and actually then
undertake a Q&A session. They will ask
you questions, most comment about your
methodology and where you see the gaps
in literature and then you answer them.
They then give you feedback and discuss
the areas that they think you can
improve on, or where your strengths are and
where you should really concentrate on.
So the question is why do a CoC? Why do
we enforce this? And why you're probably
sitting there if you're about to do it?
You're probably freaking out and thinking
why are you making me do this? Well there
are five key reasons why we get you to
do a CoC.
The first is to recognise that a PhD
today is only about three to three-and-a
half years, and so therefore it's
condensed. It used to be five, six or seven
years, but today in today's world a PhD
is only three to three-and-a-half years
meaning that you need to have a really,
really successful first year. So firstly
the CoC allows us to measure your milestones
and make sure that you're actually
achieving what you meant to achieve in
your first year. The second reason we get
you to do a CoC is that we know that a
successful CoC means that you are likely
to have a successful journey for the
rest of your PhD research journey. We
know that if people don't get their
heads around the CoC, that we need to
actually build a structure to support
them rather than just letting them go
off. So a successful CoC is really an
important indicator of where you're
going.
The third reason you do a COC is because
because you bring in all these academics
in the room and discuss your work,
it's a really good chance to discuss and
make sure you're asking the right
questions, that you've got your head around
a broader range of areas, of research
areas and you're not missing anything
out. Your supervisor should be able to
cover most things but when you get other
academics in the room they can open up
new places for discussion and this is
really beneficial to your research
journey. The fourth reason we get you to
do your CoC is because at this point of your
PhD journey, after about a year, you
should be producing writing and that's
an important part of the CoC. It's
actually forcing you to write. A lot of
people just think that their writing is
all done in the third year and that is
pretty much guaranteed to be a terrible
candidature. Everybody hates writing. So
getting people to write straightaway and
work towards their CoC ensures that they
begin to get writing momentum. And the
fifth and final reason is that a COC
forces you to think about your
methodology and you need to have your
methodology sorted out before you apply
the ethics, if that's something you have to
do. A successful CoC is a pathway into
getting a successful ethics application.
So these are the key reasons why a CoC
is such a valuable tool and ensures that
you begin a successful journey towards
completing your
research project. Okay, so that's it from me.
Hopefully that answered the question of
what a CoC is and why you do it. Like I
said, you're probably totally freaking
out at this stage as you prepare your CoC, but
don't think about it as a negative.
Really think about it as a positive.
A fantastic opportunity to put your ideas
together in a logical order and have a
chance to discuss it with other
academics in the room with you. It
should be an enjoyable process and the
feedback you get will definitely help
you on your journey. So good luck and
I'll speak to you soon.