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Research Success and Structured support: Managing early career academics in Higher Education.

Research Success and Structured support: Managing early career academics in Higher Education. Dr Hilary Geber Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050, South Africa Tel: +27 11 717-1485 Fax: +27 11 717-1489

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Research Success and Structured support: Managing early career academics in Higher Education.

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  1. Research Success and Structured support: Managing early career academics in Higher Education. Dr Hilary Geber Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050, South Africa Tel: +27 11 717-1485 Fax: +27 11 717-1489 E-mail: geberh@cltd.wits.ac.za Fighting for Harmony - students, society and the academy in tune EAIR Forum Vilnius 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania, 23-26 August 2009

  2. University of the Witwatersrand Strategic Goal - 2020 target • Increase the number of academic staff holding PhDs from the current 48% to 70%. • 322 without PhDs to be qualified in the next 12 years • Publication rate – increase to 1.5 pa. • Increased support & management of research

  3. Doctoral graduation rates in South Africa • Ranking:UP, UNISA, UCT,US, WITS, UKZN, UFS, UJ, NWU, RU. • Total graduates 1990 - 2004 = 11250 • Wits: 1990-1992 228 1993-1995 231 1996-1998 199 1999-2001 206 2002-2004 243 Total 1107 • National shortage of PhDs in the system. 6-7 years to reach 1500 pa Source: Mouton, 2007

  4. Characteristics of prolific researchers • Robust self esteem, resilience and persistence • Good time and stress management skills • Realistic perception of workload • Prolifics engage in consistent, persistent daily writing, in small bite-sized chunks • Prolific writers are networked and have a community of engaged, interested writers/readers and fellow scholars

  5. Characteristics of prolific researchers • Prolifics have had significant mentors. • Prolifics tend to be in stable partnerships / relationships / marriages. • Men and older / more senior academics tend to be more prolific than women, and younger academics. • Attend international conferences early in career

  6. ‘Structured support for Research Success’ Programme • Launched 2007 • 3 Professional coaches trained in 2006-7 • 10 Academics selected according to criteria • substantial progress towards completion of higher degree, with completion within 18 months from the beginning of programme. • Initial survey • Participants paired with coaches

  7. ‘Structured support for Research Success’ Programme • Hard Skills • Research Writing Skills • Voice & Presentation Skills • Effective Speed Reading • Time & Stress Management • IT tools: MindManager; Virtual training; Visual Thesaurus • How to write NRF funding proposals • Soft skills • Coaching (12 sessions offered)

  8. Participants • 3 obtained PhD before Research Support programme • 1 registered for PhD during Research Support programme • 4 Registered for MSc in Health Sciences • 2 Dropouts

  9. Purpose of the study Structured written surveys & in-depth interviews • Does a structured programme help early career academics achieve their research goals? • What aspects of the structured programme are most beneficial?

  10. Hard Skillsoffered by programme Research Writing Skills • All attended Voice & Presentation Skills • All attended Effective Speed Reading • 5 attended Time & Stress Management • 7 attended IT tools: Mindmanager; Virtual training; Visual Thesaurus – 3 obtained these How to write NRF funding proposals 1 attended

  11. Findings • Differing expectations of the programme – career development; publications; and personal development • The effectiveness of goal setting within the programme • The effectiveness of the core courses offered by the programme • The effectiveness of coaching during the programme • The tangible outcomes of the programme

  12. Career development expectations • ‘To obtain skills in research writing and guidance in managing my time and tasks effectively. I also wanted to learn strategies to become an effective an independent researcher.’ • ‘I hoped that through the course I would be able to get a better understanding of how to do good research. I wanted to equip myself with the tools that I could use in my research. I specifically wanted to get a grasp of how to improve my writing skills.’

  13. Expectations about establishing a publication record • Expected to write a number of papers, have some systematic follow-up on progress, and tracking of their own writing deadlines. • ‘I was registered for an M.Sc, and having trouble getting going, not getting lot of feedback from my 2 supervisors. I was hoping the programme would help.’

  14. Personal development expectations • to work on strengthening personal attributes which they felt they needed to develop for being more effective researchers.

  15. Goal setting within the programme • ‘Especially for someone like me who is just starting out in an academic career, it is too easy to get bogged down with teaching, with the result that research and writing papers tends to fall by the wayside if there aren’t structures in place to draw one’s attention and focus back to these areas periodically.’

  16. Setting specific goals for the year • Career development • Publication • Personal development

  17. The effectiveness of the core courses Research Writing Participants fall into three groups – • those who experience an immediate transformation and who begin to write and produce writing prolifically; • others are enabled to get through the writing of articles and academic work in a more enjoyable way but do not become prolific writers; • others simply do not change enough to change their old habits or attitudes and do not become productive writers (Badenhorst, 2008).

  18. Research Writing • The course revolutionised the way academics write, how they think about writing and how they view themselves as writers. • It provides many explicit explanations of what happens in the writing processs and techniques. • It empowers participants to take charge of their writing. • It deconstructs some of the mystery about writing. • This does not replace research methodology courses

  19. The effectiveness of the core courses Voice & Presentation Skills • public speaking at conference • presentations and in classrooms • Foreign academics and second language English speakers find it quite difficult to make themselves understood

  20. The effectiveness of the core coursesEffective Speed Reading& Time & Stress Management • Helpful in dealing with reading load for research, literature reviews, reports. • Provided simple but effective ways to avoid time wasting and more efficient ways of managing time.

  21. Coaching programme criteria • There is no transgression on the domain of the supervisor. • The coaches limit their input to providing personal support to participants to achieve their higher degree / research goals. • Participants and coaches enter into a contract explicitly defining objectives.

  22. Coaching programme criteria • The participants take personal responsibility for achieving the agreed objectives in co-active coaching • Each contract constitutes a ‘coaching programme’ of 12 coaching sessions face-to-face. • Coaching is a completely confidential process. No information about any participant is supplied to any party by a coach.

  23. Coaching offered by programme Goal setting with coaches • 3 PhDs: 5 to 12 sessions • 1 PhD candidate & 4 M Sc candidates : 12 & several additional sessions • Need much more support in managing research outputs & academic discourse

  24. The effectiveness of coaching • Coaching helped with interactions with colleagues, departmental heads, and students. • Coaches who are familiar with the Higher Education discourse are able to weave the strands of the core courses together • Coaches were instrumental in helping participants achieve their goals and keeping them on track.

  25. Tangible outputs from the structured support for research success programme • Papers accepted for publication • International - 2(WM) 2 • National - 1(IF); 7(A, WM) 8 • Papers under review - 3(I, WF); 1(WM) 4 • Conference presentations • National - 1 (CM) 1 • International - 2 (I, AF); 2 (A, CM) 4 • Conference presentation prize- • International - 1 (IF) 1

  26. Tangible outputs from the structured support for research success programme • NRF Rating - 1 (WM) 1 • Grant funding • NRF funding – National - 1 (IF) 1 (WM) 2 • Grant funding – International - 3 (WM) 3 • MSc completed - 1(AF) 1 • Promotion - 1(IF); 2(C, WM) 3

  27. Overall evaluation of the programme The structured support for research success programme has shown that: • a wide variety of support programmes essential • and coaching even for a rather limited period of less than a year has a dramatic effect • gets young researchers into a position where they perform well and view themselves as successful and independent researchers. • enables supervisors & managers to track research outputs more consistently

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