Vitae policy forum 201006 January 2010 - 07 January 2010

Details

Programme Date/time

Thursday 07 January 2010

Start time

09.20

End time

09.35

Programme Rooms

George 1

Presenters

Ms Tessa Payne - Head of Graduate School, University of Nottingham

Info

Presentation outcomes

The challenges of sustaining the researcher development agenda: a Graduate School perspective

Ms Tessa Payne - Head of Graduate School, University of Nottingham

After outlining Nottingham's Graduate School structure and activities, Tessa described recent and forthcoming review processes. Performance measurement alignment with university strategy is a pre-requisite of a successful review outcome. Key issues are: how to measure Graduate School performance; the impact of Graduate School activities; how the Graduate School adds value; who uses Graduate School services; where the gaps are; existing and future external drivers; the opportunity cost of funding the Graduate School.

Originally established in 1996 in response to the ESRC recognition exercise, Roberts funding enabled further development of Nottingham's Graduate School. Roberts funding was invested centrally and locally in departments and augmented by university financial contribution. Currently, the Graduate School provides support in the UK for 2674 postgraduate researchers (55% of whom are international researchers) and around a thousand research staff, together with the researchers at the university's campuses in China and Malaysia.

In 2008 the Graduate School reviewed its activities and aligned them with key university strategies: research and knowledge transfer; internationalisation; and the researcher experience. Main activities of the Graduate School thus comprise: researcher and supervisor development; finding funding (£1 million of project funding has been achieved and managed from funders such as the European Regional Development Fund, ESRC and JISC); researcher community development (the university has established graduate centres in several faculties and satellite campuses); external engagement (such as work placements with local SMEs and larger employers); and ensuring parity of researcher development provision at Nottingham's international campuses.

Reviewing Graduate School activity is driven by several factors: uncertainty over future mechanism for delivery of Roberts funding and the need to agree future structures and functions well in advance of any cessation of external funding; changes to and expansion of Graduate School responsibilities since 2005; the need to ensure that Graduate School activity continues to deliver against Nottingham strategic objectives (such as a greater regional presence) and other external drivers (eg QAA, Concordat, REF).

Accordingly, in order to demonstrate to management the breadth and depth of our activities it was felt helpful to have an evaluation of the use of Roberts funding covering management of funds, impact on postgraduate researchers and research staff, particularly beneficial activities, future investment strategy and sustainability. External assessors were appointed, who conducted interviews with project managers, staff and beneficiaries and undertook desk research. This 2009 evaluation concluded that Roberts funding was targeted appropriately. Action learning and projects with applied elements received a particularly high satisfaction rating. Its recommendations included strengthening provision for research staff as a separate group.

Now the entire Graduate School is to be reviewed. All University units are reviewed regularly: the timing of this 2010 review was prioritised in the light of the funding uncertainties. The review will cover all activities (not just researcher development), be PVC- led and include external panel members. It will employ interviews with key stakeholders and Graduate School staff, site visits, and online surveys (the simplicity of which should yield useful qualititative information). The review will assess: alignment of objectives with university strategy; operational effectiveness/efficiency; management and leadership; infrastructure/space; risk management.  Its report will make recommendations to Management Board regarding the future strategic direction of the Graduate School and the implications of any cessation of the Roberts resource.

In preparing for this major review it is beneficial that the Graduate School has recently reviewed its activities and has developed key performance indicators linked to university strategy. Further ‘drilling down' into management information is taking place; case studies are being developed (eg of CASE researchers and employers) and longitudinal interviews with researchers undertaking work experience. It will be hugely important to communicate to the review panel how the Graduate School adds value and contributes to the university's key strategies. We also need to look at where the gaps are, for example, provision for masters students. Ultimately, the university may be faced with difficult choices: to make a case for continuation provision we need to know: what is the opportunity cost of funding the graduate school?