The Enhancing the Postgraduate Researcher Journey project began at the start of January 2025 and is currently scheduled to continue up to the end of July 2025.
The project is structured into several phases, as follows:
Initial analysis and scoping activities
Review of existing resources, opportunities and activities at Department and School-level.
Initial scoping exercise will aid in refining research questions to explore within the data collection phase.
Analysis of existing data
Data collection & Analysis
Institution-wide data collection conducted to gather stakeholder experience and feedback.
Investigation into PGR support provided at external institutions to provide comparative insights.
Analysis of new data to identify common trends and areas for development.
Development of Project Toolkit
Incorporating evidence-based insights, achievable strategies for enhancing packages of support for PGRs and including examples of best practice.
Consultation and Feedback
Findings to be presented to a selection of stakeholders from within the three University faculties, inviting feedback to refine the resulting toolkit.
Final toolkit made available more widely across the institution and actively promoted by BRIC, YGRS and Careers teams to encourage adoption and participation with resources and insights.
Postgraduate researchers are undoubtedly at the heart of this project and their experiences and views on current PGR-related support are essential to the development of the project toolkit.
Graduate Chairs and Postgraduate Administrators are inter-linked in shaping activities, creating opportunities, making high-level programme decisions and providing support to PGRs in relation to a variety of University procedures.
We are working with academic and professional support staff from PGR support networks within Departments, Schools and Centres.
Consideration and analysis of the feedback collected from previous anonymous PRES 2023 reporting has been undertaken and has shaped specific research questions to put to our key stakeholders.
Both Staff and Postgraduate Researchers will now have opportunity to take part in a survey, to gain an overview of the types of support currently available at Department/School-level, and identify areas which are particularly outstanding.
Postgraduate Researchers will also be able to take part in focus groups to facilitate discussion and explore ideas for enhancement of support.
In addition, some Staff have been invited to take part in interviews which will hone in on specific strategies and enable open-ended conversations.