The School of Architecture and Built Environment has been successful with development of joint doctoral supervision programs with international partner institutions. This includes an in-country program with Shandong Jianzhu University in China and a Cotutelle program with the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. Students in either program would fulfil Deakin’s doctoral entry requirements and complete all research training, milestones and assessment requirements of the Deakin doctoral degree program.
Under the in-country doctoral program signed in June 2017, doctoral students are enrolled in Deakin under a co-supervision arrangement which is conducted primarily off-campus at Shandong Jianzhu University. Students are co-supervised by a principal supervisor from Deakin who is an experienced member of Deakin’s academic research staff and a supervisor from Shandong Jianzhu University who is an expert in the field of research. Students are provided with the opportunity to travel to Deakin to conduct part of their research on-campus. Four students have been enrolled in this program from the 2017 intake, and the students’ names and their principal supervisors are Ms Yan Cui (Dr Beau Baze), Ms Xiaofeng Shi (Dr Beau Baze), Mr Tongguang Si (Dr Reza Hosseini) and Mr Yang Yang (Dr John Rollo). The 2018 intake applications are now under assessment.
In July 2018, Deakin University and the University of Moratuwa signed the Cotutelle Agreement (photo below), in which doctoral students are enrolled, managed and assessed separately in accordance with each individual institution’s regulatory requirements. Students may be enrolled in the home institution first and followed by enrolment in the host institution within the first year of the doctoral program or be enrolled in the doctoral program simultaneously at both institutions. Students are co-supervised by two principal supervisors at home and host institutions and spend at least one third of the candidature at each institution. Students will be required to submit a single thesis to both institutions at the same time for the examination of the thesis. It is expected that up to three doctoral students from the University of Moratuwa will apply for Deakin’s doctoral candidates in this upcoming September.
