Terra Sprague, Lizzi Milligan & Guy Le Fanu

Terra Sprague, Lizzi Milligan & Guy Le Fanu Building the CV? Embedding Employability and the Changing Nature of Doctoral Research The Third Annual ESCalate Conference,11 April 2011

Project Origins 3 Doctoral Students with similar experience 1 Supervisor Shared curiosity about Doctoral Student Engagement: Publishing Teaching Researching

Research Questions • What career-preparation / academic activities are students engaged in outside of their doctoral research? • What has prompted students to engage in these activities? • To what extent might this facilitate, contribute to or hinder their own research?

Background: Changing Nature of the Doctoral Experience • Increased ‘embedding’ of employability by universities in doctoral programmes (Metcalfe & Gray, 2005; Park, 2005) But... • Crucial role played by supervisors in shaping the doctoral experience (Barnes & Austin, 2009; Brightman, 2009) • Resistance among some students to ‘employability agenda’ (Brailsford, 2010; Owler, 2010) • Impact of other factors on doctoral experience (Malfroy, 2005; Pearson, Evans, & Macauley, 2008)

Methodology 5 • Two focus groups with doctoral research students at the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education What types of activities do you participate in aside from your doctoral research? Key: Home Student, International Student, International Student What role does your supervisor play in this? What are your motivations for doing these activities?

Methodology • Reflection among the research team drawing on own experiences as doctoral students • Interpretive Perspective

Methodology • Thematic analysis of motivations using a quartile mapping system Career Intrinsic/Research Financial Social

The research student experience is unique and individually tailored • Each student experience is unique and defined by wide range in level of engagement in activities, driven by differing: • motivations for undertaking the Doctorate; • Attention paid to future plans; and • Personal feelings towards own research and purpose of research more generally. I chose to do a PhD for a lot of reasons…but from a pragmatic point of view I hope there is a job at the end of it…hopefully an academic one

Many students engage in a wide range of activities • For those who do engage in a range of activities, the most popular are seminar, workshop and conference attendance • Others include: • Presenting at conferences, research assistantships, publishing, teaching, related part-time work I go to seminars, workshops, conferences because I feel it is what a PhD student does. As a student, its my responsibility, like it was at masters level to go to lectures

Building the CV is a significant factor in engaging in these activities for some students... I’m feeling increasingly worried about what happens after the PhD...I’m definitely looking to build my CV in whatever way I can alongside my own research with more than half an eye on what comes next... I do them for the experience, and also they look good for my CV [and] for my own curiosity, I want to explore and be exposed to different people and topics … to get paid or put things on the CV are by-products, they’re not the aim. My reason for wanting to do them is always experience or interest in the first instance

...But it is not the only one • Wide range of motivations for taking part in the many activities, including: • Social interaction; • To enhance own research; • Expectations of funders; and • ‘It’s what a PhD student does’; I’m part of a team [that are funded] and there are certain commitments that we have to fulfil … but apart from that its also for my work and my own professional development I usually only do other activities which are related to my research … to give me some inspiration … I’m always thinking about my own research project .. And motivations are multiple and related

Supervisor promotion of career development is far from uniform • Some supervisors are very proactive in identifying opportunities and promoting career development, others are less so; When I started my PhD my supervisor drew me a timeline … she said that if I wanted to publish by the end of my PhD, I needed a timeline for when I needed to start having ideas, how long it would take to publish My supervisor never gives me information about seminars or conferences or anything like that. I look for them myself and if I need a supervisor signature I go to them and ask for it …

There is disagreement among students about what exactly the supervisors’ role in this should be... I don’t think the supervisor has responsibility for [career development], I think they could give suggestions, help you if you ask them [about conferences and publishing] how can I get there, how can I do this … they can encourage you if you want to do these things, but they’re not responsible for it I like to have my supervisor’s suggestions or directions or what sort of conference I should target on … but I like to be the person who takes the initiative myself. I wouldn’t want my supervisor to say ‘do this’, ‘do that’ It’s their job

...again, flexibility and an individually-tailored relationship are key It’s like a dance between the student and the teacher for them to understand each other. Part of the student’s responsibility is to take the initiative to say I’m thinking in this way and I hope I can achieve this and the teacher can respond to those thinkings and say ‘you might want to do this’ or ‘read this’. But, the teacher can also take some initiative to say that you might be interested in this … overall, it’s about the quality of the communication For your career into the academic world, each student is different in their vision to do something. For me, its not possible to do any thinking about publishing at the moment if my supervisor advised me to follow a timeline, I’d feel more stressed

...and could be an area for potential further research • Embedding employability - More important for home students in the current climate? • What is the supervisor’s role and is it changing? How prescriptive should it be?

What could be the implications of a move to an emphasis on embedding employability? • If there is a shift towards embedding employability as part of the doctoral experience, there are some concerns that: • It may not be right for everyone; and • could impact on quality of the research process and experience.

References Barnes, B.J., & Austin, A.E. (2009). The role of doctoral advisors: A look at advising from the advisor’s perspective. Innovative Higher Education, 33(5), 297-315. Brailsford, I. (2010). Motives and aspirations for doctoral study: Career, personal, and inter-personal factors in the decision to embark on a History PhD. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 5, 15-27. Brightman, H.J. (2009). The need for teaching doctoral students how to teach. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 4, 1-11. Malfroy, J. (2005). Doctoral supervision, workplace research and development. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(2), 165-178.

References Metcalfe, J., & Gray, A. (2005). Learning & employability: Series Two. Employability and doctoral research postgraduates. York, United Kingdom: The Higher Education Academy. Owler, K. (2010). A 'problem' to be managed? Completing a PhD in the Arts and Humanities. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 9(3), 289-304. Park, C. (2005). New variant PhD: The changing nature of the doctorate in the UK. Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management, 27(2), 189-207. Pearson, M., Evans, T., Macauley, P. (2008). Growth and diversity in doctoral education: Assessing the Australian experience.Higher Education, 55(3), 357-372.

Terra Sprague, Lizzi Milligan & Guy Le Fanu