Sussex Research Hive Seminar
Tennie Videler
Vitae
Champions the personal, professional and career
development of doctoral researchers and research staff.
Website www.vitae.ac.uk
PGR Tips
PGR blog to be launched
Research staff and careers sections
RS blog: www.vitae.ac.uk/rsblog
UKRSA: www.ukrsa.org.uk
events
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
Some numbers:
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
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.
HE lecturering and teaching 14%
varies from less than 1% in physics, chemistry,
and microbiology to 56% in law.
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
HE research occupations
Research (not in HE sector)
Teaching and lecturing in HE
Other teaching occupations
Other common doctoral occupations
Other occupations
0%
Doctoral graduates
10%
20%
30%
Masters graduates
40%
50%
60%
First degree 1st/2:1
70%
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
Contact UKRSA:
www.ukrsa.org.uk
ukrsavitae@gmail.com