Course Review

 

PHYSIOL 399 wraps up your physiology degree by giving you some insight into what comes after graduating as well as giving you an opportunity to apply skills you have learnt thus far - there is also a lab visit! It is internally assessed and one 2-hour session a week, with the first hour being a lecture, and the second hour being a tutorial where you get split into research clusters. 

 

The lectures give students exposure to the nitty gritty details of research such as research ethics and funding, skills needed in research such as analysing statistics and writing a literature review, and skills needed overall such as writing a stellar CV . Lectures are not recorded and so attendance is extremely crucial, especially since your reflection journal will involve multiple entries throughout the semester that ask you to reflect on specific lectures and tutorial sessions. The reflection journal is done through a platform called KuraCloud and there are three submissions you have to make: one reflection on weeks 1-3, 4-9, and the final weeks. Under each question, there are very clear bullet points on things you should address in your answer. If you hash out each bullet point fully, this should be an easy 10%. 

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In 2025, there were three main clusters: Vision Physiology (Assoc. Profs. Gus Grey / Julie Lim and Dr. Yadi Chen), Cardiovascular Physiology (Drs. Mridula Pachen / Julia Shanks / Xin Shen), and Development Physiology (Drs. Victoria King / Alice McDouall / Petra White). Students signed up to these clusters on a first come first serve basis. These clusters and their supervisors are subject to change each year. NB: the following paragraphs contain some vision cluster specific reviews since that was the cluster I was in. 

 

The first two tutorial sessions with your research clusters are an opportunity for you to learn about current hot topics in the field of research you’ve chosen and that your supervisors specialise in, they may also give you an overview of most common experimental procedures and techniques involved depending on what you’re researching. These two sessions are really important stepping stones to help you start brainstorming about what topic you want to look further into. This will form the basis of your literature review, and consequently your research proposal. There are two tutorial sessions where you will be marked on your discussion with your supervisor. It sounds daunting, but really what they’re looking for is engagement and progress in your work. The first assessed tutorial is where you present a topic (or multiple) for your literature review and research proposal. For the Vision cluster, Assoc Profs. Gus Grey and Julie Lim, and Dr. Yadi Chen were extremely supportive during these tutorials, giving very thorough guidance on topic choice and potential directions that could be taken with the topic. The supervisors in the Vision cluster were all well read and had a deep understanding of what had or had not been done, and so were overall immensely knowledgeable and helpful. The second assessed tutorial was an opportunity for you to ask specific questions about your literature review and research proposal and anything that you’re stuck on. Beyond the tutorial sessions, the Vision cluster supervisors (and I’m sure the other supervisors), were all very happy to answer questions via email as well. Definitely take advantage of these sessions and get as much help as you need. Since the cluster supervisors mark the assessments, asking questions will also help you gauge what things they are looking for. 

 

At the very end of the semester, you will present in front of a few invited esteemed researchers in the university. You will present with fellow students in the same cluster as you. This involves making a poster which gives an overview of what’s going on in the field of research you’re in (i.e. vision, or cardiovascular), as well as the importance of research in this field. It’s an opportunity for everyone to contribute their personal findings, and to work together to look at the overall impact of research into this particular field. At the end of your presentation, the floor will be opened for the researchers and students to ask any questions they have. 

 

Some advice to do well in this course is to keep up to date or even try to get ahead as much as you can. The assignments are relatively spaced out, however, do not underestimate the workload. The literature review will greatly help you complete your research proposal so the more thorough the literature review, the easier you will make it for yourself to work through the research proposal. Have fun!!