How to find a Research Project and Supervisor

So you have decided that you want to go on and do a postgraduate qualification in Physical Education. What do you do next?

The main thing is to identify the members of staff who are working in the areas that interest you. There will be many more than you think, and in places that you've never thought about during your undergraduate degree, such as an associated research lab or unit that does no teaching.

The School of Physical Education offers expertise over a range of disciplines including sociology, physiology, psychology, dance, history, metabolism, management, coaching, pedagogy, biomechanics and more. There is also a possibility to link your research with other departments, for example Nutrition, Physiology, Maori Pacific and Indigenous Studies and Psychology.

Use our academic staff list and research pages to find the people doing what you want.

I've found the right person. What now?

There are a number of things you should consider:

Seek information from other research students about the expectations of and supervisory support given by the proposed supervisor. This will very often be the best source of such information.
Ask the proposed supervisor what he or she expects of research students at this level and what support he or she normally gives.
Discuss where your areas of interest overlap, with a view to assessing how much satisfaction you each will gain from working together.
Ask the proposed supervisor about the financial and other resources required and about anything which might affect continuity of supervision until completion of the research.

Once a firm decision has been made it's a good idea to draw up some sort of agreement between yourself and your supervisor governing:

frequency of meetings
progress reports to be provided by the student
financial support, if any, to be available to the student once the scholarship has run out
target dates for various stages of the research
principles for establishing authorship of any resulting publication