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GRADUATE SCHOOL BOARD - MAY 2012

POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH STUDENTS REPORT

Introduction to PGR student reporting

This report to Graduate School Board, aims to standardise the data relating to PGR students, so that each meeting can consider a particular aspect to inform policy development and decision making. This is similar to the format of Research Committee reports, whereby over the year, the committee considers all aspects of the PGR data in a natural cycle. This will also standardise University PGR data, to enable a consistent approach and review of the progress towards achieving RI targets. Longitudinal data is provided where possible, to allow monitoring of trends across the University and Research Institutes, so that corrective action may be taken, if necessary.

These reports consider metrics relating to PGRs on an annual basis, but obviously there are several levels of monitoring and it is expected that RIs will regularly monitor their metrics to ensure they maximise PGR student numbers, ensure quality of supervision and importantly the four year completion rates. Key reports on SCIMS are RES06 (submission rates), APP01 (applications data) and ENR01 (enrolments data).

The cyclical nature of PGR student activity is reflected in the content of the following separate reports to the three GSB meetings:

1st Meeting (October) – Applications and Intakes/New Starters

  • Applications data (previous academic year) with analysis of: University and each RI, by Home/Overseas and full/part time, longitudinal data over 3 years
  • Application decisions i.e. conditional/unconditional offer/reject/no decisions
  • Intakes/new starters in new academic year to date

2nd Meeting (Feb) – PGR population, withdrawal rates and studentships

  • Home and EC PGR population at Keele – looking at trends over the last 3 years in the internal FTE (and the impact on QR funding i.e. RDP supervision fund which now uses HESA data)
  • InternationalPGR population at Keele – looking at trends over the last few years
  • Withdrawal rates of students - overall analysis of year and reasons, and by RI
  • New studentships – longitudinal data
  • Progress againstRI targets

3rd Meeting (May) – Submission rates, Awards, and Supervisory capacity

a)Submission rates

b)PGR awards

c)Supervisory capacity

d)Update on current PGR applications, enrolments and PGR population

a)Submission Rates

PGR submission rates are an important metric used by various sources (HEFCE, Research Councils) to check if our students are submitting in a timely manner. Previous Keele paper’s have noted the changes to the PGR Code of Practice which require all full time PGRs who registered after September 2005 to submit within a maximum of 4 years. The first 3 years of study are classified as full time study, with a fourth year, if necessary, when students are transferred to ‘continuation’ mode.

Senate (25th November 2009) agreedthat for full time PGRand with effect from 2010/11 the University will enforce the maximum of 4 years until submissionand those PGRs exceeding this will be withdrawn from their studies. They also agreed to endorse a minimum 80% submission target for the next two years, this will be increased to 100% and reviewed annually by Research Committee.

Following extensive discussions about submission rates data, the PGR Directors have worked with Research & Enterprise Services to improve the standard reports available on SCIMS. The standard report RES06 provides this report for RIs, so they can check their PGR students due to submit each year.

Issues with the submission rates data:

  • Part time students are excluded - as they have up to 7 years to submit, so it would be unfair to include them in the ‘submitted within 4 years’ calculation
  • Leave of Absence (LoA) - students with any LoA have been excluded from the ‘submission in 4 years’ calculation, however MIS are looking to include this within the calculation in the future i.e. to see if submitted within 4 years of study (excluding LoA), which will improve submission rates
  • The report includes PGR students who started before September 2005 and so were not required to submit within 4 years (full time). These students are still submitting (as they have 7 years to submit under the previous version of the PGR Code of Practice), and there data has an adverse impact on the submission rates within 4 years.

