Research Student experience

PhD graduate employability

Social media and blogging

I am a research educator who has been working with PhD students for over a decade. I started my academic career as an architecture lecturer in 2001, following a decade in architecture practice with leading design firms. I took up the position of Director of Research Training at ANU in 2013, after working as a research fellow in the School of Graduate Research at RMIT University since 2006.

 I created the famous Thesis Whisperer blog, which has had 4.3 million hits in the last five years and has 60,000 followers on email and social media. The blog is the most popular source of advice and a leading influencer for research supervisors and students in the world because it is grounded in my scholarly practice in higher education research. I am known in my field as an innovative and creative scholar, publishing in high-impact journals in my field as well as in a range of other media outlets. I actively create research collaborations to further my research agenda.

 I am a passionate educator and have been recognised for my work, both online and in the classroom, with membership as a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am known internationally for my expertise in research and education, which has resulted in frequent appearances as an expert keynote speaker at conferences, locally and internationally. I comment in the mainstream media, locally and internationally, on research culture and education issues.

I am available to consult with ANU students - please contact researchtraining@anu.edu.au

For further information on my professional activities, you can view my Linkedin Profile, contact me by email on inger.mewburn@anu.edu.au or visit my Google Scholar page.

• CSIRO ‘On Prime’ program completion bonus $5000
• Leader: $50,000 Category C Discovery Translation Fund grant from Canberra Innovation Network.
• Leader: $80,000 Category C grant from the Department of Industry to investigate the application of machine learning to explore PhD employability and the ‘hidden job market’ for graduates, 2015 (ongoing).
• Leader: $40,000 Office of Learning and Teaching, Category A seed grant to explore the use of digital badge technology in doctoral pedagogy, 2014.
• Best concise paper, ASCILITE conference, 2014.
• Leader: $1500 grant from the ANU gender institute to explore PhD student attrition, 2013. A paper from this work was presented at QPR, 2013 and the methodology for measuring research student attrition was then adopted by Edith Cowan University and RMIT University.
• $5000 John Grice award for best thesis in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, 2009.
• $1500 best paper award, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, 2008.
• $24,000 per annum Melbourne research scholarship, University of Melbourne, 2006-2008.
• Fellow: $3000 creative research industries CRC award for creative explorations, 2003.

• Jodie-Lee Trembath, ANU school of the Asia Pacific (Panel chair and Primary)
• Nguyen Bui, ANU school of the Asia Pacific (primary supervisor)
• Zara Maxwell-Smith, ANU school of the Asia Pacific (Panel chair and Primary)
• Xeem Noor, ANU school of the Asia Pacific (Primary supervisor)

Wendy Suiter, ANU School of Music, CASS (primary supervisor)