Guidance on the AHRB’s introduction of a framework of research training
requirements from summer 2004
Introduction and background
1. Research training is an issue that is very much on the current agenda for higher
education. The UK’s four higher education funding councils are developing a
framework of threshold standards and good practice in postgraduate research degree
programmes, which focuses on the assessment of needs and provision of training in
order to help research students develop research and other skills. Sir Gareth
Roberts’ review ‘SET for Success: the supply of people with science, technology,
engineering and mathematics skills’ (April 2002), and the Government’s response in
‘Investing in Innovation’ (July 2002), both emphasised the need for doctoral students
to receive training in transferable skills in order to prepare them for future
employment. The Research Councils have been given additional funds to enhance
training in research and broader skills for doctoral students.
2. A framework of research training requirements is, however, a new development for
the AHRB. The Board issued with the Research Councils a Joint Statement of the
Skills Training Requirements for Research Students, which sets outs the research
skills and techniques as well as the wide employment-related skills that research
students holding AHRB and Research Council doctoral awards should be expected to
develop during the course of their study.
3. The Board undertook a wide-ranging review of its postgraduate programmes in 2001.
This involved several stages of consultation with the academic community and with
the AHRB’s Postgraduate Committee and Board of Management. The outcomes of
this process were published in December 2002, along with an outline plan for
implementing the recommendations. Details of the review and recommendations are
available on our website.
4. One of the recommendations of the review was that the AHRB should develop a
framework of research training requirements. The review recommended that the
framework should be founded on a needs-based approach to the provision for
individual students, and that it should be sensitive to the needs and requirements of
the arts and humanities while also taking full account of the wider demand for the
development of key transferable skills and competences.
Aims of the new framework
5. The new framework is intended as a means of enabling institutions to reassure the
Board that the doctoral students it funds are well supported and are receiving
appropriate and relevant preparation and training to enable them to complete a highquality doctoral thesis* and to develop a range of knowledge, understanding and
skills necessary for their future employment. The framework sets a minimum
threshold of expected provision, and the Board has supplemented this with examples
of good practice in order to encourage institutions to enhance and improve their
existing provision.
*
The term ‘thesis’ is used throughout to denote the work submitted for the degree of PhD and
should be understood to include practice-based doctoral research as well as text-based.
Summary of the new system
Application and assessment process
6. With effect from the 2004 competition, departments (or equivalent) will be asked, as
part of the assessment process for applications for postgraduate awards, to provide
information on the systems for research training provision in the arts and humanities
they have in place. Each department will have to provide this information just once a
year, and AHRB staff will forward each department’s statement to the Board’s
assessment panels along with all the doctoral application forms submitted.
7. Departments will also be required to provide information on research training for each
doctoral application they put forward for an AHRB award. On each application,
departments will be required to explain the research and key skills training and
support that is likely to be required, and to describe how those needs will be met.
This should be done with reference to the Board’s framework of research training
requirements.
8. As is currently the case, the AHRB’s assessors will award the highest grades to the
highest quality applicants studying at a department that will provide a good standard
of supervision, preparation, development and support relevant to their subject of
research.
Monitoring
9. The continuation of each year of a doctoral award is currently dependent on the
Board’s receiving a satisfactory annual progress report completed by the doctoral
award holder and their supervisor. This system will be extended from the academic
year 2004–05 so that both student and supervisor are asked to provide information
on the research training provided during the year, on what further training and
development needs have been identified, and on how these will be met.
AHRB information days on research training
10. The AHRB will be holding a series of information days around the UK in February
2004 to explain in greater detail its new framework of research training requirements,
and the implications for those completing application forms on behalf of candidates
for an AHRB doctoral award in 2004. These events will also include opportunities for
discussion and workshops designed to help HEI staff share good practice in
assessing, providing and monitoring research and other skills training. These events
are being organised for the AHRB by the UK GRAD Programme.
Useful references
11. In developing this framework the Board has been guided by the following work on
research training:




the Research Councils’ and AHRB’s joint statement of skills training requirements for
research students (http://www.grad.ac.uk/gradschool/3_2_1.jsp)
the work of the UK GRAD programme (www.grad.ac.uk)
the reports issued by the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) on Research
Training for Humanities Postgraduate Students (2000) and Research Training in the
Creative and Performing Arts and Design (2001)
(http://www.ukcge.ac.uk/report_downloads.html)
the recommendations arising from Sir Gareth Roberts’ review SET for Success
(2002; http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/documents/enterprise_and_productivity/research_and_
enterprise/ent_res_roberts.cfm)