Table 1: 3 years submission rates for full time PGR students

2009/10 / 2010/11 / 2011/12 (excluding those due after 19.4.12)
in 4 years / total / submission rate / in 4 years / total / submission rate / in 4 years / total / submission rate
EPSAM / 14 / 17 / 82% / 22 / 22 / 100% / 8 / 10 / 80%
Humanities / 4 / 5 / 80% / 2 / 5 / 40% / 6 / 9 / 67%
PCHS / 2 / 2 / 100% / 2 / 4 / 50% / 4 / 5 / 80%
ISTM / 18 / 19 / 95% / 10 / 12 / 83% / 7 / 10 / 70%
Social Sciences / 20 / 24 / 83% / 24 / 30 / 80% / 14 / 21 / 67%
total / 58 / 67 / 87% / 60 / 73 / 82% / 39 / 55 / 71%

Data Source: RES06 SCIMS report

Analysis of the data reveals a declining submission rate for full time PGR students (who haven’t taken a LoA). However caution must be taken, as close consideration of the data reveals that a vast majority of those PGR submitting in more than 4 years are those who commenced their studies before September 2005 and therefore were under the previous Code of Practice and had 7 years to submit. Over the next few years this group of students should submit, and by 2012/13 should have all submitted, so the submission rate will improve.

It is recommended that PGR Directors and RIs regularly monitorthe RES06 report for PGRs due to submit in the forthcoming year, particularly in advance of the REF PGR awards deadline of July 2013 (see below)

b)PGR Awards

PGR awards are the key indicator that will be used for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) - Research doctoral degrees awarded (REF4a). They will not be requiring data on current number of PGR students, although this can be mentioned in the narrative section in the research environment (REF5).

he REF Guidance on Submissions 02/11 notes: 166.Each submission must include the number of research doctoral degrees awarded in each academic year (1 August to 31 July) 2008-09 to 2012-13 to students supervised within the submitted unit.

Please note that these are students returned in the HESA Student Record whose qualification awarded is recorded as ‘Doctorate degree obtained primarily through advanced supervised research written up as a thesis/dissertation’ or as a ‘New Route PhD.’ The REF datadoes not include MPhils, but does include EdD, DMedEth and other Doctorates (e.g. Medicine, Social Work) and the ‘date of award’ is the Senate date.

Table 2: University PGR awards

2008/09 / 2009/10 / 2010/11 / 2011/12 to date / total during REF period to date
EPSAM / 8 / 13 / 15 / 3 / 39
HUMS / 5 / 1 / 6 / 4 / 16
PCHS / 5 / 2 / 7 / 1 / 15
ISTM / 15 / 12 / 16 / 6 / 49
SSRI / 34 / 19 / 31 / 14 / 98
Total / 67 / 47 / 75 / 28 / 217

Source: HESA student returns 2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11 and PAA for 2011/12 to April 2012

The above table shows the number of research degree awards made by the Universityduring the REF period. Please note the 2011/12 data is to April 2012, and there is another Senate in June where further awards are likely to be made.

For the REF preparations, the University will allocate the above awards to the relevant REF Units of Assessment. The full list of awards underpinning the table above is available from Research & Enterprise Services, and is sourced from the HESA student return.

Hopefully improvements in timely submission rates will increase the number of awards in the next few years, and the recent increases in student intakes will positively impact the number of PGR awards for the next REF. To ensure that PGR awards are maximised by the REF census date (30th July 2013), awards need to be made through Research Degrees Committee and Senate. For those awards which are close to the deadline, PAA have arranged that there are RDCs currently scheduled for 25th June 2013 and 23rd July 2013, with a Senate Approvals group scheduled for 1st July 2013 and 30th July 2013.

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c)Supervisory capacity

It can be difficult to establish where there is potential to expand PGR student numbers. There are the obvious arguments about financial support/studentships for the PGR students, however, to assess the potential supervisory capacity, we can look at current number of PGRs being supervised in each RI, comparing it to the number of potential supervisors. All full members of an RI are expected to supervise PGR students, with affiliate members also being part of the supervisory team (and sometimes lead supervisor).

