PhD students STEP up for security forum

Edward O'Daly

University of Canberra PhD candidate Tzu-wen Hsu introduces her research comparing governance and policymaking in the Australian and Taiwanese tourism industry Photo: Kimberly Douglas

12 December 2006: Top PhD students from across Australia converged on the University of Canberra last week to learn from each other and bring their diverse experience to bear on questions of security.

As part of the weeklong STEP forum, students with research specialisations as diverse as tourism and tissue engineering heard from speakers including ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, David Down from CSIRO, National ICT Australia's principal scientist Renato Iannella , and Richard David, head of security, science and technology at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

They also presented their own work with their peers and were given advice on topics including how to write a thesis and how their thesis would be examined.

University of Canberra associate professor Kathryn Moyle, one of the organisers of this year's STEP, said the event gave students the opportunity to develop networks with other students who may not be in their field but still have something to offer.

"The students are also required to participate in a cross-disciplinary group task, which was on security this year, and are required to bring their perspectives in terms of their current research to the task at hand," Dr Moyle.

"This task enables students to look over the fence, so to speak, at how others do their research and asks them to work as a team - as opposed to the individualistic type of work they do as PhD students."