Postgraduate Research Administrators Taskforce was established in 1997 to benefit existing and new administrators of postgraduate research degrees and scholarships. It changed its name in 2007 to Australasian Research Training Administrators.
The group has grown to include members from 37 higher education institutions. A national meeting is held each year and is open to all members while state groups meet more frequently to encourage cross-institutional discussions and collaborations.
Australasian Research Training Administrators meetings have become an acknowledged forum for networking and brainstorming for staff from universities and institutions whose enrolments range from hundreds to thousands of research students, and whose research offices are staffed by two or three people or a large team of administrators. It is this diversity which has made, and continues to make, Australasian Research Training Administrators such an encouraging and dynamic group.
In May 2005, Griffith university co-hosted the 2-day Postgraduate Research Administrators Taskforce annual meeting which included a number of joint sessions (biannual) with the Council of Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies in Australia . The theme of the event was Measuring Quality in Research.