Forms and resources

Graduate research candidates

Tips for submitting forms

  • For candidature and progress forms, use your student login
  • For examinations forms in the PRIME researcher portal, use your institutional or staff login
  • For help on managing your student and institutional accounts, including instructions on how to avoid single sign on issues and access forms without logging off from your computer, see our institutional accounts page.

Apply for a graduate research degree or revive candidature

Interested in applying for a graduate research degree? Find out more and access our application system on our How to Apply pages.

During your degree

You can check your current student details, including candidature and progress dates, previous leave of absence taken, scholarship stipend details, financials, supervisors and thesis title in MyOverview.

Candidature and progress management

From Monday 17th October 2022, you will be able to access all graduate research online progress and candidature forms through the new and improved StudentOnLine.

To access StudentOnLine, click on the button below and log in using your student account.

Log into StudentOnLine

For further assistance on using StudentOnLine, refer to the following instructions:

The following Graduate Research forms can be accessed by selecting the GRS Candidature Forms category within the forms tile:

  • Graduate Research Add or Remove Subjects
  • Graduate Research Change in Thesis Topic
  • Graduate Research Change of Study Rate
  • Graduate Research Change to Progress Committee Chair and/or Independent Members
  • Graduate Research Extension or Postponement- use this form to request an extension to your progress milestones, scholarship, submission date and/or lapsed candidature. For progress milestone delays, you only need to submit a form if your milestone will be delayed more than 12 weeks for doctoral degrees or 8 weeks for masters degrees. For shorter delays, speak to your supervisor to agree the best timing for your meeting.
  • Graduate Research External Candidature
  • Graduate Research Leave of Absence
  • Graduate Research Study Away
  • Graduate Research Supervisor Variation
  • Graduate Research Withdrawal of Candidature

Progress report forms:

  • The system will generate your progress report form at least 3 months before your milestone due date and will send you an email with a link to form 3 months before it’s due. Once your form has been created, you can also access it in your forms summary in StudentOnLine.
  • If you wish to start your milestone report early and the form is not yet showing in StudentOnLine, please email candidature.grs@latrobe.edu.au and we can generate the form for you.
  • To request an ad hoc progress review form please email candidature.grs@latrobe.edu.au with the date you would like the review due and we will send you a link to the form.

Allowance claim forms

Transfers between research degrees

See the Graduate Research Candidature Policy for details of which degree transfers are permitted and how to apply. If you wish to request a transfer, you should discuss this with your progress committee (either at a progress milestone or an ad hoc review meeting) and submit your request via the progress report form.

If the Progress Committee is recommending a degree transfer, the Chair needs to complete the Progress Committee Assessment Form (PCA) form (linked below) and attach it to their Progress Report.

Finishing and thesis submission

Graduate research examination forms are now submitted through the PRIME Researcher Portal. This includes the:

  • Notice of Intent to Submit (NOI) form
  • Authority to Submit (ATS) form
  • Appointment of Examiner (AOE) form (submitted by your supervisor)
  • Access to Thesis Consent (ATC) form
  • Amendment Report (AR) form

You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access PRIME. Visit our institutional account page for instructions on how to activate and use your institutional account as well as help on switching between your student and institutional accounts and how to avoid single sign on issues.

You can find detailed instructions on using PRIME to submit your examinations forms in the Graduate Research Examinations for candidates user guide on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site (institutional / staff login required).

For the Schedule for Presentation of Theses by Higher Degrees By Research mentioned in the NOI and ATS form, please refer to our policies, guidelines for graduate research page.

Other documents

Research Codes - Australian New Zealand Standard Research Classification

Useful resources for graduate researchers

Web resources

If you require a website to support communication and recruitment for your research project, there are a number of options open to you.

La Trobe does not support the development of websites within the latrobe.edu.au domain for individual graduate research candidates. There are however a number of free and low cost options that provide basic functionality and easy to use interfaces. Our recommendations are:

You may also consider using the Google Docs platform. Google Docs provides an easy and free way to share information.

In some cases, where you are the member of a specialist research centre, team or unit that has its own La Trobe website, it may be possible to publish information on these pages. Clearance for this would need to be sought through the Business Development Manager or Director of the research centre, team or unit you are connected with.

It's essential to note that if you are intending to use your website to recruit for your research project that you need to have ethics approval before you begin recruitment. If you don't receive prior approval, you risk invalidating your collected data. You can apply for ethics approval via the ethics, biosafety and integrity webpage.

It's also important to keep in mind that you should consult with your research supervisor should you wish to publish any findings of your research project online.

Academic integrity, plagiarism and iThenticate

Being familiar and complying with academic integrity requirements and practices in your discipline is every candidate's responsibility. Citing sources accurately and appropriately is a core element of research integrity. If you have published during your candidature, or plan to, and want to use some or all of that material (text, data, ideas etc.) in your thesis, you need to manage that process carefully and discuss it with your supervisor. The GRS recommends using the text-matching software iThenticate to help avoid inadvertent plagiarism and manage citation practices, including self-citation.

Read more on academic integrity for researchers and iThenticate

Social media resources

The GRS recommends that all candidates establish a social media presence early on in candidature, particularly a Twitter and LinkedIn account. These resources can be used for communication of your research, for building networks and to support recruitment for your research project. The RED team run information sessions on the effective use of these resources.

Official La Trobe stationery

The following branded stationery is available for use for communications related to your research project:

Note: You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access the intranet. Visit our institutional account page for instructions on how to activate and use your institutional account.

Conference presentation materials

The following PowerPoint templates are available to support the presentation of your research at conferences both within and external to La Trobe.

The GRS recommends that officially branded PowerPoint templates are used.

Note: You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access the intranet. Visit our institutional account page for instructions on how to activate and use your institutional account.

Additional notes

To request any of the graduate research documents listed above in an alternative format please contact grs@latrobe.edu.au.

The policies and guidelines that relate to these forms can be viewed on the policies and guidelines page for graduate research.

Graduate research degree supervisors


Graduate research examination forms are now submitted through the PRIME Researcher Portal. This includes the:

  • Notice of Intent to Submit (NOI) form (submitted by the candidate)
  • Authority to Submit (ATS) form (submitted by the candidate)
  • Appointment of Examiner (AOE) form (submitted by the principal supervisor)
  • Access to Thesis Consent (ATC) form (submitted by the candidate)
  • Amendment Report (AR) form (submitted by the candidate)

You can find detailed instructions on using PRIME to submit and approve examinations forms in the Graduate Research Examinations for supervisors user guide on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site.

Ethics and biosafety information and forms

To access information and forms on ethics and biosafety, please visit the ethics, biosafety and integrity website.

Intellectual property

Accessing Software Off-Campus

If you need to access La Trobe University software, you can use ICT’s MyApps service, which provides a La Trobe virtual desktop that allows you to login from a personal computer and access software and systems as if you are using a La Trobe machine. Information on how to access this service is available on the MyApps Virtual Desktop page on the University website.

Graduate researchers can access the licensed software that is available to staff via the Kivuto store (https://latrobe.onthehub.com/) using your institutional account. This is a larger list of software than what is available using your student account and includes SPSS.

More information on how to access La Trobe systems on your own computer can be found on the ASK ICT website.