the joint UK higher education funding councils’ consultation on Improving Standards
in Postgraduate Research Degree Programmes (2003)
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education’s code of practice for
postgraduate research programmes
(http://www.qaa.ac.uk/public/cop/cop/contents.htm).
Principles of the AHRB’s framework of research training requirements
a)
The aim of the Board’s framework of research training requirements is
to ensure that its doctoral award holders are provided with a good
standard of training in research skills and other key skills, in order to
enable them to complete in due time a thesis that is a high-quality
contribution to knowledge and understanding in their field, and also to
help them develop key transferable skills necessary in their subsequent
careers, whether in academic employment or in other areas
b)
The two UKCGE reports on research training in the humanities and in
the creative and performing arts and design form a sound basis for the
Board’s framework, covering both subject-specific and generic skills
training, and providing guidance on good practice rather than being too
rigid or prescriptive.
c)
The framework is based on a needs-based approach to the provision of
research and key skills training that is sensitive to the distinctive
characteristics of research in the arts and humanities, and that also
reflects the state of preparation, the developmental needs and the
research subject of the individual student.
d)
The framework requires that research and key skills training should
continue throughout the period of doctoral study rather than being
confined to the first year, and that students’ needs should be
reassessed at least annually. Certain subject-specific training, such as
epistemological and conceptual issues, or advanced technological
skills, may be more appropriately covered in the second year of a
doctoral programme, for instance.
e)
Institutions are expected to provide a ‘menu’ of research training
provision from which the relevant elements for an individual student’s
needs could be selected. In some cases, inter-institutional
collaboration may be the most appropriate way to provide this.
f)
AHRB wishes to facilitate collaborative initiatives, among department or
institutions, which would encourage and develop the provision of
research training of various types.
g)
Meeting the requirements of the Board’s framework should not be
onerous for institutions in terms of paperwork: there will no formal
recognition exercise by which institutions’ research training provision is
assessed. Rather, institutions will have to demonstrate the quality,
flexibility and relevance of their research training provision in the
doctoral applications they submit to the Board.
h)
The delivery of research training will be monitored via the Board’s
existing system of annual report forms for award holders and
submission rate surveys for departments. Institutions will be expected
to have their own monitoring procedures in place for research training
provision, and the AHRB will aim for a ‘light touch’ in its own monitoring
of this.
i)
The Board may wish to review in future years the requirements of the
framework and the degree to which institutions are able to meet them,
considering whether it may be appropriate to review the threshold
requirements as provision improves across institutions.
The AHRB’s framework of research training requirements
The importance of research training
12. The AHRB is committed to supporting the provision of high-quality research training
for research students. The Board’s framework of research training requirements aims
to ensure that its doctoral award holders are studying at institutions that provide
research training of high quality, which meets at least a minimum threshold standard.
The framework sets out a range of skills that all doctoral research students need in
order both to complete in due time a doctoral thesis of high quality, and to succeed in
their future career, in whatever field and whether self-employed or in employment.
13. The Board expects departments (or equivalent) to undertake an analysis of training
needs for each doctoral student, and to provide an agreed programme of training for
each student to meet the needs identified, based on the skills and competencies the
student has already achieved, and the further training and development they need in
order to reach an appropriately high level of skills and competencies. The Board
recognises that there are some skills that all research students need in order to
undertake research effectively, some skills that are relevant to particular topics of
study, and some skills that students develop through the process of conducting
research. Training should always be relevant to the individual student’s experience
and requirements, and to their discipline and research topic.
New research training support grant
14. In order to assist departments and institutions to meet the requirements of the
Board’s new research training framework, the AHRB will be allocating an additional
annual sum of £500 per doctoral award holder with effect from October 2004, paid
directly to the institution. The Board will expect institutions to use this money to
develop and enhance their research training provision for all arts and humanities
students. The Board will retain a small proportion of the £500 allocation for each
student, and use these funds to facilitate collaborative research training projects.
More details on this additional allocation will be available shortly.
How should an HEI provide research training?
15. Institutions and departments (or equivalent) are expected to have in place a
programme of research training from which an appropriate selection is made to meet
the needs of individual students. The Board will also expect institutions and
departments to provide a continuing programme of research training throughout the
period of doctoral study, recognising that some skills are more appropriately
developed after the first year of doctoral research. In some cases, elements of
research training may be more appropriately provided through collaboration among
departments or institutions. The AHRB, along with the Research Councils, offers
additional funding for its doctoral award holders to attend a three- or five-day GRAD
School. The UK GRAD schools provide a range of activities focused on developing
personal effectiveness and communication, team-building and career management
skills. The aim is to equip and encourage research students both to complete their
studies successfully and to make a successful transition from doctoral study to their
future career.
16. The Research Councils and the AHRB have produced a joint statement of skills
training requirements for research students, which sets out a common view of the
skills doctoral students are expected to develop during their research training. The
joint statement is intended as a guide to institutions in developing their own research
training programmes, to help them ensure that the research training they provide is of
the highest standard across all disciplines. Many institutions have found it a useful
tool in shaping their own research training programmes. The joint statement is
available on the UK GRAD Programme website (http://www.grad.ac.uk/3_2_1.jsp).
What information will the AHRB need?
17. With effect from the 2004 competition there will be some changes to the application
form for doctoral awards. The Head of Department or equivalent will be required to
comment in detail on the preparation and training needs of the individual student in
Section 3. Departments will also be required to provide a single statement, which
AHRB officers will copy and attach to each individual’s application for that
department, explaining what systems they have in place for meeting the Board’s
framework of research training requirements, and how they ensure that each
research student is provided with appropriate training to equip them with the skills,
knowledge and understanding they need to carry out research.
18. The departmental statement of research training should provide full answers to the
following questions:
i)
What systems are in place in your department for ensuring that the
training needs of research students are assessed initially and reviewed
annually?
ii)
How, and at what level (e.g. institutional, faculty or departmental level,
or through inter-institutional collaboration), is this training delivered and
monitored? If inter-institutional collaboration is involved, is such
collaboration already in existence or a planned development?
iii)
How does your department’s provision of training meet the
requirements of the AHRB’s research training framework, in terms of:

