‘UK Social Science research training policy and practice: three perspectives on recent developments and unintended consequences’ROSEMARY DEEM a, SALLY BARNES b, GILL CLARKE c

outline

The overall theme is the development of social science doctoral training in the UK 1992-2014

3 semi narrative accounts by the presenters of their experience of social science doctoral education both now and in the past; all of us once worked at the same university.

Finally explore some current issues: critical mass; visions, experiences, thesis type; ideas about collaboration; administrative funding challenges

1. Rosemary deem:continuity & Change in social

science doctoral education 1992-2014

1970s and 1980s there were SSRC/ ESRC awards through allocation and/or national competition; students were slow to submit and the doctorate was seen as a great work, training patchy

In 1992 ESRC began to implement the 1987 Winfield Report (recommended tightening up on supervision, completion & developing two doctoral routes, training and knowledge)

Personal experience of doctoral education at Open University, Lancaster University, Bristol University, RHUL

From 2009 onwards greater orientation towards all disciplines sharing training and extreme selectivity

initial responses to doctoral training

Often resisted by students, especially in 1990s/2000s plus some supervisors regarded it as a distraction

Degree regulations revised in 1990s; 4 years of training and study

Lot of issues around what should be studied (qualitative, quantitative, philosophy of social science?) and its relevance to student research topics

Role of training in the completion of the thesis and in employment very different

The beginnings of the ESRC Doctoral training

centres

2009 – 2010 initiative announced: unclear if collaboration between institutions an afterthought & bi-product of collective bids in Wales and Scotland

Some universities steered by ESRC to single HEI bids

financial crisis meant bids reassessed after initial sift; DTUs removed altogether & only 21 DTCS funded

Assumed bigger was better – science model

No initial support for those running DTCS. SRHE event in 2012 with Pam Denicolo, ESRC a bit nonplussed

Southwest DTC

Comprises Royal Holloway + Surrey, Kent & Reading

Pathways: Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Management, Politics, Psychology, Socio-legal, Social policy, Sociology & Environment, Energy & Resilience

Hard work to collaborate – different cultures, regulations, student information systems, VLEs, structures but students doing well

Told we must do more research collaboration and meld together the 4 research & teaching strategies

2. Sally Barnes: The Complexities of

Doctoral Training: the SWDTC

Bristol, Exeter and Bath Universities www.Swdtc.ac.uk

12 Disciplinary Pathways

5 Interdisciplinary Pathways Environment, Energy and Resilience (EER) Health and Well-Being (HWB) Security, Conflict and Justice (SCJ) Global Political Economies (GPE) Advanced Quantitative Methods (AQM – Bristol only)

BRISTOL’S SWDTC VISION

To increase interdisciplinary research collaborations across the Faculty of Social Sciences & Law by encouraging staff to collaborate on PhD supervisions, Advanced training workshops, seminars, etc

To introduce multiple perspectives into the Masters in Research programmes by creating teaching teams from schools across the Faculty

To increase research collaboration with other institutions, through joint supervision of PhDs

To increase successful collaborative research applications

Institutional Complexities

ESRC deals only with Lead partner so all monitoring etc must be accessible to Bristol, as lead partner

Interdisciplinary Pathways have required the three institutions to work as one in terms of the regulations pertaining to the MRes.

For the new disciplinary Masters in Research - need to align educational structures to create a common marking scheme, credit awards, degree awards, etc

Supervisory requirements for doctoral candidates needed to be aligned across institutions

Partnership Agreement governing the SWDTC

Complexities for Academic Staff

Understanding that there ARE changes to admissions, supervisory and monitoring issues for ESRC doctoral candidates

To potentially teach research methods units with staff from other disciplines - teaching both face-to-face and virtual groups

To potentially supervise doctoral students with staff from other institutions.

Complexities for Doctoral Candidates

For candidates to become aware of the broader opportunities offered

Research training units

Advanced training opportunities

Placements, internships, overseas visits

To view their colleagues as being in several institutions but all together

ID Students have supervisors from more than one institution – managing different locations, styles, travel, ethos, etc

Other Issues

Ensuring opportunities are available for Non-ESRC funded candidates

Initial ESRC funding for 6 years (formal review after 3) – how to manage the rebidding process, and do we want to rebid?

ESRC changing relationship with institutions and their desire to have direct relationship with ESRC candidates

3: Gill Clarke: UK Social Science research training policy and practice; three perspectives on recent developments and unintended consequences

Summary

Role of ESRC and the research councils

Leadership qualities

Avoiding over-bureaucratic management

Importance of organic development

The student experience and perspective

___________________________________________________________________

CDT

Univ

Univ

Complexities of training models

Grad School/Doctoral College

CDT

Univ 2

Univ 3

CDT

Single university graduate school or ‘doctoral college’ with independently funded centres for doctoral training

CDTMultiple graduate schools and centresfor doctoral training in one university

CDT

Grad School

CDT

Univ 4

Univ 1

GS GS

GS

Large CDT with several university partners;includes multiple graduate schools; universities oftenpart of more than one CDT

Univ 1

CDT

Univ 2

‘Taught’ modules in years 1-2

Identification of ‘training’ needs

Cohorts rather than individuals

Identify with lab / CDT / department / school ?

‘Streams’ of candidates?

Models of doctoral training: candidates

More autonomy

More structure

Increa

sing ye

ars o

f stu

dy

Prof doc?

PhD?

Lunt, I., McAlpine, L. and Mills, D. (2013). Lively bureaucracy? The ESRC’s Doctoral Training Centres and UK universities. Oxford Review of Education, 40:2 151-169

critical mass

Critical mass in doctoral study long questioned by Delamont et al (1997a,b). Has this just been an adoption of the science model by ESRC? Does critical mass improve submissions & improve knowledge quality?

For: Learning from peers; Cohort identity, multiple advice sources; Larger pool of interaction, Potentially, exposure to more disciplines

Against: social science PhD fieldwork & writing not collective experiences; requires no big equipment; excludes regional pockets of excellence; more advice but may be contradictory; sustained supervision & discipline socialisation key feature; cohorts fragmented anyway by age, topic, location, thesis stage, fieldwork

Visions, experiences, types of PhD thesis

To what extent have the visions and plans of ESRC DTCs been realised and how? Role & type of leadership in this process: transformative, charismatic, transactional, distributed?

How has the doctoral student experience been changed by the advent of DTCs and which student experiences?

Should we mourn the loss of the knowledge based PhD suggested by Winfield in 1987?

Collaboration: how, why & so what?

Lunt 2014 suggests was part of the 2009-10 ESRC exercise but possibly unintended consequence of Welsh & Scottish decisions

ESRC officers explicitly ‘advised’ some departments in 2009-10 to go it alone.

What is involved in making collaborations work? What factors predict success? Forced/voluntary?Is this about PhD training or everything?

Is collaboration at odds with the pgr ‘market’?

Funding challenges & administrative costs

Rise of matched funding for DTCs & DTPs a worry for the UK HE sector (UUK 2014); will home/EU undergraduate fees end up subsidising PhDs?

The decline in ESRC staffing & transfer of administrative roles to universities with no resources attached is a significant challenge

Only Scotland and Wales properly fund their DTCs (Delamont and Atkinson 2014) including administrative budgets.