Postgraduate Research Celebration Week

Between 3 and 7 June, the Doctoral Academy hosted its first ever Postgraduate Research Celebration Week. During the week, over 300 postgraduate research students and stakeholders joined us in a range of events and activities, including:

• The 10th edition of our showcase event, Images of Research, where 24 postgraduate research students exhibited visual representations of their research
• Our annual Three Minute Thesis public engagement competition, where 12 researchers gave compelling talks on their research to a non-specialist audience in no more than 180 seconds, using only one static slide
• Our inaugural Postgraduate Research Symposium, which gave students the opportunity to deliver formal academic papers
• Our new Careers Café series, through which 14 PhD graduates working in a variety of roles and sectors gave talks on their career choices and experiences
• Several networking and social events, including student-led activities.

Celebration Week was established as a means of showcasing the incredible work being undertaken by our postgraduate research students, and to address some of the longstanding issues associated with the postgraduate research culture.

On the whole, our postgraduate research students are overwhelmingly positive about their experience. Through our biannual Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES), we know there are high levels of satisfaction concerning the quality of PhD supervision; the opportunities that students have to undertake professional development opportunities and to develop their research skills; and access to appropriate space and resources.

But we are also honest about the areas in which improvement is needed. In the 2023 PRES survey, only 56% of postgraduate research students said that they felt positive about the research culture and community at the University, three points below the sector average. Respondents were critical about the lack of opportunities to become involved in the wider research community and to interact with other researchers outside their local departments. Similar findings emerged through our institutional Research Culture survey, which revealed an obvious desire for researchers to have more opportunities to get out of their disciplinary silos.

Celebration Week was a concerted effort to address some of these issues. In addition to recognising the achievements of our postgraduate research community, we wanted to provide opportunities for students to connect and collaborate with their peers in formal and more social settings. We also wanted to showcase the many doors that a research degree can open from a career perspective, highlighting the wider societal impact that our doctoral graduates have in a range of sectors and roles both within and beyond higher education.

We know that a one-off initiative cannot lead to fundamental change. This is why the Doctoral Academy has invested in strengthening the postgraduate research community throughout 2023/24. In January,  we launched a new scheme through which postgraduate research students could apply for funding to organise activities bringing together researchers in both academic and/or social settings. Through our Research Culture and Community Fund, we awarded £9,000 to support a range of student-led activities. We have strengthened links with teams who provide community activities and initiatives, including the Students’ Union and the Student Engagement Team in the Learning and Teaching Academy. We are currently employing a postgraduate research student to review our offer from an EDI perspective, to make our training and development provision more inclusive and more accessible.

To keep up to date with the Doctoral Academy’s research culture initiatives and projects, check out our  blog, or opt-in to receive our monthly updates via email.