Report release of UK Research Supervision Survey 2024
On Friday 25 October 2024 the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) hosted the launch of the UK Research Supervision Survey Report (UKRSS) 2024 in partnership with RSVP. Discover the key findings from this year’s survey and read the full report.
With 122 participants joining from a range of institutions across the UK and the world, Owen Gower (UKCGE Director), Karen Clegg (RSVP Design and Academic/Professional Practice lead, and Co-Principal Investigator), and Doug Cleaver (Governance and Accountability lead, and Co-Principal Investigator) presented on the key findings from the second iteration of UKRSS.
The UKRSS team was joined by Dr Steven Hill, Director of Research at Research England, who gave opening remarks. He discussed the critical role supervision plays in developing UK-wide and global research and innovation. He stated it is “as a result of that centrality of the role of supervisors in the research system, I think it’s vitally important that we understand their role better, that we understand their challenges, and we better understand the support they need in for carrying out that this important role,” articulating UKRSS’s crucial task in outlining the role and landscape of supervision. Dr Hill spoke to the critical role supervision has on improving people, culture, and environment (PCE), a key assessment for REF 2028. Articulating the strong need for collaborative support for doctoral students, he pulled out a section of UKRSS: 45% of supervisors said they had not provided advise for doctoral students on career paths outside of academia, stating “if we want to support diversity of career path, we need to support supervisors to provide more broad advise on career trajectory.”
After the opening remarks, Dr Owen Gower from the UKCGE gave an overview of the key findings from UKRSS 2024. The survey received 5,174 responses, which was a distinct increase from 2021 likely from the sector-wide excitement surrounding RSVP. The survey had representation from 141 UK institutions, with 53% of respondents being mid-career, 41% coming from Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences (AHSS) and 59% from Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM). The survey had 48 questions, with the goal of discovering what the trends are in the supervisory landscape. Dr Gower stated, “we want to use this evidence to understand the lived experiences, the attitudes of doctoral supervisors, what are their challenges that they’re facing, and what are their needs.” Dr Gower articulated that the vast majority of supervisors agreed that their institution lived up to being a positive research culture, which includes being supportive, open, diverse, inclusive, collaborative and creative (83%).
Professor Doug Cleaver – Chair of UKCGE, Director of Doctoral College at Sheffield Hallam University, and Co-Principal Investigator at RSVP – followed, speaking about the challenges of supervision that emerged from UKRSS 2024. One key challenge outlined in the 2024 survey was that the majority of supervisors (59%) said that there was difficulty in fostering candidates' confidence, focus, and engagement. Professor Cleaver stated that research culture and environment is almost certainly a component of this difficulty, which will be interrogated more through RSVP. Furthermore, 91% feel valued by their students, while only 56% felt valued by their workplace. Critically, workload remained a distinct challenge amongst the UKRSS respondents, with Professor Cleaver stating “there’s a systemic mismatch between the hours that the supervisors say they are spending supervising and the hours which they are allocated.”
Dr Karen Clegg (UKCGE trustee and RSVP Co-Principal Investigator) followed, speaking about team supervision and continuing professional development (CPD). Pointing towards collaboration, Dr Clegg highlighted that 76% have stated that they either frequently or always took part in team supervision over the last 5 years, and 70% stated that they believe that teams supervision offers a better experience for the doctoral candidate. Dr Clegg articulated that, in general, “mandatory training and professional development helps [supervisors] to highlight public engagement and professional development opportunities. There is a richness in the capacity building that that CPD is having on the candidates experience. So [CPD] is positive for supervisors and positive for the postgraduate researchers.”
Dr Clegg and Professor Cleaver finished off the presentation speaking about potential considerations for institutions and individuals following off the UKRSS 2024. One key consideration highlighted was leveraging the different skill sets in collaborative supervision: “there are more people that can add to the richness of the doctoral life cycle and who can complement particular and specific skills. There are also people outside of HE, what we could call tertiary supervisors as far as RSVP is concerned.” The presenters highlighted the need for institutions to value and support different skill sets and thoughts in supervision to improve candidate and supervisory experience, as well as research culture at large.
A Q&A followed the presentation of the UKRSS, with key themes touching on myth busting around non-academic aspects of supervision, supporting doctoral candidates internationally, embedding international students into UK research culture, workload for team supervision, and identifying specialisms on supervisory teams.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the UK Research Supervision Survey in 2024 and the 122 participants who joined on Friday 25 October 2024 for the launch event.