About us

SORTI was established out of the concern evident at national and international levels about the quality and impact of research and research training. The continued development of the Centre has also responded to the escalating interest in higher and professional education; the acquisition, use, settings; and the acceleration of the use of information technologies in related contexts.

To capture these changes we developed an overarching program framework recognising two key domains: Adaptive Knowledge Production (AKP) and New Technologies that encompasses:

• Studies in Research Training
• Studies in Higher Education
• Studies in Professionalism
• Studies of Cultural Variation

SORTI activities are directed toward the understanding and development of research and higher order problem solving skills, the impact of research training and knowledge use, professional development and pathways to professions, and e-learning in a wide variety of contexts.

SORTI brings together researchers from the University of Newcastle and national and international academics in the fields of Education, Science and IT, Psychology, Social and Cultural Studies, Business and Law, Evaluation and Measurement, Policy Studies, Curriculum, ESL, History, Philosophy, Creative Arts, Music, Design, Mathematics, Medicine, Engineering and the Built Environment, Environmental Studies, Business, Research Management, and University Administration.

Research Highlights

Supervisors: Do you know how doctoral candidates interpret and frame decisions in relation to the challenges of candidature?

Recent research by Cantwell, Scevak, Bourke and Holbrook presents a framework for identifying individual differences and understanding problematic candidature.
Read more about this research in the recent article in International Journal of Educational Research.

What are examiners looking for when they examine a PhD thesis?  Are there differences in disciplinary emphasis?

Focusing on Formative Comment, Holbrook, Bourke, Fairbairn and Lovat examine these questions based on a large scale longitudinal study into PhD Examination.
Read more about this research in the recent article in Studies in Higher Education

"I felt a fear of violating the original per se, of not finding anything significant to find."

"In fact, my self-confidence took an absolute battering and I had a wall full of possible ideas written up, but I was paralysed by indecision . . ."

"At the beginning it was very difficult because you tend to be very precious about your Writing, especially for art . . . I can't write . . ."

These are expressions of the phenomenon of 'rupture' identified by Simmons and Holbrook in student narratives of uncertainty and scholarship experienced during the course of Fine Art research degrees. Read further in the recent article in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education