core, generic skills and personal and career development skills,
and

the development of knowledge and understanding relevant to
the individual’s research topic?
19. The institutional statement completed on behalf of the individual student in the
doctoral application form should provide information about the preparation and
training needs of the candidate, addressing the following questions:
i)
For students about to begin their first year of doctoral
study: what specialist needs are likely to arise in
connection with the student’s proposed research
topic? How will those training needs already
identified be met (both generic and specialist skills
needed for their particular topic)?
ii) For students who have already completed one year’s doctoral study,
what training needs were identified in their first year, and how
were these met? How will their continuing training needs be
identified and met over the coming academic year?
How will doctoral applications be assessed?
20. As with the current system, applications for an AHRB doctoral award will be assessed
on equal terms on the basis of the evidence provided in the application form about
the candidate’s aptitude, ability and preparedness for their proposed doctoral research
programme.

the candidate’s statement about their intended programme of research, their
reasons and purposes in undertaking it, and how it relates to the academic
or other preparation they have undertaken to date

the statements made by two referees

the information supplied by the department about the candidate’s proposed
research, the supervision arrangements, the training the candidate will
receive, and the support and facilities the institution and department will
provide.

the candidate’s performance in examinations and other formal assessments at first degree
level and at postgraduate level (from information submitted on the DR and PR forms).
21. In addition, from 2004 the Board’s assessors will also take into account:

the department’s statement about the procedures in place for assessing, delivering
and monitoring research and other skills training

the department’s assessment of the training needs of the individual candidate and its
description of how its training programme will be applied to meet the needs of the
candidate in question

