How to complete the CASP form and action plan

Your name, student ID and basic enrolment information.

Information about the action and support meeting. Includes date, mode of the meeting, why you have been nominated for action and support and if you’ve had a previous CASP.

This also includes the end date of your CASP. Your progress will be reviewed on this date. Your CASP end date is a maximum of 3 months from the date you develop your CASP for full-time candidates and a maximum of 6 months from the date you develop your CASP for part-time candidates.

In discussion with your supervisory team and HDR DA, outline the issues you’ve faced during your candidature and the support you think you need to move forward with your research.

Considering your discussions for Section 3, your supervisory team and HDR DA will make recommendations to help you.

There are three parts - at least one part of this section must be completed.

You aren’t required to follow the recommendations. However, if you don’t and are later referred to a College Review and Research Candidate Progress Committee (RCPC), you may be asked to explain why.

Part A: Recommendations for school-based support

If you’ve been nominated for action and support, your school must provide support to you. Some of this support could include:

Increasing the frequency of your supervisory team meetings
Meeting with your HDR DA during your CASP period
Developing a communication plan. This is to make sure you and your supervisory team are on the same page about the mode of communication (e.g. email or phone/MS Teams), how often you’ll make contact and who is responsible for writing and sharing minutes of your meetings.

Part B: Recommendations to vary candidature

Making variations to your candidature may give you some time to get back on track. This could include:

changing study load
applying for leave
changing supervisory arrangements
applying for an extension beyond maximum
transferring to another HDR program.

Talk to your Senior Supervisor and visit the Enrolment, leave and changes to candidature page to apply these changes.

Part C: Recommendations for general academic and other support services

Your supervisory team and HDR DA may recommend you access support services from RMIT. This could include academic support or wellbeing services, such as counselling, Equitable Learning Services, accommodation advice, financial advice and/or legal advice. These services are free and confidential and can, if appropriate, refer you to services external to RMIT.

Your action plan allows you to show your progress at the end of your CASP period.

This is an example of an Action Plan (PDF, 143KB) and a template (DOC, 33KB) for you to use.

An action plan must have clear, detailed, achievable and specific tasks with reasonable deadlines. One or more people must be assigned as responsible for each task. Anyone in your school or discipline should be able to understand the tasks required.

When developing your action plan consider:

How you and your team will meet the recommendations in Section 5
How you will work towards meeting the requirements of your HDR, such as milestones, ethics approvals and submission
When you need to provide work to your supervisors and when your supervisors need to provide feedback to you.

If your action plan doesn’t include enough detail or fixed deadlines for tasks, you may be asked to revise it before it’s approved.

If you are unclear about the tasks on your CASP, seek clarification from your supervisors and/or HDR DA as soon as possible.

You, your supervisory team and your HDR DA must sign to state you are aware of and agree to the recommendations and action plan of your CASP.

How to complete the CASP form and action plan