Public

fIRST Consortium

fIRST was created by a group of Australian and New Zealand universities committed to improving postgraduate research supervision. These foundation members each paid a joining fee, so that the Consortium could be instated, and contributed at least one supervision development resource for the fIRST site.

Consortium membership is now open to all universities. Member universities pay a joining fee. They are then given password access to the fIRST resources, which can be used by individual supervisors, supervision co-ordinators and supervision development groups within the university.

The Consortium uses members' fees to pay for the development of the fIRST resources and for fIRST site maintenance.

The Steering Committee

The Consortium and fIRST resources are coordinated through the Steering Committee. The current Steering Committee includes representatives from five of the Consortium's member universities. It is proposed that half of the Steering Committee positions be open every two years for replacement or re-appointment of members.

Member representatives

Each member university can nominate one representative to be their primary contact for the Consortium. This representative is usually someone responsible for postgraduate supervision development, eg. from the Graduate School or equivalent, or the Academic Development Unit.

The Steering Committee will consult regularly with member representatives by email. The Committee may also seek advice from those who attend meetings of the Council of Australian Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies (DDOGS) and the Directors of Academic Development Units.

Benefits for members

As a member of the Consortium your university can:

  • access the fIRST resources and make them available to university staff members for research supervision development



  • participate in decisions about the Consortium's direction and the types of resources to be developed in future



  • contribute supervision development resources for peer review and have them published on fIRST, with acknowledgement to the developer and university



  • receive regular communications from the Steering Committee on fIRST's progress.