A guide to Australian doctoral application experience

Liuxue86.com, March 2, 20081Report. For students who are going to Australia or just coming to Australia, the research is mostly unfamiliar. Under China's education system, compared with the familiar coursework, the education mode of research-based courses is very similar to that of postgraduate education in China. Students take the initiative to study their own majors, and the guidance of tutors is mostly directional guidance and suggestions. This makes it difficult for China students who are used to cramming teaching methods to adapt at once. However, it is undeniable that the recognition of research courses by Australian academic and business circles is more advantageous than Coursework. After studying in Australia for a period of time, many students have realized the value of research courses and started to pay more and more attention to its application. Many students with good academic performance also have plans to continue their doctoral studies after graduation. Based on some characteristics of research courses, honorary courses and doctoral courses, I made a very professional explanation:

achievement

Experts pointed out that many students think that excellent university transcripts are the most important application factors. In fact, this view is somewhat one-sided. Beautiful transcripts are certainly a great competitive advantage, which can make the students who apply stand out to a great extent, but they may not necessarily become an absolute obstacle for students with unsatisfactory academic performance. Because of research and doctoral programs, schools and tutors examine students' initiative and self-study ability in project research, which is not explained by an examination report card. For the top eight researchers and doctors, an average score of 75 is usually relatively safe, but I also have some students with an average score of about 65 who have successfully applied for ideal research or doctoral courses.

application mode

Australia's research and doctoral programs are very similar to those in North America, and the application process and future learning process are closely related to students' tutors. Experts suggest that students should take the initiative to pay attention to the research projects of their interested majors and the information of related tutors about two months before the end of the semester, preliminarily determine their future research direction on the basis of combining their own interests and specialties, and take the initiative to get in touch with tutors with relatively clear goals. At the beginning, many students didn't know which direction to study in depth. They just blindly submit the application form to the school without a clear direction, which will make them very passive and become "selected". However, if you take the initiative to know the topics and projects studied by your tutor in advance, have a clear understanding of your research direction, and have communicated with your tutor in your field (note that teachers are already experts in this field. If you don't have a certain "homework" foundation before, blindly asking your tutor for some too general information will easily give people the impression of carelessness and lack of domain awareness, which will be unfavorable to the students who apply to become teachers next).

scholarship

Many students want to apply for scholarships for research or doctoral programs. However, in Australia, it is still difficult to apply for scholarships, because the number of places is usually very limited, and students who apply through courses often have excellent grades and so on. Past experience is that research projects in the fields of science and engineering, such as engineers, IT and science, have a better chance of winning scholarships than business projects. On the other hand, the award of scholarships is also related to the research and development funds of the project, which cannot be generalized. You can communicate with your tutor before choosing a project.

expert opinion/advice

1. Pay attention to the graduation thesis. Many students who apply for graduate students ignore their undergraduate thesis, which is actually a good plus point. In particular, some students' graduation papers have been published in authoritative academic journals, which will be a very good proof of scientific research ability.

There is no need to lock in the eight major courses. Although the eight famous universities in Australia are among the best in the comprehensive ranking, they all have certain strength in research-oriented courses such as scientific research and doctoral studies. For example, the multimedia and computer majors of Wollongong University are closely interacting with their industries, and their research projects and topics are often more closely combined with the actual needs in the market.

3, pay attention to the school network information database, professional literature in various industries. Australian researchers and doctors are very strict in their learning methods, and the research data must come from a special literature database. There are huge academic books and online databases in various professional fields in university libraries for students to carry out research. Compared with Yahoo and Google, which many students are used to, these academic databases range from courses to research or doctoral courses.

Many students will ask if you can transfer to research if you have already studied the course, and when it is better to transfer. Personally, students who are interested in the direction of research can actually apply for transfer to research courses after the first semester. There are still many students who hope to "seamlessly" connect with the master's courses of Australian universities after graduation from domestic undergraduate courses. For research courses, it is usually more difficult. I suggest you start with your studies and consider switching to scientific research. Compared with directly applying for a research course, the advantage is that you can actively communicate with the research topic instructors you are interested in when studying the course assignments, which is often more conducive to obtaining more research directions and topics of the research course and the preferences of the instructors. If you can establish a good relationship with the tutor during this period, you can successfully transfer to the desired research course and tutor under the condition of consistent basic grades.

In addition, if the institutions you study in China cooperate with Australian universities in related education or research projects, you can get letters of recommendation from domestic tutors, which can often add a lot of points for applying for related research or doctoral programs.