Current PGR Student Information

GRADUATE SKILLS PATHWAY - Unlock your potential beyond the lab.

The PGR Graduate Skills Pathway is your route to recognition for the extra-curricular skills and training you gain during your research journey.

It opens the door to a diverse range of transferable skills, development opportunities, and enriching activities designed to support your growth and boost your career potential. 

Our mission is to craft a personalised training journey that fosters scientific leadership and excellence—equipping you with a distinctive professional identity and the confidence to lead in your chosen field.

 

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MVLS Activities A-Z

What's Involved?

We recommend completing the equivalent of 10 days of transferable skills training each year.
But don’t worry—this doesn’t mean 10 full days of formal courses! A wide variety of activities can count toward this goal.

Tip: Chat with your supervisor to map your activities to the appropriate domain within the Researcher Development Framework (RDF).

Using Inkpath to Track Your Progress

Inkpath is our dedicated platform for managing your development.
With Inkpath, you can:

  • Book training and development activities
  • Reflect on your learning
  • Track your attendance
  • Build a personalised portfolio of skills and achievements

At any time, you can download a full transcript of your training and skills—perfect for annual reviews and future job applications.

What About MScR, MD, or MVM Students?

If you're not a PhD student, here's how it works for you:

  • MScR/MVM students: Complete mandatory activities in Year 1, followed by thesis writing and viva preparation courses in early Year 2.
  • MD students: Complete mandatory activities (including thesis writing and viva prep) in Year 1, and take part in relevant optional training in Year 2.

Already a Current Researcher?

If you've been here three years or more, you may already have a training record in the PGR system.

Here’s how to bring it into Inkpath:

  1. Ask the Graduate School to download your current transcript.
  2. Log in to Inkpath and go to the homepage.
  3. Click ‘Find Activities’, then scroll to the Self-Study section.
  4. Look for ‘PGR Skills and Training Transcript’ and upload your file there. 

Extracurricular Activities

Activities that are not straight training courses can be undertaken, and included, as part of your skills and training pathway.

For example, you can do:

  • Internships
  • Sit on a committee
  • Get involved in mentoring programmes
  • Become a Graduate Teaching Assistant
  • Attend/speak at conferences
  • Do a poster presentation
  • Have a journal submission accepted to a publication
  • Glasgow Science Festival Internship
  • Be a student rep
  • Attend a workshop
  • Be a STEM Ambassador

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

YEAR 1

All activities can be booked in Inkpath

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Mandatory Activities

Complete if appropriate to your research:

  • Excel working with data
  • Applied Statistics for Postgraduate Students
  • Ethical issues and procedures for non-clinical research involving human subjects
  • Ethics Approval for People Working with Human Subjects
  • T-tests and ANOVA for the analysis of laboratory data (primarily)
  • Introduction to NVivo
  • Introduction to SPSS
  • Introduction to Python
  • An Introduction to Clinical Trials
  • An Introduction to Omics
  • Early Phase Clinical Trial Workshop*
  • Fieldwork safety
  • Radiation Protection*
  • Preparing for Research Fieldwork*

Optional activities of interest can be found on the Research Development website

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YEAR 2

All activities can be booked in Inkpath

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Mandatory Activities

  • Introduction to Writing your Thesis
  • Complete a PGR Reflective Log on non-mandatory activities.

Optional activities of interest can be found on the Research Development website

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YEARS 3+

All activities can be booked in Inkpath.

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Mandatory Activities

  • Preparing for the Viva
  • Introduction to Writing your Thesis
  • Complete a PGR Reflective Log on non-mandatory activities

Optional activities of interest can be found on the Research Development website

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How to:

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Book Activities On Inkpath - Step by Step

  • Log into your Inkpath app or desktop account
  • Navigate to 'Find Activites' to search for activities appropriate for you
  • Select course and date
  • A description will appear with a 'Book place on activity' button
  • Approval of your booking will appear along with extra info you may need, for example, reading materials, location, cancel button
  • Once booked you will receive a confirmation email
  • Recording your attendance: A QR code or attendance code will be generated for each event and emailed to the presenter to give to you at the end of the activity for you to scan on your phone or enter the code manually in your student profile.
  • When marking your activity as complete you can log your hours, rate it, recommend it and give feedback.
  • All activities booked show up on your profile
  • If you book a multi-day activity, you must be available to attend all days

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Add Activities to your Inkpath Profile - Create Your Graduate Skills Pathway

  • Log into Inkpath
  • Go to 'Create Activity'
  • Choose 'Create my own goal'
  • Set up your own pathway of activites that are listed on Inkpath and also add external activities you participated in - workshops, conferences, poster presentations, journal submission acceptances, etc.
  • View your progress in goal details.
  • Activities will not show on your HEAR transcript on MyCampus they will show in your Inkpath transcript.
  • All activities booked on Inkpath will always remain on your profile for future reference.