the evidence provided through these two questions that the student will be well
supported and provided with a good standard of training to enable them to develop
the necessary skills and understanding both to complete a high-quality doctoral thesis
on time and to prepare themselves for their future career.
What form should research training take?
22. The Board’s framework is not intended to be prescriptive about the details of the
training institutions should provide. It will instead be a guide to the skills, knowledge
and understanding doctoral students are expected to gain during their studies.
Institutions and departments will then, through the application procedure described
above, be asked to provide information to reassure the Board that the needs of
research students in key skills areas are being assessed, met and monitored. The
framework thus gives examples of skills and understanding to be developed to an
appropriate level, rather than, for example, listing specific software packages in which
students should receive training.
23. Institutions will be expected to conduct a needs analysis and provide training
accordingly to ensure students are appropriately equipped with core generic skills
that are relevant for all research students, and with subject-specific knowledge,
understanding and skills. Institutions may find the joint statement of skills training
requirements developed by the Research Councils and AHRB a useful tool in
addressing these issues.
Subject-specific knowledge, understanding and skills
24. Institutions will be expected to ensure that research students are appropriately
prepared and have opportunities to develop in areas that are relevant to the demands
of their discipline. These areas of training relate to ensuring students are equipped to
develop the knowledge, understanding and skills relevant to their field of research.
Training in these areas must be specifically tailored to the needs of individual
students and their research topic, and must take account of the differing demands of
text-based and practice-based research. It is unlikely that much of this training can
be provided through generic courses for large numbers of students in the way that
core generic skills training can be, but some of this training may be appropriately
delivered at department (or equivalent) level.
25. Examples of key subject-specific knowledge, understanding and skills are:
i)
Understanding theoretical issues, the nature of evidence and argument, and the
relationships between practice, theory and criticism
ii)
Developing research methods and skills and practical techniques appropriate to the
project
iii)
Developing knowledge and understanding of the research context of the project, and of
trends in the discipline
iv)
Developing knowledge, understanding and skills in analysis and synthesis of research
material
v)
Developing knowledge and understanding of related disciplines where appropriate
vi)
Specialist knowledge, understanding and skills such as an additional language,
methodology or technique
Core generic skills
26. Development of the core generic skills listed below will be a compulsory training
requirement for all research students. Departments will be expected to assess the
training students have already received training in these areas, and to identify further
generic skills training, including training at a higher level, needed by students both
before and after their first year of doctoral research. The list below describes broad
areas that the AHRB believes are likely to be relevant to all doctoral students in the
arts and humanities.
27. The core generic skills that all research students should develop during the course of
the doctoral study are:
i)
Written communication skills appropriate for the academic context and beyond
ii)
Oral presentation skills, including giving research papers and discussing others’ research
findings
iii)
Designing and managing a project
iv)
ICT skills, including appropriate word processing and other ICT skills (such as creating
and using spreadsheets and databases) as relevant to the research topic
v)
Bibliographical skills and contextualising practice-based research
vi)
Identifying and using web-based resources
vii)
Record-keeping and record management
Personal and career development, and broader employment-related skills (such as
participating in workshops and conferences, or, if students undertake undergraduate
teaching duties, relevant support and training)
Monitoring and reviewing research training
28. Institutions will be required to explain on the application form what systems are in
place for reviewing and reassessing training needs, on an annual basis. This is
necessary not just to monitor the effectiveness of training provision, but also to take
account of additional skills required as a research project develops (for example,
training may be necessary in how to develop and maintain a database).
Annual reports
29. The continuation of a doctoral award each year is currently subject to the submission
of a satisfactory annual report at the end of each year of the award. These forms are
completed by the student and their supervisor, and signed by the head of department.
These forms will be amended in the 2004–05 academic year to include new
questions about how research training needs have been identified, met and reviewed.
Answers to these questions will be used to inform the development of the Board’s
research training policy and the monitoring of institutional provision. They will not
affect the continuation of an individual’s award. Monitoring will be at the level of
general standards of and mechanisms for the provision of research training, rather
than of problems with identifying or meeting the needs of an individual student.
Submission rate surveys
30. The Board, like the Research Councils, will also continue to monitor the thesis
submission rates of the doctoral students it funds, through the annual submission rate
survey. Full-time doctoral students funded by the AHRB and the Research Councils
are expected to submit their thesis within four years of the start of their award (for
part-time award holders the target date is within seven years of the start of the
award). Institutions and departments are asked in the annual surveys to report on the
submission dates of the doctoral students whose AHRB award began four years
previously.
31. Departments or institutions at which the number of award holders submitting their
thesis within four years of the start of AHRB funding falls below a threshold may be
liable to penalties. It is current policy that departments or institutions penalised in this
way are rendered ineligible to submit doctoral applications for the following two years.
Departments may be penalised if the submission rate falls below 50 percent both in
the current year’s survey and in the aggregate of the current year and the preceding
two years’ survey. Institutions may be penalised if the submission rate falls below 30
percent both in the current year’s survey and in the aggregate of the current year and
the preceding two years’ survey. Departments or institutions at which there have
been fewer than four AHRB doctoral award holders over the relevant three-year
period are normally exempt from any penalty.
32. In the 2002 survey the average submission rate for the departments with AHRB
doctoral award holders whose award began in 1998 was 78 percent, almost 20
percentage points higher than in the AHRB’s first year of operation in 1998. The joint
funding councils propose a minimum threshold standard of 70 percent of an
institution’s doctoral research students submitting their thesis within four years for fulltime students and eight years for part-time students.
Examples of good practice in research training
University of Liverpool – Postgraduate Research Development Programme
The University of Liverpool requires research students to complete a training programme,
discussed and agreed in advance with their supervisor. The programme consists of training
sessions, activities and courses, and each component has a credit value. Doctoral research
students are required to complete a total of 90 units of research training over a three-year
period, 30 of them within the first year. Students may obtain an exemption from some
components, or may undertake additional training, as appropriate to their research topic and
previous experience or qualifications. The university’s Centre for Lifelong Learning provides
an online Research Training Manual, and students can, through the website, build up their
training programme, access details about the training available and the specific training
required by their department, and view the record of the credits they have gained
(www.liv.ac.uk/cll/pg_training).
Liverpool’s Postgraduate Research Development Programme draws on the guidance on the
research and wider skills doctoral students are expected to develop provided by the Quality
Assurance Agency and by the Research Councils’ and AHRB’s Joint Statement of Skills
Training Requirements. The Liverpool programme divides research training into the following
broad headings:

