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Doctoral programmes and Graduate Schools in the UK: A case study of Nottingham Trent University

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Title: Doctoral programmes and Graduate Schools in the UK: A case study of Nottingham Trent University


1
Doctoral programmes and Graduate Schools in the
UK A case study of Nottingham Trent University
  • Dr Matt Henn, Head of Research Degrees and
    Research Training
  • Graduate School
  • College of Business, Law and Social Sciences
  • Nottingham Trent University
  • Burton Street
  • Nottingham NG1 4BU
  • Great Britain
  • Tel (0115) 848 8156 Fax (0115) 848 8700
    Email matt.henn_at_ntu.ac.uk

2
Nottingham Trent University
  • Four Colleges (Art and Design and the Built
    Environment /Arts, Humanities and Education /
    Science / Business, Law and Social Sciences)
  • 23,000 students, including 4,000 postgraduate or
    professional qualification students, and over 400
    PhD students
  • College of Business, Law and Social Sciences
    largest of the 4 colleges, with 106 PhD research
    students, and 115 Professional doctoral students
  • One central virtual Graduate School centralised
    web-based admissions process
  • Each college has its own Graduate School office
    (administration and academic staff) to ensure
    local compliance with central university
    regulations, and support for PhD students

3
A personal view of changes in the organisation of
UK PhDs over 20 years
  • In the past
  • The traditional apprentice model, in which the
    research student sat at the feet of the
    supervisor who was the Fountain of Knowledge
  • Very personal and individualised relationship
  • No support outside of that relationship (subject,
    methodological, pastoral)
  • Now
  • There is now much support outside of that
    relationship
  • a team of supervisors
  • School Research Degree Co-ordinators
  • Head of Research Degrees
  • Graduate School
  • and of course, the other students!

4
A personal view of changes in the organisation of
UK PhDs over 20 years
  • In the past
  • Single discipline-orientation
  • Now
  • Interdisciplinary orientation
  • Supervisors
  • PhD Programme of Supporting Studies
  • Research environment

5
A personal view of changes in the organisation of
UK PhDs over 20 years
  • In the past
  • Little contact with other research students
  • Now
  • Part of a Graduate School - and subsequently of
    thriving graduate and research communities
  • Gathered together in a single open-plan workspace
  • Workshops every two weeks (research training,
    transferable skills, teacher training)
  • Graduate School Conferences twice each year
  • Subject research seminars open to all

6
A personal view of changes in the organisation of
UK PhDs over 20 years
  • In the past
  • Little regard for ethical issues, or for health
    safety matters in the research project
  • Now
  • All prospective PhD research degrees projects are
    required to gain approval from the College
    Research Ethics Committee
  • Workshops and comprehensive guidance notes
    Ethics Health and safety

7
A personal view of changes in the organisation of
UK PhDs over 20 years
  • In the past
  • Very low completion rates ? 1970s and 80s - the
    Winfield Report revealed that only 20 of UK
    social scientists completed within 4 years
    (Taylor, S. 2007. Improving retention rates and
    completion rates. UK Council for Graduate
    Education, Goodenough College, London UK, March
    2007)
  • Now
  • Research councils set target completion rates 4
    years
  • 36 of UK students who began their PhD research
    degrees in 1996-97 completed within 4 years, 57
    within 5 years (Higher Education Funding Council
    for England, 2007. PhD research degrees update
    Entry and completion. Bristol Higher Education
    Funding Council for England)

8
What is a Graduate School, and what are its
benefits - Bologna
  • Create organisational structures for
  • Research training to prepare people for careers
    outside of the HE sectors across Europe to
    strengthen research capacities and meet needs of
    wider employment market
  • Promote interdisciplinarity in terms of skills
    training, and also in the research environment
  • Professional skills development and training of
    academic staff
  • Increasing mobility across Europe for research
    students, and international collaboration between
    universities and other partners

9
Graduate Schools - The UK context
  • Harris Review of postgraduate education 1996
  • Harris, M., (1996). Review of Postgraduate
    Education, M 14/96. Higher Education Funding
    Council for England, Bristol. Accessed on 26
    March 2009 from lthttp//www.hefce.ac.uk/Pubs/hefce
    /1996/m14_96.htmgt.
  • Roberts Review 2002
  • Roberts, G., (2002). SET for success The supply
    of people with science, technology, engineering
    and mathematics skills. The Report of Sir Gareth
    Roberts Review. HM Treasury, London. Accessed on
    26 March 2009 from lthttp//www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/
    ent_res_roberts.htmgt.
  • Complaints from employers of the quality of PhD
    research students, as well as the technical
    skills and the creativity of many of them
  • Recommend at least 2 weeks per year of
    transferable skills training The UK treasury
    funded this with Roberts money

10
Graduate Schools - The UK context
  • QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) 2004 Code of
    practice for the assurance of academic quality
    and standards in higher education -
    http//www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/codeOf
    Practice/section1/
  • The Research Councils
  • ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) -
    http//www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/opportunities
    /postgraduate/pgtrainingpolicy/
  • AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) -
    http//www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/d
    efault.aspx
  • VITAE - http//www.vitae.ac.uk/

