1. Postgraduate Research Experience Survey: skills, employability and careers Dr Alastair Robertson and Dr Laura Hodsdon

2. PRES 2007-9 2 108 HEIs took part in PRES at least once; there were 8 Scottish HEIs involved in 2007, 5 in 2008 and 8 in 2009. In total, 12 Scottish HEIs took part in PRES at least once over the three years. PRES 2011 106 HEIs expressed interest

3. Compared to the most recent HESA statistics (2007/08) the 2009 survey included the vast majority of all Scottish PGR population and responses were received from 25% of all Scottish PGR students. The overall response rate to the PRES survey in 2009 was 28.6% and 32% for Scottish institutions. In 2009 we established a Scottish Benchmarking Club which meant that Scottish HEIs are able to compare their PRES results to aggregated Scottish PRES results apart from already available mission group benchmarking clubs.

4. Overall experience 84% of students in 2009 said that the overall experience of their programme met or exceeded their expectations 82.5% in 2008 80.7% in 2007 4

5. Motivations and career aspirations A third (33.8%) of the 2009 respondents agreed that their main motivation was an interest in the subject A third (31.7%) agreed that it was to improve their career prospects for an academic or research career The next most popular answer (14.7%) was that “it felt like a natural step for me”. In terms of career aspirations, nearly half (44%) had in mind an academic career in higher education (either research and teaching, or teaching only), One in seven (13.9%) had in mind a research career in higher education A further one in seven (13.9%) wished to pursue a research career outside higher education.

6. Scales - summary 6

7. 7

8. Skills development 8

9. Skills development – highest-scoring questions 9

10. Skills development 10

11. Skills development - variations “There were adequate opportunities to further develop research (2e) and transferable (2f) skills” 1.YEAR OF STUDY –Highest agreement = 1 st year students 77% (research) and 70% (transferable) 11

12. 2. CAREER INTENTIONS Highest agreement (73.5%) –those who would like to pursue a research career in higher education Lowest agreement (63%) –Those who would like to pursue ‘any other professional career 12

13. Professional development and career 13 NB 44% anticipated an academic career in HE (and 31% who did a PGR degree specifically for this reason) i.e. up to 56% did NOT have a career in HE in mind…

14. Professional development and career – discipline The national average % of agree for these three items is 40% Medicine and dentistry (47% on average) and agriculture (52% on average) students agree the most with professional development items (also engineering – 44% and business management – 45%) Creative arts and design (34% on average) and law (35%) students then to agree the least with professional development items 14

15. Professional development and career - domicile Non UK students tend to agree considerably more with all professional development items (on average 7% more in agreement than home students) Non EU students agree particularly strongly (49% vs 43% on average) that they were encouraged to reflect on their professional development needs. 15

16. Professional development and career – variations OVERALL EXPERIENCE – The better the overall experience (met or exceeded expectations) the higher the agreement with professional development items AGE – Higher agreement: 26-40 year olds Also the most motivated by improving existing career 16

17. CURRENT ACTIVITY Those who are making amendments to their thesis following viva agree the least with all professional development items Students in the first stage of their research agree the most (44.5%) that they are encouraged to reflect on their professional development needs. Those awaiting their award agree the most (39.6%) that they were encouraged to think about the range of career opportunities available to them, but the difference to other groups is small 17

18. Resources Chris Park (2009) The research student experience: lessons from PRES. HEA www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/postg raduate/PRES2009.pdf www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/postg raduate/PRES2009.pdf Adrian Smith Postgraduate Review (2010) One step beyond: making the most of postgraduate education. DBIS www.bis.gov.uk/postgraduate-review www.bis.gov.uk/postgraduate-review http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/supportingresearch/postgr aduatework Email: surveys@heacademy.ac.uksurveys@heacademy.ac.uk Twitter: @hea_pg 18