The Postgraduate Toolkit
Binding:PDFPages: 988
The Postgraduate Toolkit (4/e) is a peer-reviewed electronic textbook and multimedia resource that empowers postgraduate students and emerging researchers from different disciplines and levels of study to successfully complete their research projects and theses, and build long-term research careers. It is ideal for postgraduate students at any level, undergraduate students doing a research module, lecturers, early career academics, supervisors, postdoctoral researchers and anyone in any organisation or setting who is interested in conducting a well-conceptualised research project.
The Postgraduate Toolkit covers the entire research process. There are 10 chapters, including 988 written pages, more than 25 hours of voice recordings (narrated PowerPoint files, plain audio files and mp4 videos) and 48 practical exercises designed to assist researchers from the beginning to the end of their research projects. The Postgraduate Toolkit emphasises:
- An holistic view of research and the wellness of researchers
- Interdisciplinarity
- An intersectional feminist, queer-friendly approach to research that centres the voices of researchers and communities in global south
- Practical research, at a community level, to address pressing socio-economic and other inequalities
The 10 chapters of the Postgraduate Toolkit cover the following essential topics for researchers:
Chapter 1: Introduction to research & How to write a research proposal
Chapter 2: How to write a grant application or funding proposal
Chapter 3: An overview of research design and methodology
Chapter 4: Guidelines on how to write a thesis and research report
Chapter 5: How to write and publish an academic paper
Chapter 6: Tips for oral and poster presentations of your research
Chapter 7: Key project management principles in research
Chapter 8: Some self-empowerment tools and support systems for postgraduate success
Chapter 9: The student, supervisor and university - enhancing postgraduate supervision
Chapter 10: Your Personal and Professional Development Contract (PDC) & Self-employment for researchers
Testimonials
‘The Postgraduate Toolkit is rich with information and I hope the UL community will use it efficiently.’
Prof Mosa Selepe, University of Limpopo (UL), South Africa, 5 July 2020
‘Reading through the various aspects of your Toolkit, I am truly astounded at your meticulous delivery of its content. Wow! I am lost for words. You have thoroughly and systematically outlined the entire research process in such a user friendly, interactive and comprehensive way. Compiling such a Toolkit for postgraduate students across all disciplines cannot be an easy task, I am sure. Yet I found your Toolkit simple to navigate and the topics you cover more than relevant. I have no doubt that the users of your Toolkit could also attest to this.
Phillipa Haine, PhD student, Rhodes University, South Africa, 2020
‘Dr Layla is an exceptional teacher; her teaching skills are excellent. The content of her toolkit is above everything. Her training methodology allows you to learn on your own and yet provides you with all the necessary tools. I was so impressed by the content of her voice recordings.’
Omphile Khutsoane, prospective Master’s student, South African National Biodiversity Institute, 2020
‘I commend you, Dr Layla Cassim, for making the Postgraduate Toolkit available as an online resource. I am convinced it will play an important role in assisting students to complete their research projects successfully in this challenging context and, possibly, encourage a much higher number of students to consider postgraduate research.
I am extremely proud to be involved and to continue to support this pioneering initiative. May your contribution grow from strength to strength and the numbers multiply to reach many more over the years. It is a contribution that is undervalued but one that adds enormously towards building a body of knowledge to solve our challenges.’
Carpe Diem
Dr Wendy Luhabe, Social Entrepreneur, South Africa, 15 September 2020
The author, Dr Layla Cassim shares more information on the Postgraduate Toolkit: please visit https://youtu.be/DelYATGNh6M
