Placement opportunities for Postgraduate students
The Research Computing Team within IT Services supports a number of research and teaching projects. The team works with academic staff and provides help with applications for research funding, assists with technical solutions for the various research needs, and takes care that the research data that is produced within the University remains from a technical perspective accessible for as long as it is needed.
While some aspects of the work the Research Computing Team undertakes are subject-specific and require some knowledge of the academic subject in question, other projects are generic without the need for specialist academic knowledge. There are particular projects that would benefit from the availability of additional IT support to them. Support requirements are often such that it is possible to acquire any necessary skills gradually on-the-job rather than through formal training.
Students will be working as part of the Research Computing Team and will be supervised by a member of that team. The intention of the placements is for suitable students to spend some of their time in a professional IT support environment working on a specific project. While IT Services cannot offer to pay students, it is expected that students will benefit from their placements:
- Placements lead to the development of transferable technical and research skills.
- The placement within a professional IT support rather than research environment provides students with an insight into technical issues of research computing, which will help to inform IT-related work in their future academic career.
- Volunteers are supervised by experienced research computing staff.
- Experience is gained through working on accepted projects within / hosted by the University of St Andrews, and can be added to CVs.
While the duration for each placement and time commitment can be flexible, we would expect students to commit themselves to a minimum of three hours weekly for at least one term.
For further information, please contact Birgit Plietzsch (email: bp10[AT]st-andrews.ac.uk).
