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Preparing Future Academics

Preparing Future Academics. Jon Turner, Sheila Thompson, Gail Honeyman, Miesbeth Knottenbelt and Mary Bownes Vice Principal Research Training, University of Edinburgh. Our view of the professional development requirements of future academics Evidence of needs from PRES

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Preparing Future Academics

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  1. Preparing Future Academics Jon Turner, Sheila Thompson, Gail Honeyman, Miesbeth Knottenbelt and Mary Bownes Vice Principal Research Training, University of Edinburgh

  2. Our view of the professional development requirements of future academics • Evidence of needs from PRES • Approach to support at the University of Edinburgh • Examples of support at the University of Edinburgh • Principal’s Career Development Scheme

  3. Professional Development Requirements for Future Academics • Research capability, creativity and originality • Innovative • Leadership and effective use of networks • Teaching expertise and experience • Knowledge Exchange, (possible business knowledge) • Other high level professional skills e.g. communication to a wide variety of audiences, management, independence, finance, applying successfully for funding, supervision of students and staff, team working, course development, collaboration skills

  4. Evidence • Everything we do should be evidence-based where possible Examples of Evidence • PRES results • CROS results • EU Charter and Code • BIS – One Step Beyond: Making the most of postgraduate education sector • QAA Revised Code of Practice • Vitae Researcher Development Framework • UUK 2009, promoting the UK doctorate: Challenges and opportunities • VITAE 2009, what do researchers do? • Joint Skills statement • Roberts Report……(and lots more)…..

  5. Summary of relevant national PRES findings Overall, the national PRES findings show that research students have generally very positive views about their experiences. For example: • Opportunities to develop research and transferable skills were the areas in which research students’ expectations were most often met or exceeded. Areas in PRES which were highlighted as requiring further attention include: • increasing the availability of opportunities for research students to further develop their research and transferable skills, and finding effective ways of making students more aware of the opportunities available to them (skills development); • introducing more effective ways of encouraging research students to reflect on their professional and career development needs (professional development and career); • introducing more effective ways of increasing research students’ understanding of the range of career opportunities open to them (professional development and career).

  6. PRES: Intellectual Climate

  7. PRES: professional & career development

  8. PRES: teaching opportunities

  9. The Tight Link between PhD and Early Career Researcher • The Majority of Edinburgh responses to CROS 2009 indicated: - there was a positive working environment at Edinburgh: - the support available for research staff training & development was highly rated (73% had participated in internal T&D activities) – most popular topics: grant writing, career management, project management, supervising students; - we have work to do to encourage engagement in appraisal & induction • Data collected by CROS 2003, 2005 and 2009 has resulted in: - development of our Code of Practice for the Management of Research staff - 1:1 career interviews available to all researchers - research staff mentoring programme open to all - ‘Career progressions in Academia’ workshops - increased number of leadership and management workshops incl. Managing People - encouragement of Research Staff Society formation

  10. Key activities over the last 18 months linked to CROS recommendations include: - embedding of our Code of Practice to support Concordat implementation - CoP clarifies responsibilities and sets out Edinburgh expectations - it provides encouragement, guidance, practical advice and links to resources, (should we have an equivalent for PhD students?) - re-development and re-launch of our Research Developmental Portal website to: - further promote our support for researchers - provide more career management resources - provide clear links to advice/information/resources - http://www.ed.ac.uk/researcher-development - development of an online mechanism for researchers to record and access their career and professional development activities and history – ‘My Career’ – launching soon

  11. Edinburgh Approach • Consider the progression of development needs – everyone starts with different skill sets –Institute for Academic Development • Academia is just one of several exciting career options • Embed support and training • Focus on flexibility and range of options • “one size fits all” is not a good approach • Remember that an academic requires many skills • needed in business, industry and the public sector

  12. Graduate School of Engineering and Electronics PhD monitoring, milestones and training Science Communication in Action (optional, months 3 to 4 or 15 to 16) UK GRADschool (optional, 18-36 months) PhD TRAINING (Compulsory or Strongly recommended courses) Thesis Workshop (month 26) Writing a Scientific Paper (month 17) Induction Event (Roberts Funded) • Research Posters • Preparing a Poster • Getting Your Message Across • Graduate School Poster Day • (months 16 to 18) Searching Research Literature (month 2 or 3) PhD MONITORING AND MILESTONES Research Poster (18 months) Research Paper (24 months) Thesis Plan (27 months) Submit Thesis (36 months, 48 month final deadline) Project Plan (2 months) Project Report(6-8 months) 1st Year Review 2nd Year Review 3rd Year Review Training Needs Assessment during induction and annual review points students towards appropriate elective courses including: Effective Presentations (1), Effective Writing (any), Communicating Science to Non-Specialists (1 or 2), Scientific Computing Tools (usually 1), Computing Toolbox (any), Web Page Production (any), Research Grant Applications (3), Developing a Successful Career (3), Interviewing Skills (3), Entrepreneurship (any), IPR (any), Tutoring & Demonstrating (1)

