Sussex Research Hive Seminar Tennie Videler

1. Sussex Research Hive SeminarTennie Videler

2. Vitae • Website www.vitae.ac.uk • PGR Tips • PGR blog to be launched • Research staff and careers sections • RS blog: www.vitae.ac.uk/rsblog • UKRSA: www.ukrsa.org.uk • events Champions the personal, professional and career development of doctoral researchers and research staff.

3. Events • Leadership in action 22-25 March • Collaborative researcher 29-31 March • Advancing in academia • Research staff conference 3 November

4. Researcher development framework

5. What do researchers do?first destinations of doctoral graduates by subject

6. Some numbers: doctorates awarded from UK universities in 2007: • ~ 300 000 graduated from first degree • ~ 14 500 doctoral graduates • ~ 8 000 UK domiciled Source: The Higher Education Statistics Agency

7. Numbers by subject 2003-2007 • The numbers per subject varies from single figures up to an average of 735 per year in medicine.

8. What do doctoral graduates do?

9. Proportion employed as researchers - 35% overall • This varies from 7% for theology to 71% for some biological subjects.

10. Numbers employed in the education sector- 49% overall This varies from 28% for psychology doctoral graduates to 79% of those in modern languages.

11. Employed as research staff in higher education- 23% This varies from 6% for theology to 43% for biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics.

12. HE lecturering and teaching 14% • varies from less than 1% in physics, chemistry, and microbiology to 56% in law.

13. What do researchers do? career profiles of doctoral graduates

14. 40 inspirational careers stories ‘My doctorate changed my life. It opened doors, and it also opened my mind. I take on challenges now, in my life and my career, because I have faith in my own abilities.’ Cora Beth Knowles (doctorate in Latin literature)

15. What do biomedical science doctoral graduates do?

16. Clinical and pre-clinical medicine

17. Career profile: Alastair Wilkins Consultant neurologist and senior lecturer in neurology ‘My doctoral research was useful and a necessity for my current job. I understand the processes of research and some of the workings of higher educational organisations.’

18. Pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacy

19. Career profile: Catherine Martin Researcher at the Medical Research Council’s clinical sciences centre ‘Attaining a doctorate gave me an enormous sense of achievement and a tremendous boost in confidence’

20. Nursing

21. Career profile: John Baker lecturer at the school of Nursing Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester ‘The doctorate has been pivotal in developing my academic career, as a result of my expertise in this area and collaborations I have started.’

22. What do researchers do? doctoral graduate destinations and impact three years on

23. Occupational clusters • HE research • non HE research • HE teaching and lecturing • teaching outside HE • other common doctoral occupations • other

24. Clusters by qualification

25. What are the other doctoral occupations? This cluster includes: • health professionals (accounting for 18% of the cluster), • functional and production managers and senior officials (25%); • Engineering professionals (14%), • ICT professionals (10%), • business, finance and statistical professional and associate professional roles (15%)

26. Occupational cluster by discipline

27. Income by discipline

28. Recession • Postdoctoral unemployment may rise to 6% • This means 94% of doctoral graduates do find employment

29. UK Research Staff Association The UKRSA provides a collective voice for research staff across the UK by working closely with Vitae to nurture research staff associations and inform policy

30. We’re still at the start • in January 2010 • volunteers identified at the Vitae research staff conference and members of the NRSA • committee of members of research staff and representatives of stakeholder organisations

31. Communities • Support local and regional research staff associations (RSAs) • maintain online social networking resources for research staff (RS) • provide links to resources for RS that are developed by partner organisations • research projects to survey opinion and develop additional resources for use by UK RS

32. Policy • Represent the interests and views of RS in interactions with relevant national bodies • Provide input on policy affecting RS • Inform RS of relevant policy issues

33. Publications

34. A guide to research staffassociations • a core resource for anybody wishing to set up an RSA • sell the benefits of an RSA

35. Why set up an RSA? • practical support to RS • influence university policy • networking and collaborative opportunities • develop skills of committee members

36. Impact: Institutions RSAs have been consulted on: • Concordat implementation • fixed term contract policy • training needs of research staff (95%!) • RSAs facilitate training and achieve high engagement

37. Influencing policy 5 national committees 4 national organisations represented on our committee invitations to provide the research staff voice at national events Invitation to Brussels to discuss setting up European RSA Published two (influential!?) reports on RSAs

38. Impact: Committee members RSA had made RS voice heard (83%) 50% had achieved some level of change 50% acted with more confidence as a researcher 28% enjoyed research more

39. Supporting research • RS told us that being a researcher means undertaking great research! • Local RSAs are successful in doing this • UKRSA online communities

40. What next? • More research, resources and publications • Regional cooperation • Europe

41. Contact me: Tennie.videler@vitae.ac.uk www.ukrsa.org.uk ukrsavitae@gmail.com Contact UKRSA: