The UNY Graduate School of Ph.D. presented Dr. Vijay Kumar Mallan from Otago University, New Zealand. Vijay has developed a keen interest in doctoral education. In his teaching and research, he focuses on improving the doctoral experience for both supervisors and students. Over the past decade, Vijay has developed, disseminated, and published on doctoral support, examination, and feedback practices. On this occasion, Vijay presented a Workshop on Improving Doctoral Supervision Practices for Heads of Study Programs and Doctoral Students. "My research philosophy is to produce scholarship that has practical implications. At Otago, I am responsible for academic development programs for supervisors and PhD students.

Outside of Otago, I have been invited to provide expertise and teach doctoral supervision programs in Australia, Estonia, Finland, India, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, and Sweden," Vijay stated during his presentation at the three-day workshop. Vijay added that when presenting, one should not be egotistical. "Remember, when presenting using PowerPoint, don't use more than 27 sentences, or you'll see your audience fall asleep. And there's also something better to avoid: don't read your own slides," he added. During the student workshop, Vijay also held a teleconference with students and graduates at the University of Otago. In this session, students were given the opportunity to share their experiences regarding the obstacles in completing their dissertations.