Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2013
The PG Research Experience Survey (PRES) lets you share your views on what it’s like to do a research degree at Glasgow and feed into decisions on policy and practical issues. This is a national survey and results are reviewed by the Deans of Graduate Studies, the Researcher Development Committee, the Students' Representative Council and other relevant groups. An action plan is drawn up to address any issues and its implementation is monitored by the University's senior management.
Thank you to everyone who completed the 2013 survey, we had an excellent response rate of 57% (compared with 38% in 2012 and 42% nationally). Graduate Schools are creating their own action plans in response to the survey and welcome comments or feedback from researchers on this. Updates on action taken as a result of the survey will be available here in early 2014.
Summary of 2013 results
Overall Satisfaction
The University’s strategic plan sets a target of 90% for overall satisfaction. 84% of 2013 respondents agreed or strongly agreed that, overall, they are satisfied with the experience of their research degree programme (compared with 82% in the Russell Group). Looking at each of the key survey areas, it can be seen that levels of satisfaction have improved in all four of the Graduate Schools.
Supervision
This is an area in which Glasgow typically performs well in comparison to the Russell Group averages. We have seen further improvements in this in 2013.
Working space and resources
With new office and desk spaces being allocated during 2012/13, the percentage of respondents agreeing that they have a suitable working space has improved this year. However, we can see that there is still work to be done across certain areas of the university. We are above the Russell Group average in satisfaction with access to specialist resources. The text comments are proving useful in helping to understand exactly what respondents expect in terms of specialist resources and these comments have been provided to Graduate Schools.
Research culture
Satisfaction with seminar programmes has improved this year and we are equal with Russell Group satisfaction in this, as well as in opportunities to become involved in the wider research community, beyond any individual department. However, still 41% of you would like greater opportunity to get involved in the wider research community and we are open to ideas and feedback on how we can help with this. With the opening of the Gilchrist PG Club, satisfaction with PG social space has increased by 20%
Progress and roles / responsibilities
From survey results and text comments, we can see that we need to improve on how we communicate requirements, expectations and deadlines for annual monitoring of progress. We are keen to get feedback on how our induction and communication can be improved, so that we can ensure that students know where to get the information and support that they need and who to speak to about such matters, other than their supervisor. PG Reps and School level PG committees will play a key role in these discussions over the next year.
Research skills and professional development
Satisfaction with research training is comparable with Russell Group averages. One area that we'll be focussing on in 2013/14 is how we communicate expectations, support and training on research ethics and integrity. We have published additional guidance on this on the web and plan to include discussion of this in both PGR inductions and supervisor training.
Glasgow respondents agree that their ability to manage projects and their own professional development has improved during their time here. However, with the many opportunities for public engagement that are available around Glasgow, we think we could be doing more to ensure that our researchers are supported in communicating to a diverse audience. We are about to appoint a Public Engagement Officer for the University, who will offer training and support in this area. We've also introduced a new course called 'Making Conversations Count' which looks a public dialogue events. We have just appointed a PGR writing skills adviser, who will offer workshops and individual appointments to PGRs.
The Researcher Development Committee will be reviewing responses relating to training over the next few months, to ensure that our training programme offers the flexibility needed to support people at different stages and with different career aspirations.
Teaching opportunities
54% of respondents had participated in teaching or demonstrating during their research degree. Satisfaction with support and guidance for teaching has improved significantly since 2012. However, it remains slightly lower than we would like and School-level committees are working on trying to understand this issue. The Arts Graduate School have received funding to pilot a GTA network, providing peer-support for teaching assistants from the Colleges of Arts and Social Sciences.
To read full results from previous surveys visit:
2012 survey 2011 survey 2009 survey 2008 survey
If you have any ideas that you'd like to share, please get in touch with someone from the Postgraduate Research Office or your own Graduate School or PGR student rep to share your views.