1. www.abdn.ac.uk A Graduate School Experience Dominic Houlihan d.f.houlihan@abdn.ac.uk Vice Principal, University of Aberdeen

2. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad Schools - Why set up graduate schools? - Which model? - What works?

3. www.abdn.ac.uk Dominic Houlihan - 25 years as an academic; fish growth and nutrition - 6 years head of Zoology dept; 10 years senior manager - successful management of research reviews - Current report on PhD benchmarking - Champion for the public engagement of science - Education can bring social mobility

4. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad Schools – Why? - Growth of PhD numbers - The end of the master- apprentice relationship - Accountability and impact

5. www.abdn.ac.uk Salzburg II Recommendations PhD students in Scotland

6. www.abdn.ac.uk Growth in PhD numbers - Does your university want to increase PhD numbers? - Supervisors with too many students, some with none, some should never have another one. - Parts of the world are producing too many PhDs – only 10 % get academic jobs. - What do PhDs do?

7. www.abdn.ac.uk What do PhD do in the UK?

8. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad Schools – Why? - What skills do PhD need given the changing nature of work? - Research - Transferable skills - Research leader skills

9. www.abdn.ac.uk What are transferable skills? LEADERSHIP CREATIVITY TEAMWORK ENTERPRISE TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING MENTORING PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT CAREER MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION SKILLS INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIME MANAGEMENT

10. www.abdn.ac.uk Editor/reviewer Teacher Consultant Researcher ‘Expert’ for hire Learner Inventor Entrepreneur Administrator Manager The 21 st century Researcher

11. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad schools: why - The first time I attended a workshop on PhD training such as this one, my reactions were: - Denial, ridicule, reluctant acceptance of PhD supervisory teams. - Supervisor resistance to time away from research.

12. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad schools: why? - The traditional master/apprentice fails to deliver: - High completion rates, high quality research, training for a non-academic life, value for money.

13. www.abdn.ac.uk Growth in grad school: Institutions with at least one graduate school

14. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad schools: why - Summary - Managing large PhD populations effectively. - Delivering skills training - Changing culture

15. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad schools: how - Gradual or big bang - Depends upon culture and willingness to change. - From the soft to the hard models

16. www.abdn.ac.uk Soft Grad school model - College model, one for each college or faculty. - Comfortable, academic - Each college grad school has autonomy.

17. www.abdn.ac.uk College of life sciences and medicine 300 PhDs c College of life sciences College of physical sciences 200 PhDs College of arts and social sciences 300 PhDs

18. www.abdn.ac.uk Quality Assurance Committee University Postgraduate Committee COLLEGE Academic Schools Research Institutes College Committee on Teaching & Learning College Research & Commercialisation Committee Graduate School in College & University Structure COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL University Committee on Teaching & Learning UNIVERSITY SENATE Student Recruitment & Admissions

19. www.abdn.ac.uk Academic Schools Biological Sciences Medicine & Dentistry Medical Sciences Psychology Graduate School Research Institutes Applied Health Sciences Medical Sciences Biological & Environmental Sciences Rowett Institute of Nutrition & Health College of Life Sciences & Medicine COLLEGE

20. www.abdn.ac.uk The Role of the Graduate School Ensure excellence in postgraduate supervision, education & training Monitor student progress & assessment Support students & supervisors Provide research & transferable skills opportunities for students Coordinate funding applications Coordinate advertising and recruitment & selection of students Link to external agencies, e.g. Research Councils Develop College policies on postgraduate programmes Represent postgraduates at senior College & University level

21. www.abdn.ac.uk Postgraduate Taught Advisory Group Represents major groups/families of masters programmes The Graduate School Postgraduate Research Academic Co-ordinators in Schools Biological Sciences Medical Sciences Medicine & Dentistry Psychology Rowett Institute of Nutrition & Health Academic Director Senior Administrator Secretary College Office, Polwarth Graduate School Committee

22. www.abdn.ac.uk College of Life Sciences & Medicine The PhD Programme Research project Training in research methods with supervision leading to independent study Training in generic skills as part of professional & personal development (equivalent of 10 days per annum) Regular formal assessment Opportunities for writing papers, reports leading to thesis

23. www.abdn.ac.uk Grad schools: the discipline model Some funding agencies demand “doctoral training centres” in e.g. social sciences, engineering. Scotland has experimented with research pools in disciplines and these all have grad school – physics, marine sciences, engineering etc.

24. www.abdn.ac.uk Heriot Watt Strathclyde RGU The Scottish Experiment: Pooling across Institutions Physics

25. www.abdn.ac.uk Heriot Watt Strathclyde RGU Chemistry The Scottish Experiment: Pooling across Institutions

26. www.abdn.ac.uk Heriot Watt Strathclyde RGU The Scottish Experiment Pooling across Institutions UHI Marine Science Life Sciences Engineering and Maths Medical Imaging Engineering Geo & Environemnal Econimics

27. www.abdn.ac.uk Soft Grad school model - It took us 10 years to go from the recognition that PhD training had to change to decide to set up Grad Schools.

28. www.abdn.ac.uk Soft Grad school model - And we chose the soft grad model based on current disciplines. - Each Grad School has a grad school head and a small administration.

29. www.abdn.ac.uk College model Disadvantages: - Tendency to fragment provision - Academic silos - Who is responsible; grad school or supervisors? - And now pools grad schools

30. www.abdn.ac.uk The hard grad school model - Staff seconded into grad school - Centralised admissions, selection of candidates. - Centralised induction - Researcher skills training

31. www.abdn.ac.uk The hard grad school model - Compulsory skills training – credits - 4 publications are the thesis. - Completion in 4 years - Works in some countries.

32. www.abdn.ac.uk What works? - Centralised admissions, selection - Centralised induction - Researcher skills training

33. www.abdn.ac.uk What works? - It depends where you are in terms of academic desire. - The hard model delivers quality and results. - But the academic community may not want it. - Whatever happens, we owe our students more.

34. www.abdn.ac.uk “ The product that the PhD researcher creates is not the thesis - vital though it is to their subject area through the creation of vital knowledge - no, the product of their study is the development of themselves ”. Sir Gareth Roberts Dr Lucy Leiper Research Staff Development University of Aberdeen l.leiper@abdn.ac.uk 01224 274580

35. www.abdn.ac.uk Any Questions? Dominic Houlihan d.f.houlihan@abdn.ac.uk www.abdn.ac.uk

36. Typically employers rank doctoral graduates’ skills in the following order Data analysis Problem solving Drive & motivation Project management Creativity Interpersonal skills Leadership Commercial awareness