Research and analytical skills

The context of research

Employment-related skills

Language support and academic writing skills
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Nottingham Trent University – Faculty of Humanities Research Training programme
The Faculty of Humanities at Nottingham Trent University has developed a postgraduate
certificate in research practice in the humanities designed to help students at the beginning of
a research programme develop relevant skills. The course is delivered at faculty level, in
order to secure suitable numbers of research students and appropriate resources, and draws
on the inter-disciplinary nature of much of the faculty’s work, providing a regular forum in
which students can discuss their research and share their experiences. The course provides
training and development in generic humanities research issues which is intended to support
the subject-specific work necessary for the individual thesis. There are also occasional
postgraduate day schools, which focus on broader topics such as building a career or
publishing research findings. The training is provided in three modules:

Introduction to the research process

Key debates and issues in cultural and social theory

Methodologies and methods in the humanities
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University of Salford – Postgraduate Research Training Programme
The University of Salford’s Postgraduate Research Training Programme provides both
generic and subject-specific training for research students in the European Studies Research
Institute/Institute for Social Research. The training is provided across three years for full-time
research students, and focuses on the skills and understanding necessary to plan and design
research and the doctoral thesis. Some modules are assessed while others are optional.
History students are also given the opportunity to attend subject-specific research training
programmes offered by the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
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University of Sheffield –Research Training Programme
The University of Sheffield runs a Research Training Programme, covering subject-specific
and generic skills, in which units are given a credit value. Doctoral students are required to
complete 35 credits, usually during the first two years for full-time students, and they must
gain 20 of these before they upgrade from MPhil to PhD. Each year the University’s
Graduate Research Office issues a statement of academic progress to students registered on
the programme, to enable them to monitor their progress through the programme. The
programme is structured around four main headings:

understanding the research context

general transferable and career-related skills

analytical and research skills

appropriate subject-based training
The Graduate Research Office publishes annually a Research Training Programme
Handbook, which is also available online (www.shef.ac.uk/pgresearch/students). Students
are encouraged to discuss their training needs, including any exemptions because of previous
training or experience, and the training requirements of their faculty or department with their
supervisor before selecting the units they will take. In the Faculty of Arts, for example,
students are encouraged to choose units that focus on:

information handling and acquisition in the humanities (including computer literacy)

presentation skills (oral and written)

discipline-specific training in IT and research methods.
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Collaborative research training
The North West Centre for Linguistics – Research Training Programmes
The North West Centre for Linguistics, established in 1997, is a collaborative venture
involving the universities of Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Salford and Wales Bangor, as
well as UMIST and Edge Hill College of Higher Education. It offers week-long research
training programmes for Linguistics research students, aiming to cover both methodological
training and broader subject content. Information is available on its website
(www.nwcl.salford.ac.uk).
------------------------------------------------------------------White Rose Consortium – Research Training Centre
The White Rose Universities (Leeds Sheffield and York) provide through the Consortium’s
Research Training Centre courses in transferable and employment-related skills for research
students at the three institutions. The courses are offered as an alternative to the UK GRAD
Programme’s courses, for those students not eligible for a funded place on the national Grad
Schools courses. The White Rose courses focus on skills such as team-working and
negotiating, communication, including the use of communication technologies, and on raising
students’ awareness of the skills they have. Training resources are provided online
(www.fldu.leeds.ac.uk/bodingtoncommon.html) and students are also encouraged to attend a
short course during the second or third year of their PhD.
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