Sussex Research Hive Seminar

Tennie Videler

Vitae

Website www.vitae.ac.ukPGR TipsPGR blog to be launchedResearch staff and careers sectionsRS blog: www.vitae.ac.uk/rsblogUKRSA: www.ukrsa.org.ukevents

Champions the personal, professional and career development of doctoral researchers and research staff.

Events

Leadership in action 22-25 March

Collaborative researcher 29-31 March

Advancing in academia

Research staff conference 3 November

Researcher development framework

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

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

Some numbers:

Numbers by subject 2003-2007

The numbers per subject varies from single figures up to an average of 735 per year in medicine.

What do doctoral graduates do?

Proportion employed as researchers - 35% overall

This varies from 7% for theology to 71% for some biological subjects.

Numbers employed in the education sector- 49% overall

This varies from 28% for psychology doctoral graduates to 79% of those in modern languages.

Employed as research staff in higher education- 23%

This varies from 6% for theology to 43% for biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics.

varies from less than 1% in physics, chemistry, and microbiology to 56% in law.

HE lecturering and teaching 14%

What do researchers do? career profiles of doctoral graduates

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)

What do biomedical science doctoral graduates do?

Clinical and pre-clinical medicine

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.’

Pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacy

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’

Nursing

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.’

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

Occupational clusters

HE research

non HE research

HE teaching and lecturing

teaching outside HE

other common doctoral occupations

other

Clusters by qualification

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

HE research occupations

Research (not in HE sector)

Teaching and lecturing in HE

Other teaching occupations

Other common doctoral occupations

Other occupations

Doctoral graduates Masters graduates First degree 1st/2:1

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%)

Occupational cluster by discipline

Income by discipline

Recession

Postdoctoral unemployment may rise to 6%

This means 94% of doctoral graduates do find employment

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 

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

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

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

Publications

A guide to research staff associations

a core resource for anybody wishing to set up an RSA

sell the benefits of an RSA

Why set up an RSA?

practical support to RS

influence university policy

networking and collaborative opportunities

develop skills of committee members

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

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

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

Supporting research

RS told us that being a researcher means undertaking great research!

Local RSAs are successful in doing this

UKRSA online communities

What next?

More research, resources and publications

Regional cooperation

Europe

Contact me:

Tennie.videler@vitae.ac.uk

www.ukrsa.org.uk

ukrsavitae@gmail.com

Contact UKRSA: