Research higher degree students are an important cohort of students for any faculty within a research intensive university. Institutional factors that minimise student attrition rates include the quality of supervision and support received from their faculty and peers. The Student Research Experience Questionnaire (SREQ) is used at The University of Sydney to obtain anonymous feedback from continuing students on their perceptions of their postgraduate experience. The 2002 SREQ dataset demonstrated that Veterinary Science students had the lowest perceptions of the quality of supervision, research infrastructure, research climate and overall satisfaction of any students within university. Consequently the faculty implemented initiatives to improve the research postgraduate experience resulting in a statistically significant improvement in the 2007 SREQ dataset. This paper discusses the importance of supporting students through their candidatures, the SREQ instrument itself and initiatives implemented by the faculty to improve students’ perspectives of their postgraduate experience since 2002.

Keywords: research postgraduate experience, research higher degree experience, experience