Source:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/postgraduate/story/0,,2011460,00.html
Comment
Our focus is on the student
We have a duty of care to our postgraduate students, says Philip Esler
Tuesday February 13, 2007
The Guardian
Sorry as I am to read that Jonathan Wolff has suffered a sleepless night due
to the monitoring demands of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (How a
department's fate can rest on a single student, February 6), I would like to
defend our record on supporting postgraduate students and try to explain our
agenda when we work with university departments.
The AHRC postgraduate competition is very fierce: submission rates have more
than doubled in the past 20 years, and we have success rates of around 25%
for prospective PhD students. In order to get an award in the first place,
these exceptionally bright men and women have to present a coherent and
well-developed project, which is then assessed by a panel of academic
experts. A key part of their application's success is determined by the
support that the student's university department will give them to complete
their studies.
The department's side of the bargain is to offer the students appropriate
input, training and support to complete their project on time. The majority
of departments do this very successfully, with less than 1% of the doctoral
students we fund reporting that supervision had been problematic.
Incidentally, the target of four-year completion for PhDs is set by the
government, not research councils. We do try to be flexible on this,
especially for students who may face difficult personal circumstances or
crises, or find they need additional or unexpected training (eg in a
language) as part of their course.
If we do encounter a situation where a student is struggling, we have to
look very hard at the reasons why. This is partly, as Wolff notes, because
we are publicly funded, and we have a duty to make sure that taxpayers'
money is wisely spent; it is also because we need to be sure the student is
receiving the departmental support he or she requires.
I cannot comment on the situation of Wolff's particular department; although
I am pleased it turned out to be a clerical error in this case, as
University College London does well from AHRC funding, getting £2.18m for
strategic and responsive research programmes in 2005-06, as well as funding
for 77 postgraduate studentships. But our primary aim for all award-holders
is a duty of care, and that motivates our relationships with all the
individuals we fund.
We recently did a study to find out what happens to masters and PhD students
who get AHRC funding. It is an astonishingly heartening piece of work,
showing that roughly 75% have gone on to find permanent academic posts in
the UK and internationally (overall, 98% have found employment). The
establishment of a research council for the arts and humanities three years
ago this April, out of its predecessor research board, has opened up the
possibilities of the science budget to this growing pool of talented
researchers.
As a dedicated arts and humanities research funder, we publicly argue for
the importance of the work in these disciplines. Our success lies in making
nearly 1,500 postgraduate awards each year, with the great majority being
completed within the four-year time period.
We have to find out how our students and academic colleagues are managing
their awards and what we can do to support them. Low submission rates can
mean departments are failing to adequately support their students, and it
would be remiss of us not to try to intervene. A lack of institutional
support for students and staff can lead to the very spiral of decline and
job losses that Wolff fears through AHRC "blacklisting".
· Professor Philip Esler is the chief executive of the Arts and Humanities
Research Council
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Salvatore Scifo
Communications,
MeCCSA Postgraduate Network
Communication and Media Research Institute
School of Media, Arts & Design
University of Westminster
Watford Road, Northwick Park
Harrow
HA1 3TP
MeCCSA Postgraduate Network
http://www.meccsa.org.uk/pgn/
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