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Reflect on Non-Mandatory Activities in Preparation for your APR

  • Log into your Inkpath app or desktop account
  • Navigate to your profile page and the 'complete' column
  • Open the activity you want to reflect on
  • Open the 'Notes' tab and complete the following questions:
    • What inspired you to choose this course and what did you hope to gain from this learning event?
    • How does your learning align with your TNA and what new skills did you achieve from attending the course?
    • How might these skills be helpful in your current practice/future career?
  • When you need a full list of all activities you have completed you can pull off an excel or pdf report, anything in the notes section will show on it. If you add any docs to the 'attach a file' section, they will not appear on the report. Download those separately.
  • Upload your report and extra docs to your MyCampus APR record in time for your annual review
  • Self-reflections are only required for non-mandatory activities

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Add Your PGR Transcript to Inkpath 

  • For current researchers, not new researchers, ask the Graduate School to download your current skills and training transcript from the old PGR system for any past activities.
  • You can then upload it to your Inkpath profile.
  • Login to Inkpath > homepage > find activities > self-study.
  • In the self-study section you'll see 'PGR Skills and Training Transcript'. You can add your transcript there.

If you have any questions, reach out to the Graduate School.

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Trouble Logging in?

  • Error message: 'Sorry, but we're having trouble with signing you in'.
  • It is recommended that anyone encountering this issue uses an in-private browsing session to set up an account as you will be required to add-in your password during the sign up.
  • If you are still unable to log in after trying the above, you will need to raise a helpdesk request. This can be found on your MyGlasgow Student page. Direct it to IT not the MVLS Graduate School.

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How To Download Your Attended Courses On Inkpath For Your Annual Review

  • Log in to your Inkpath app or desktop account.
  • Click 'Export Activity'.
  • Choose the appropriate date range.
  • Click on 'Export xls' or 'Export pdf' - note that the pdf version will not show any self-reflection notes.
  • Save your doc.
  • Upload your doc in the PGR system for your initial/annual review.

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Can't See The Course You Want To Book In Inkpath?

  • All MVLS organised activities will be opened on Inkpath one semester at a time approx one month beforehand.
  • Semester one open in September.
  • Semester two open in December.
  • Semester three open in March.
  • Activities organised by the MVLS Graduate School can be found in the MVLS Activities A-Z.

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Missed Some Mandatory Courses and Can't Do Them Until the Next Academic Term?

  • Year 1 is necessarily ‘front end loaded’ with training in aspects you are expected to put into practise as your project matures. You may have relatively more time when you first start your project compared to later years – so it gets a little easier as you progress with a reduction in training required, as shown in years 2 and 3.
  • However, there will inevitably and acceptably be some carry over between years owing to timetabling issues.
  • Most mandatory courses are run more than once, add your name to the next mutually available time if booking has opened.
  • Do not worry about impact on your eligibility to continue study or graduate if some courses are missed. We are looking to develop you as a researcher; the transcript you come out with at the end is bespoke evidence of the personal continuing professional development training that you have engaged upon for future employers or grant awarding bodies to review.

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Your HEAR Transcript

  • Not all activities on Inkpath will show up on your MyCampus HEAR transcript when you graduate.
  • Activities run by the Grad School, and booked on Inkpath, will not show up on MyCampus, only on Inkpath. Always remember to mark your attendance after each activity.
  • It's important to keep track of your own skills and training an activities.
  • If you don't finish your research period and withdraw early you will still have access to your transcript listing your skills and training to date in Inkpath for life.

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When Do Activities Open For Booking?

  • All activities below will open for booking one semester at a time.
  • Activities for semester one open in September, semester two activities open in December and semester three activities open in February.
  • Feel free to take more activities that are not mandatory or are external to the university.

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CDT and Doctoral Training Programme Students

If you are on a CDT/DTP type programme and have a bespoke training programme, you are also required to follow the activities on the Graduate Skills Training programme below, the same as any other pgr student.

Activities in bold are mandatory and must be booked via Inkpath and added to your Inkpath profile.

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Mandatory Activities - MVLS vs Researcher Development Team

You may notice that there is a difference between the listed mandatory activities the grad school recommends you do compared to what the Researcher Development team recommend.

Our mandatory activities contain some Researcher Devlopment team activities as the basic minimum that must be completed, plus we in MVLS want to make sure you have a broad range of skills under your belt. Some of which are more specific to what we require you to complete. 

If you have taken similar courses to things like Powerpoint Essentials or Intro to Endnote, then let us know. It's ok to upload similar activities to your Inpath profile that we run. If in doubt contact us.

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Delete an Activity from your Inkpath Account

If you booked an activity but then couldn't attend and didn't cancel the activity, follow these instructions to remove it from your account:

  • Log in to Inkpath
  • Go to the 'Past' column, showing past activities
  • Click on the activity
  • When it opens click on 'Remove from my activities'

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FAQs

  • Is the "Introduction to writing your thesis" course is a must in 2nd year.
    • Yes it is mandatory for all PGR students even if they are on a DTP type programme.
  • Do we get credits on Inkpath, our understanding was that credits had been removed?
    • Credits have been removed. Students can have their course transcripts from the PGR system printed off and you can upload them to your Inkpath profile. Just ask the Graduate School.
  • As a DTP student I have to do courses as part of my DTP, do I still have to do courses on the Graduate Skills Pathway?
    • It was agreed when the redesigned skills training model was being scoped that students on any of the programmes would follow the same skills training as any other postgraduate student. So yes, you do have to complete the mandatory courses on the Graduate Skills Pathway.
  • My Inkpath account has locked me out, what do I do?
    • First check if you received any emails regarding non-attendance, or non-cancellation of activities you booked onto. 
    • We have implemented a strike policy, whereby if you have booked, but not attended, three activities, your account will be locked. In this instance, contact the MVLS Grad School: mvls-gradschool@glasgow.ac.uk

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