  13. Teaching and Learning • Local orientation and links to teaching organisations that map onto our schools • Central WebCT resources and advanced workshops • Opportunities for support to apply for HEA accreditation. We have 165 full fellows and 7 associates. Many more take a course on Documentation and Accreditation than actually apply to HEA • Research staff tend not to attend this course even though future academics will usually teach as well as research

  14. Support for The Development of Teaching (1) Underpinnings The University of Edinburgh Code of Practice on Tutoring and Demonstrating which established the main responsibility for supporting tutors and demonstrators should be located locally (i.e. with course organisers at School-level) • Experience and research informs us that some forms of support are best provided locally (and some generic courses with mixed disciplines can also be valuable)

  15. Support for The Development of Teaching (2) On this basis, Edinburgh has developed: • Initiatives to strengthen the development of local forms of induction: • Local (School or course-level) orientation for large cohorts • Robust central orientation as back-up: Core set of generic courses repeated twice annually, as safety net for local courses Online generic materials for all to access • Central induction for enhanced development for all tutors and demonstrators (that candidates can tap into) • 44% of our researchers in CROS have undertaken some teaching • We have 1,443 tutors and demonstrators at Edinburgh, (but they are not all are PhD students)

  16. The Link between PhD Students and Researchers • CROS results show that 50% of research staff have supervised PhD students at Edinburgh • Over time, more supervisors will become experienced and will have received a broad range of training which will lead to even more support of the agenda • The University has explicitly linked PGR and early career researchers in its governance structure by setting up a Senatus Researcher Experience Committee

  17. Research Communication in Action • Sandwich style approach to skills development • Run with individual Graduate Schools • Training in communication, working with children and a specific workshop • Teams of PhD students and/or research staff take workshops to local schools • Review day • Variation with focus on policy development for social science

  18. Researcher-led initiatives fund • Applications are invited from researchers for projects which • Have a training & development focus • Are organised/led by researchers • Are of direct benefit to groups of researchers • Complement existing University-wide training • Demonstrate creative and proactive approaches

  19. Examples from researcher-led fund • ‘Political Studies Association Northern Postgraduate Conference’ organised by PhD students in Politics drawing researchers from across Europe and supporting participants with the writing of abstracts, asking questions, engaging in discussions, and networking opportunities. • ‘The Art Collective’ supports collaborations between scientific and artistic communities with the aim of fostering creativity and communication of knowledge. PMARC Seminars comprise a monthly seminar series organised by researchers working in the multidisciplinary field of perception-action systems. • ‘Researching the Public Interest’ is an initiative driven by PhD students and research staff to create a cross-College interdisciplinary networking forum to increase knowledge development and exchange, to promote interdisciplinary working, networking and research collaborations. • ‘Encounters - An Intercultural CD of New Music’ is a professional CD of new music created by PhD students in Music that has allowed them to develop an array of transferable skills beyond music creation, for example, managerial, financial, accounting, computing, marketing, administrative, and editorial skills

  20. Outcomes of Researcher-led Fund • Award recipients have identified interesting and important benefits from their funded activities which include: • promoting student and staff interaction; • building and engaging research communities and networks; • professional skills development by researchers; • interdisciplinary work and awareness; • potential research collaborations; • developing ideas and projects with potential for wider public engagement.

  21. Outcomes of Researcher-led Fund “The formation of research societies has encouraged research staff to shoulder the responsibility for their own career management. The obvious benefits of this have been: to promote pro-active career management, to increase interaction between junior staff; to provide a means for individuals to obtain advice from their contemporaries; and to increase the visibility of research staff to senior management.“ (Paddy Hadoke; Research Fellow)

  22. University of Edinburgh Principal’s Career Development PhD Scholarships • 55 new scholarships, open to all applicants & fields of study • Include additional career development opportunities: • University teaching • Public engagement • Enterprise • First scholarship holders arrive in September www.scholarships.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/development.htm

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