Table 3: Keele PGR applications and population by year and Research Institute

PGR applications (year indicates date to commence study) / PGR population FTE (December) / Full RI members FTE (April 2012) / PGR FTEs 2011/12 per Full RI member / PGR applications 2011/12 per full RI member
Research Institute / 2008-09 / 2009-10 / 2010-11 / 2011-12* / 2012-13* / total / 2008-09 / 2009-10 / 2010-11 / 2011-12
EPSAM / 47 / 94 / 102 / 58 / 37 / 338 / 50 / 50.4 / 65.9 / 71.2 / 55.7 / 1.3 / 1.0
Science Faculty total / 47 / 94 / 102 / 58 / 37 / 338 / 50 / 50.4 / 65.9 / 71.2 / 55.7 / 1.3 / 1.0
Humanities / 14 / 21 / 49 / 74 / 44 / 202 / 22.3 / 20.1 / 23 / 32.3 / 40.6 / 0.8 / 1.8
Social Sciences / 259 / 257 / 339 / 292 / 122 / 1269 / 128.4 / 116.9 / 134.52 / 123.08 / 161.87 / 0.8 / 1.8
H&SS Faculty total / 273 / 278 / 388 / 366 / 166 / 1471 / 150.7 / 137 / 157.52 / 155.38 / 202.47 / 0.8 / 1.8
ISTM / 62 / 53 / 82 / 48 / 56 / 301 / 48.2 / 45.8 / 51.3 / 69.6 / 49.05 / 1.4 / 1.0
PCHS / 36 / 21 / 41 / 64 / 7 / 169 / 12.3 / 20.7 / 28.3 / 32.1 / 22.2 / 1.4 / 2.9
Health Faculty total / 98 / 74 / 123 / 112 / 63 / 470 / 60.5 / 66.5 / 79.6 / 101.7 / 71.25 / 1.4 / 1.6
University total / 613 / 536 / 266 / 2279 / 261.2 / 253.9 / 303.02 / 328.28 / 329.42 / 1.0 / 1.6

Source: RI membership database December 2010, FTE count December 2011, SCIMS report APP01 on applications

The above table calculates the average number of PGR students being supervised by each full member in an RI, on average one PGR per Full RI member. IF this average increased to 1.5, the PGR population would rise to almost 500 PGR FTEs. Research Institutes range from 0.8 students per full member in Humanities and Social Sciences to 1.4 in Health. Applications per RI member (during 2011/12) show PCHS with 2.9 and Humanties & Social Sciences with 1.8 applications per full RI member.

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d)Update on Applications and Enrolment progress

i)Applications progress

Chart 1: University PGR applications progress over the past 3 years

Note: Academic year indicates when applicants’ studies would commence

The total height of each bar indicates the total applications (headcount) received for study in that year (e.g. 645 applications were received by applicants for 2010/11 entry). The applications for 2011-12 and 2012/13 are to date (mid April) and it should be noted that this figure is expected to increase during the rest of the academic year. The number of studentships advertised and their timing can impact the total volume and timing of applications, so year on year data is not comparable until the end of the year.

The sections within the bars show the outcome of these applications, the bottom 2 blocks indicate if an offer has been made. Interesting during 2011/12 there was a significant increase in rejections and decrease in the proportion of offers made, with only 1 in 5 applications resulting in an offer. Encouragingly there is a reduction in decision pending with the advent of electronic processing of applications; this figure should reduce to 0%. The 2012/13 data will significantly change as more applications and decisions are made. The 31% decisions pending can be for various reasons such as: awaiting references, waiting for the studentship deadline, the RI is sorting out financial support.

ii)Enrolments

Chart 2: University PGR intakes over the past few academic years (by FTE)

Source: ENR01 report from SCIMS and PAA

This chart shows the record level of enrolments in 2010/11 (note PT= 0.5 FTE), which has already been achieved in 2011/12 and may grow further as more PGR students enrol before the end of July. This will help towards meeting the University’s targets for PGR student growth, which is indicated in the chart below.

Chart 3: PGR student numbers population (FTE)

Source: PAA

The current PGR population is 363 FTEs, which is making significant progress towards the University’s 400 FTE target by 2013/14

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