ADMINISTRATIVE BASICS

Some students will need to undertake fieldwork as an integral part of their research. Your supervisor, in consultation with you, will make judgments on the necessity for fieldwork and on its scope. Fieldwork refers to the collection of primary data for the purpose of meeting a specific research goal and that is directly used in the final presentation of the research (i.e., the thesis). Examples of fieldwork include undertaking participant observation, conducting interviews and focus groups, and undertaking surveys or similar data collection methods that require direct engagement with participants. Experiments are not counted as fieldwork as they are typically conducted in a controlled environment. The collection of secondary data and attendance at meetings and similar are also not defined as fieldwork as they do not involve the collection of primary data that will be used in the final presentation of the research.

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Students going on fieldwork must undertake the requisite fieldwork and risk management training required by ANU. All fieldwork students must do the basic work health and safety (WHS) and/or fieldwork safety courses (see the training catalogue) and, where necessary, First aid: remote area training (see below). You will not be permitted to go on fieldwork until you have completed the necessary training. If someone — including your supervisor — tells you that you do not need to do the training, they are wrong: you must do the training. You will not be able to apply for Crawford HDR student fieldwork funding until you have done the training. Did we mention that you need to do the training?

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If you intend to go on fieldwork, you will need to

• Follow the ANU’s procedure for working safely away from campus. It is important that people intending on going on fieldwork read and implement the ANU’s procedure for fieldwork health and off-campus work safety. You should be familiar with this procedure. In particular, you should pay attention to the discussion regarding hazards and risks likely to be encountered, and you should put in place appropriate measures or actions before you go on fieldwork. Our advice is that students and supervisors discuss these actions and measures between yourselves and make a record of that discussion.

• Have the appropriate Ethics approvals.

• Undertake the basic work health and safety (WHS) and  fieldwork safety course. This approx 2-hour workshop is compulsory for all CAP HDR students participating in fieldwork or off-campus work for the first time as ANU staff or students. For details about upcoming dates and to register, view the training catalogue. Please note, though, if a course it not scheduled for the next couple of months, it will not be displayed there until the next class becomes available. It is important that you do your WHS and fieldwork training early; the courses are not run every week, so if you leave it to the last minute you may miss out on the opportunity to get into the field, as you will not be permitted on fieldwork until you have completed the training. Check the training catalogue. You may need a budget code as well as additional registration information, in which case you should email the PhD Academic and Research Skills Advisor for said code. If you cannot register, then email whstraining@anu.edu.au and let them know what course you want to attend. Once you have completed your training, go to your ‘View Training Summary’ tab in HORUS. You can take a screenshot or a print of this page.

• Be trained in remote area first aid and have a remote area first aid certificate if you are conducting fieldwork in a remote area (see section 22 of the ANU’s procedure for working safely away from campus). You should therefore undertake the FAHR04 First aid: remote area course if you are conducting fieldwork in a remote* area (see the end of this section for a definition, as well as for some important notes). The remote area course is essentially the regular, two-day (sometimes referred to as ‘advanced’) first-aid course, with a third day tacked on to cover ‘remote’ first aid; this means it is a three-day course, and it is usually delivered over three weeks. We will not send you on this course unless you have passed your TPR or, if you have not yet cleared your TPR milestone, your supervisor approves your attendance (contact the PhD Academic and Research Skills Advisor for details). Check the training catalogue and enrol. You may need a budget code as well as additional registration information, in which case you should email the PhD Academic and Research Skills Advisor for said code. If you cannot register, then email whstraining@anu.edu.au and let them know what course you want to attend.

• Complete the online Travel approval form in eForms at least two weeks prior to departure. If you are planning to visit a high risk destination, please advise the HDR Administrator. See Travel approval and the ANU’s Procedure: Travel to high risk destinations for more information.

• Go over the Elements for consideration in fieldwork and off-campus work and determine how they affect you.

• Complete a fieldwork plan (there is no template for this — you can make up your own schedule) and register it with the HDR Administrator. Your application for fieldwork will need to be accompanied by a supporting statement from your supervisor and a budget statement before the HDR Director will approve your travel on fieldwork.

• Advise the HDR Administrator if they are planning to visit a ‘high risk’ country.

The Crawford School may provide funding support moderate fieldwork costs if these are not already being supported from other sources. You must advise of any likely absence while you are on-course: this includes fieldwork. Any absence requests must be formally approved must be submitted in a timely manner.

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IMPORTANT NOTES RELATING TO REMOTE AREA FIRST AID TRAINING

*Remote area: A location separated from an appropriately resourced urban centre by distance, terrain, access, time and/or available communication links. A remote area is on land or water. A remote area is not necessarily related to the distance from an urban centre. In the event of an emergency, assistance would be delayed, with the possibility of adverse outcomes. Remote areas can apply to off-campus work or fieldwork. The key here is that emergency response if or when needed would be significantly delayed.

• On the definition of ‘remote’ as provided in the ANU’s Procedure: Fieldwork health and off-campus work safety, remote does not simply refer to population or population density; in particular, the procedure states, “A remote area is not necessarily related to the distance from an urban centre. In the event of an emergency, assistance would be delayed, with the possibility of adverse outcomes.” Thus, you might be going to populous and densly populated New Delhi, but the key criterion of ‘assistance would be delayed’ (because of potential slowness of emergency response) would require that the student undertake this training. Similarly, the existence of medical facilities does not impact on whether a place is deemed remote or not: the issue is the speed of emergency response.

• It doesn’t matter how long a person has previously spent in a location or where they come from or what their networks are; rather, remote area first aid training is about skills. For example, I might come from or have lived for a long time in Ceduna in remote South Australia, or I might come from or have lived for a long time in Mexico City, but that does not guarantee that I can correctly apply first aid to a snake bite in the desert or know how to order a helicopter evacuation in a densly populated and crime-affected area.

• Supervisors have a duty of care to their students, and if a catastrophic event were to occur (e.g., serious injury or death), then subsequent inquiry would likely seek to establish whether or not the supervisor reasonably acquitted that duty of care. For this reason, supervisors must make sure that students undertake the relevant training.