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Top1. Introduction
Postgraduate research is important for new knowledge contribution. While the government and the industry have put more resources in postgraduate research in recent years, postgraduate research has become more popular and more students have been more willing to stay in the university to continue their research. In postgraduate research, students most of the time are required to stay in the university to carry out research and then generate achievements ― findings and outputs. While students have been more considered not hiding themselves in ivory towers, this kind of conventional (campus-based) learning practice and requirement has changed. Collaborative research with industry has become more recognised in postgraduate research studies, in particular in application related subjects such as design, engineering, and technology (Etzkowitz, 1999; Leung, 2004; Poppinis & Singh, 2005; Potter, 2006; Reynolds, 1997; Siu, 2011; Smith, 1999). Moreover, students are expected to have more off-campus exposure to the areas related to their research topics and directions (Bourner, Katz & Watson, 2000; Siu, 2009a, 2010). These changes in the nature, characters and format of postgraduate research imply that more students are expected and required to carry out their research outside the university and have more and better connection with the industry (Altback & Johnstone, 1993; Dadashzadeh, Saber & Saber, 2002; Geenhuizen, 2009; Hyland, 1998; Leung, 2004; Poppins & Singh, 2005; PolyU, 2009a; Siu, 2009b, 2011). In other words, through this kind of students’ off-campus research and work, universities also have more opportunities and better networks to have collaboration with the outside world.
In general, postgraduate research students can learn and gain experience outside the university in two ways. First, a student may stay in a particular place outside the university (that is, including another university where the student is not studying) to carry out research work for a long period of time. This kind of learning most of the time is directly related to the students’ research directions, objectives and topics. Sometimes the attachment is carried out for nearly the whole period or major part of study. This arrangement is mainly due to the particular environment, facility, supervision, or data available outside the home university (Assiter, 1995; Hyland, 1998; Siu, 2009b). For example, a manufacturing engineering research student may stay in a manufacturing and production company for most of his or her study period to develop a new production system as the expensive hardware and confidential data are only available in this particular company. The testing of the effectiveness of the study, i.e., production line, can only be conducted at the company. A aero science research student may stay in a space science lab to collect specimens or data, and carry out analysis as particular expert advice is only available in that lab and specific data are only available at that particular site. In the same way, an environmental science research student can only get the accurate field data in South Pole or North Pole if she/he wants to collect the ice formation data in extreme environment.