11
The Graduate School at Nottingham Trent
University
  • NTU Graduate School formed ten years ago
  • Co-ordinate institutional ambition for
    high-quality provision for research students
  • Interdisciplinarity
  • Bring students together to create a critical mass
    and a stimulating knowledge environment
  • Centre for methods and general research skills
    training

12
How we ensure quality 1
  • Accountability
  • We comply with the quality assurance standards as
    determined by key national bodies (the Quality
    Assurance Agency e.g., Institutional audit
    2008, and the Research Councils e.g., ESRC
    recognition exercise every 2-3 years)
  • Regulations, policy and practice governed by a
    University Research Degrees Committee which is
    accountable to the Universitys Academic Board
  • Devolution of day-to-day operationalisation of
    research degrees to our College Research Degrees
    Committee, and to Graduate School
  • College handbooks with local operationalisation
    (e.g., teaching limit of 3 hours per week,
    supervision arrangements, student progress
    reporting etc)

13
How we ensure quality 2
  • Recruitment and applications process the
    Graduate School is the key point of initial
    contact with all prospective students
  • Project approval
  • Monitoring arrangements (twice yearly)
  • Annual monitoring of student as a condition of
    progress to subsequent year of study. It
    includes a review meeting with the student, the
    supervisory team, and an independent assessor
  • Ethical approval
  • Transfer (MPhil-PhD upgrade) stage
  • Independent assessors
  • The viva

14
How we ensure quality 3Supervisory support
  • Our principles
  • Supervisor/ student relations are very important
    - but the supervisory team is accountable to the
    university for the successful conduct of
    supervision
  • Supervision teams minimum qualifications (2
    completions)
  • PhD students are entitled to regular, accurate
    and constructive feedback about their progress
  • The university has an obligation to ensure that
    the student receives the support, training and
    advice needed for success in the PhD and in their
    future career
  • Supervisors need support, training and advice
    too!

15
How we ensure quality 4The student experience
  • Student training Programme of Supporting
    Studies (workshops, conferences) ? We will
    consider this in a moment
  • High level research environment with exposure to
    alternative paradigms and approaches
  • Student evaluation and feedback

16
PhD programme of supporting studies (PSS)
  • What is the Programme of Supporting Studies?
  • Programme of research training designed to
  • Support PhD research
  • Provide skills and competencies training for
    later careers
  • Process for development of the Programme of
    Supporting Studies
  • Active participation in, and full completion of,
    the PSS is specified in the research students
    Project Approval application

17
Content of the PhD PSS
  • Compulsory research training modules
  • Year I students who have not already completed
    our MSc Research Methods (or equivalent) normally
    take three research training modules from our MSc
    Research Methods programme
  • This element is assessed - students must pass all
    the modules specified to progress to the next
    year of study.

18
Content of the PhD PSS
  • Graduate School Conferences December and May
  • Each conference lasts for two days.
  • Attendance is compulsory for full-time research
    students
  • The focus is on academic issues involved in
    undertaking advanced research, including
  • Sessions led by academic staff and external
    speakers on methodological issues in research
    practice
  • Research student presentations on work in
    progress. full-time research students present a
    paper once per year part-time students usually
    every two or three years.

19
Content of the PhD PSS
  • Graduate School Workshops
  • A programme of practical research training
    workshops for all research students within the
    College.
  • Purpose is to provide students with skills and
    insights that will be helpful to them as they
    develop their PhD work, and also beyond.
  • Training and guidance available at the NTU Online
    Workspace (NOW) https//now.ntu.ac.uk/

20
Content of the PhD PSS
  • Graduate School Workshops
  • Transferable skills - writing for different
    audiences, upward management, effective project
    management, professional presentations,
    one-to-one communication, academic networking
  • Research training for instance managing ethics
    and risk in social research, exploitation of
    research and intellectual property rights,
    specialist IT training for research (Nvivo, SPSS
    etc), advanced quantitative and qualitative
    analysis techniques
  • Teacher training - In Year II of the PhD, the
    programme also involves undertaking training in
    teaching and learning
  • Workshop details https//now.ntu.ac.uk/

21
Content of the PhD PSS
  • Research Groups Annual Seminar Series
  • All research students are expected to participate
    fully in the annual seminar series of their own
    research group or discipline
  • All research students are to present a research
    paper at least once during the period of study,
    as well as actively contribute to discussions
  • All research students are to be actively
    encouraged to participate in external academic
    conferences relevant to their PhD topic

22
Content of the PhD PSS
  • Individually Identified Specialist Advanced
    Research Training
  • Any additional training needed to complete the
    PhD successfully will be identified during the
    admissions process
  • Further training may be identified during the
    annual monitoring process in the light of the
    evolving demands of the project
  • This may include
  • Systematic coaching in specialist research
    methods which will be provided by experts in the
    students School.
  • Training in English for Academic Purposes for
    international students
  • Language training will also be arranged for UK
    students intending to undertake fieldwork abroad.

23
The outcome?
  • Initially culture of resistance especially
    amongst supervisors
  • Now general appreciation that such a supporting
    programme equips the student with the skills to
    approach their PhD research degree with confidence

24
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