Most comprehensive survey ever of postgraduate researchers shows high levels of satisfaction

Results from the Higher Education Academy’s Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2013 show that postgraduate researchers in the UK can expect a high quality experience, with 82% of students satisfied overall.
The survey has been redeveloped for 2013, giving a much greater focus to researcher development. This is in response to the needs of the sector and in line with the priorities in the Researcher Development Framework (RDF) which has been introduced into the sector since PRES was first developed in 2007.
A record 122 institutions took part in the survey this year, and a record 48,401 students, compared to 31,102 in 2011, representing a shift from 32% to 42% of the postgraduate researcher population.
Topline findings reveal:
Supervision: 84% of students agreed, on average, with positive statements about their experience of supervision, making this one of the most positive scales in the survey. However, agreement fell to 73% for the new item 1d, ‘My supervisor/s help me to identify my training and development needs as a researcher’. Read more...