In Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a student enrolled into a full-time Ph.D. program must within 3 months of commencement work with the supervisory team to enrich the research proposal. This milestone is referred to as the “Stage 2 Milestone” in QUT. This milestone allows the University to understand your proposed research. The feedback from my 43-page document was massive. I provided an update here. Click to read if you missed it:

When a student passes the first milestone, within a year of commencement, the student builds on the feedback from the Stage 2 milestone and develops a Confirmation report expected to be between 30-50 pages. The student will then present to a panel of experts in their field of research who will be expected to provide recommendations if the student should be “CONFIRMED” as a PhD Candidate or not.

The Confirmation seminar is arguably the most important milestone on the PhD journey, especially if you are on a scholarship. Failing this milestone can be detrimental to the future of your PhD research and Scholarship.In view of these, my confirmation seminar was held on 17th June 2020, where I presented to an expert panel my research titled ”𝑨𝒅𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒚 (𝑨𝑹𝑻) 𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 (𝑷𝑾𝑫𝒔) 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝑰𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝑽𝒊𝒓𝒖𝒔 (𝑯𝑰𝑽) 𝒊𝒏 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒂”.

My presentation was done based on the 87-page document I had submitted to the school and the panel. It was humbling to be able to do this in less than a year. I consider this a massive win.

The height of the day for me was captured in the following comments that I got from the panel members.

1. Associate Professor Amy Mullens: The External Panel member who has extensive experience in the field of HIV.” Aaron I highly commend you on a very well-written, sophisticated confirmation document and presentation”.

2. Dr. Sanjeewa Kularatna: Health Economist/ Academic Lead for Post Graduate Research-School of Public Health and Social Work: ”Although your research is not my area of Public Health, I was able to understand your presentation because of your knowledge of it, Thank you”.

After listening to these comments, it was cemented with: ”Congratulations, you have passed your confirmation seminar”. Dear friends, I am now a confirmed PhD candidate in the QUT School of Public Health and Social Work.

This will be officially confirmed by the Graduate Research Centre in the coming weeks.

Special thanks to my supervisors Dr. Julie Anne King, Dr. Jo Durham and Dr. Kaeleen Dingle who put in so much work to make sure I did a thorough job.Thanks to all my friends who joined from different parts of the world to watch my presentation.

Although the presentation was done over Zoom, Squeezim made sure I came with all the swag. She said I was never to be caught unfresh.

Massive thanks to Squeezim for supporting me to achieve this. I am open to collaboration and learning from other researchers and development workers in this space. Get in touch.

The next milestone will be my Final seminar in 2022. Stay in touch.

#AAPTalks#CommunityDevelopmentWorker#Aa2Zi

Anizoba Ezinne Zine-Zi (Squeezim)