| > Skills Training Event 2005 |
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Programme |
Leading the Way – Research Skills Training in the North West
Programme
| 9.00 – 9.30 | Registration Tea, coffee and Danish pastries will be available |
Reception Room |
| 09.30 – 9.40 | Welcome & Introduction Jane Ratchford, Champion Postgrad Talent North West |
Banqueting Hall |
| 09.40 – 10:00 | Keynote Speech - The Importance and Future of Research in the North West Prof Gerald Hammond, Associate Vice-President for Graduate Education, The University of Manchester |
Banqueting Hall |
| 10.00 – 10.15 | Funding of Research Training in the NW | Banqueting Hall |
| 10.15 – 10.30 | Institutional Perspective Prof Chris Park, Director of Graduate School, Lancaster University The Lancaster University perspective on the importance of postgraduate research and skills training on regional development |
Banqueting Hall |
| 10.30 – 10.50 | Tea & Coffee | Reception Room |
| 11.05 – 11.50 | Group Discussion Sessions | various |
| 1 How the Roberts funding has been spent by institutions in the first year Dr Iain Cameron, Chair Postgraduate Training Group, RCUK / Head of Postgraduate Training, EPSRC |
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| 2 Update on the QAA code of practice implementation: Supervision and Assessment in the context of research student skills training. Gill Clarke, QAA Assistant Director, University of Bristol |
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| 3 The European Perspective and the Bologna Process Jessica Olley, EU/Bologna Process Officer, Universities UK |
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| 11.45 – 12.00 | Group Feedback | various |
| 12.00 – 12.30 | PANEL SESSION - NW PGR SKILLS DEVELOPMENTS Dr Paul Birkett, Head of Academic Quality and Standards, Bolton University Dr Janet Metcalfe, Director, The UK GRAD Programme Others tbc |
Banqueting Hall |
| 12.30 – 13.30 | Lunch |
Reception Room |
| 13.30 – 14.00 | Information Session Recent changes to HEFCE funding and the monitoring of completion rates Will Naylor, Policy Officer, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) |
Banqueting Hall |
| 14.00 – 14.45 | Workshop Session 1 | Various (see below) |
| 14.45 – 15.30 | Workshop Session 2 | Various (see below) |
| 15.30 – 16.00 | Workshop Feedback and Setting the Regional Agenda | Banqueting Hall |
Discussion Groups
Dr Iain Cameron, Head of Postgraduate Training for the joint RCUK provided an overview of how many institutions have used the additional resource (for Research Council funded students) to employ coordinators to provide a more unified and organised approach to PGR skills development. The session showed that there is some confusion in institutions over how the money has been spent and in some cases, where the money has gone.
Gill Clarke, Assistant Director of the QAA hosted a session looking in greater detail at two aspects of the Code of Practice (CoP) dealing with the role of the PGR supervisor in skills development and assessment of skills development during a doctoral degree. Discussion of the first aspect centred around what can be / is reasonably expected from a supervisor and how institutions should support staff with supervisory responsibilities. The discussion on the second aspect considered how personal development portfolios (PDPs) may play a role in the assessment of skills development at the viva stage of a doctoral degree.
Read a full copy of the QAA CoP
Jessica Olley the EU / Bologna Process Officer for Universities UK provided a question and answer session on recent European developments. The Bologna Process aims to create a single European higher education area by 2010. The main issues for resolution are around quality assurance, types of qualifications and the transfer of credit. In February 2005 10 broad principles were identified for doctoral qualification and these were discussed at the event.
Panel Sessions
Chair: Prof Helen Leathard
Panel members: Dr Paul Birkett (Head of Academic Quality & Standards, Bolton University); Dr Elizabeth Christopher (Asst Director (administration) Graduate School, Chester College of Higher Education); Prof Paulo Lisboa, Head of Graduate School, Liverpool John Moores University); Dr Janet Metcalfe (Director, UK GRAD Programme); Prof Chris Park (Director of Graduate School, Lancaster University); Jane Ratchford (Champion, Postgrad Talent NW, the NW Hub of the UK GRAD Programme).
Question 1: What happens if someone hasn’t developed during the course of a PhD?
Response: This is highly unlikely but…we must be up-front about skills training and explain at the beginning of a course that this is a necessary part of their training. By setting the agenda at the start and allowing PGRs to direct their own training and understand the process they can appreciate their own personal development.
Question 2: What can skills training offer those doing a PhD for a hobby of purely for the title?
Response: There has been a certain amount of focus on increasing the employability of PGRs, but the process of ‘increasing their employability’ is actually about making them more effective researchers.
Question 3: Should exemptions be offered for skills training courses?
Response: Flexibility is required, but with the implementation of assessment of skills provision an evidenced-based system will need to be in place. This doesn’t necessarily have to be attendance at a course. Possibly the need for ‘advanced’ level courses to enhance skills even further.
Question 4: How is it best to get supervisor ‘buy-in’?
Response: By providing evidence that it really makes a difference, using longitudinal tracking. By understanding the concerns of supervisors and providing a solution. To have effective buy-in requires a top-down approach. Encourage buy-in by showing that skills training leads to faster completion time - a strong incentive as HEFCE plan to use this as an assessment of effectiveness criterion.
HEFCE Information Session
Will Naylor, Policy Officer from HEFCE provided an overview of the recent changes to funding and quality assurance for research degree programmes. From 2005/6 the funding will be allocated into research departments with a RAE rating of 4 or above and will be cost-weighted according to broad subject area.
Funding will be conditional on alignment of the institution with the QAA CoP. In 2005/6 the QAA will perform a special review to provide a baseline against which future years will be assessed. Completion rates of PGRs will form part of this evaluation, this information will not be in the public arena, unless requested under the FOI act.
