On Friday 31 October the Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences held its 9th Annual Fourth Year Research Conference. The theme of this year’s conference – Partnerships for Health – reflects the Faculty’s commitment to the University’s new strategic plan: Delivering Effective Partnerships.

The conference has grown steadily over the past few years to become a very significant event on the HMNBS calendar. With a record attendance of over 435 fourth year research students, supervisors, family members, friends, and potential fourth year students, this year’s conference was a great success and a highly rewarding experience for all.

After a welcome by Professor Joseph Graffam, Deputy Dean and Head of the School of Psychology, Professor John Rosenberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), gave the opening address reflecting upon the importance of partnerships and the strength of many partnerships that have been forged throughout the Faculty.

As in previous years, the format of this year’s conference resembled that of external, professionally run conferences and allowed the 147 fourth year students to present their research findings to an audience of their peers, family and friends. Students and others were able to network, share their experiences, support peers, learn about exciting work going on in other disciplines within the Faculty, and strengthen their communication and presentation skills in a supportive and familiar environment.

The day’s three sessions of concurrent presentations across twelve venues at Deakin’s Melbourne Campus at Burwood were punctuated by various breaks and networking opportunities. Dr Michael Ackland gave the keynote address, providing food for thought on the topic of ‘Generating Evidence – Research in Public Health’. After all presentations had wrapped up and students were able to take a deep breath the Faculty’s Dean Professor John Catford awarded prizes to the most outstanding presentation in each of the concurrent groups (pdf 19k).

Congratulations to all student presenters on a job extremely well done, and a significant year successfully completed