Workshop Sessions
Personal development portfolios and training needs analysis
Dr Lynn Clarke and Dr Louise Innes, The University of Liverpool, Melissa Shaw, University of Central Lancashire / Centre for Recording Achievement ( CRA).
The University of Liverpool has an on-line personal development record ( PDR) which provides an official record of meetings and progress, but also acts as a skills audit and reflective diary. The on-line system is supported by supervisor input and specially designed workshops.
The University of Central Lancashire has paper-based progress files (PF) which encourage reflective learning and record ‘key stages’ of the project and meetings. The PF is supported by supervisors and additional support is provided in workshops and in the ‘virtual learning environment’.
UK GRAD, the CRA and the National Postgraduate Committee together assessed PGR PDP users and PDP providers (institutions) to provide a snap-shot of the provision available in the UK. This is available in a database from the UK GRAD website (www.grad.ac.uk).
Discipline-specific training collaboration
Fiona Mair, University of Central Lancashire, Preston and Dr Richard Hinchcliffe, Director of Postgraduate Training, The University of Liverpool
Key questions:
- What is the need for discipline specific training?
- What is the best forum for collaboration?
- What can be done to reduce the barriers to collaboration and how can UK GRAD and Postgrad Talent NW help?
Mapping training to the joint skills statement
Dr Tony Bromley and Dr Jim Boran, Graduate Development Directors, Engineering and Physical Sciences, The University of Manchester.
Tony and Jim provided a fascinating analysis of PhD students who completed a self assessment of their level of competence in the skills addressed in the Joint Skills Statement. The sample covered around 140 1st year Physical Science and Engineering PhD students at the University of Manchester, near the start of their PhD.
By using an on-line system, and a 1-4 ranking of skill level, they have been able to extract the students' assessment of their ten lowest/highest competences. This promoted much debate on, for example, whether this measured skill or students' self awareness.
One of the highest self-rated competences was using library resources, but research carried out at MMU shows that in reality, this is one of their students’ lowest competences.
This is the first cohort to go through self assessment. Possible improvements were discussed, such as more detailed illustrations of each level of competence, but we were all keen to see how the study progresses.
Accreditation and assessment of compulsory training
Dr Richard Hinchcliffe, Director of Postgraduate Training, The University of Liverpool
Key questions:
- How is compulsory training enforced?
- Should training become an integral part of the doctoral award (included in viva?)?
Providing for part-time and distanced students
Prof Alistair McCulloch, Head of Research, Edgehill College of Higher Education
Key questions:
- How are the requirements of part-time and distanced PGRs different to full-time and campus-based PGRs?
- What is the best approach to providing for part-time and distance students in terms of:
- academic needs?
- social and other needs?
Main feedback points:
- The discussion took us back to the question ‘What is a PhD?’ Given the shift away from ‘thesis’ to ‘process’, it may be that in the process we are talking about, a candidate no longer ‘gets’ a PhD, but rather ‘becomes’ a PhD. The question was asked (but, given the available time, not answered) ‘Can someone “become a PhD” without being on campus?’ This point seemed to the group to raise a very significant set of issues, especially about the role of the assessment of the PhD (‘thesis’ or ‘person’?)
- Irrespective of the outcome to the debate on the above issue, the group was of the opinion that training programmes helped because they make explicit what is required/expected from the beginning of the process. Induction was held to be a particularly important part of this training, but there was a balance between the product (thesis) and the process which could potentially be different for every student and which induction is important in determining. The issue of whether ‘induction’ had to occur in a specific time and space or whether it could be delivered in a dispersed and/or virtual manner was also touched upon.
- A variety of options were mooted (e.g. one day per month, weekends, CIT-based etc), but a key point to come out of the discussion was that flexibility was essential. However, it was also pointed out that the development of programmes etc is always based on assumptions and that programme developers/deliverers had to be sure that their assumptions are based on the reality of the students with which they are dealing, not on some ideal type of students implicit in government and research council funding policies.
Post-Doc Roberts' Training
Prof Paulo Lisboa, Director of Graduate School, Liverpool John Moores University
Discussion on the implications of Roberts funding and requirement for training of Research Council funded contract research staff.
The current position in the North West was reviewed recognising that most provision is either localised to specific faculties and schools, or provided by University Staff Development departments as part of general staff programmes. However, JMU have developed a residential programme for their post doc researchers to address these training needs.
The skills needed by post-docs were discussed, in particular, the appropriateness of using the Joint Skills Statement for Research Students as a model for post-docs - should they have progressed beyond some of these skills, are other skills necessary as a foundation for a career in academic research or outside?
It was suggested that a North West Post Doc skills conference, run by post-docs, but supported by PG Talent NW would be welcomed.
UK GRAD on-line offer
Dr Janet Metcalfe and Vicky Halliwell, UK GRAD Programme
This session provided the opportunity to hear more about what UK GRAD can offer those working with PGRs.
UK GRAD has a selection of online resources:
- Training database offers a selection of case studies and group activities for those delivering skills training to PGRs
- PDP database offers an insight into the postgraduate PDP programmes running across the UK
- Online reports including an interactive version of the What Do PhDs Do? report and summaries of important national documents relevant to PGR skills development
- ‘Just for Postgrads’ area designed for PGRs offering advice and guidance on skills development issues
For further details see: www.grad.ac.uk
Training the Trainer
Mike Rawlins, Chalybeate / UK GRAD
Key questions:
- How to motivate and encourage best practice in skills training?
Postgrad Talent NW is supported by the NW Regional Hub of the Research Councils’ UK GRAD Programme.
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