SEB Bulletin October 2006 - Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Training - a degree of progress?
Tower Bridge was the backdrop for two back-to-back conferences this year (6/7 September 2006) when the UKGRAD Programme (ref. 1) and UKHERD (ref. 2) held their meetings in the Tower Hotel adjacent to this famous London landmark. With speakers from mainland Europe, the UK's Research Councils and many expert professionals working in the field of career development both conferences produced a good deal of useful information which I can impart here for the benefit of our SEB membership and interested members of the scientific community.
The conferences were aimed primarily at those dealing directly with career development and support for postgrads and postdocs. UKHERD is a network for those involved in the career and professional development of research staff with an overall mission to 'enhance research capacity and performance by fostering better manage-ment, better professional development and better career structures for researchers'. The UKGRAD Programme has a very similar role in supporting the academic sector to 'embed personal and professional skills development into research degree programmes'.
Since the publication of the Roberts Report 'SET for success' (ref. 3) in 2002 the amount of resources available to support the professional development of research students and staff increased substantially and further policy changes currently being implemented are also improving the conditions for this cohort of researchers in the UK and across the whole of Europe. The European Commission has adopted a European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers as a key part of its policy strategy to stimulate economic and employment growth in Europe. The principles of the Charter and Code act as a general set of guidelines to be adopted by member states of the European Union on a voluntary basis. As with other member countries, the UK already has in place a Concordat (ref. 5) for the management of research staff which was established in 1996 (this is currently being reviewed with a view to updating it and developing a career mapping tool). The UK's Fixed Term Employees Regulations 2002 (ref. 6), which aims to prevent less favourable treatment for fixed term staff than for permanent staff, is also being employed in universities and has been responsible for research staff being given open-ended contracts from July 2006 in some universities. The University of Bristol, for example, recently transferred 53% of its postdocs onto new open-ended contracts and many other institutions have made collective agreements to limit the use of fixed-term contracts.
In her keynote address during the HERD conference, Professor Julia Goodfellow (Chief Executive, BBSRC) presented an overview of the national and international developments in research and career management. The situation in the UK is that over 30,000 research-only staff are employed in the UK (21% of the academic workforce) (ref. 7), of which 30% work in Biological Sciences. Of these, very few will achieve an academic position and so it is inevitable that most will have to find alternative career paths for which they need career support, even if only to recognise the skills they have developed during their academic research careers. As a result of the Roberts Funding (amounting to over £8m in 2006/7), dedicated staff are now being appointed to support and champion career development for researchers and specific career training workshops are being run for this cohort group within and outside of their own institutions.
A panel discussion followed on from the Keynote Lecture which comprised Professor Goodfellow, Peter Callway (former Head of Learning Strategy, BP plc), Dr John Bothwell (National Postdoc/Research Staff Association, UK) and Professor Len Hall (University of Bristol). Issues raised included:
- Whether it is viable or desirable for researchers to expect a long-term career in university research. The sustainability of such a work ethic was generally felt to be largely unsustainable, however John Bothwell argued that although it is probably desirable for an institution to retain staff and their corresponding expertise, it is not necessarily good for the staff unless it is accompanied by career progression and appropriate training.
- The issue of who is responsible for the training and development of staff was discussed, i.e. should it be the funders or the employers? Len Hall responded to say that the funding should follow those institutions which take training seriously as a reward for not treating postdocs 'like a piece of equipment' - to be used and discarded. John Bothwell added that postdoc training ought to be seen as an outcome of a grant.
- There is a current problem with eligibility for applying for funding, however, as Len Hall pointed out it would be unworkable in terms of sheer numbers to allow postdocs to apply. Julia Goodfellow added that mentoring by PIs and allowing postdocs to assist in writing grants as well as being able to run small projects on their own are important aspects of their skills development.
The afternoon began with a Keynote Address from Peter Callway in which he set out the career development structure which exists in BP and which encourages those with great technical expertise to remain with the company by offering them specific development programmes so that their career paths progress within the company. It was poignant that each employee's career development programme begins at the very start of employment with the agreement of a PDP. This includes short- and medium-term requirements, mentoring, career mapping, identifying and filling skills gaps and self- and peer-assessments. Self-reliance is key and career development is very much the responsibility of the individual but involvement of the line manager in the whole process is crucial.
Peter Callway noted that BP seemed to have created a career support structure which encouraged very low staff turnover, a phenomenon echoed in a recent survey (of 7,600 postdocs in the US) (ref. 8) which John Bothwell had cited during the morning session. The survey, entitled 'Doctors without orders' found a correlation which seemed to suggest that greater career support correlates with greater productivity: “Postdocs reporting the greatest amount of structured oversight and formal training are much more likely to say they are satisfied, to give their advisors high ratings, to experience relatively few conflicts with their advisors, and be more productive in terms of publications compared with those with the least oversight and training.” It is interesting to note that this also tied in with a workshop later in the day where the results of a recent survey of Principle Investigators, presented by Miranda Carr (Cambridge) and Jane Wellens (Leicester), showed that the main area for which PIs would like further personal development was 'managing performance' and 'motivating people'.
Unsurprisingly, the UKGRAD Programme conference the following day had a larger attendance than the day before with around 230 delegates (compared with about 160). The format was similar though with presentations in the morning followed by specialist workshops in the afternoon. The day began by addressing the challenges in doctoral education and training with presentations from the UK, Germany and Finland. Professor Ian Diamond (Chief Executive, ESRC and Chair of RCUK Executive Group) stressed the importance of investing in research training in the UK in order to remain research-competitive at the international level. In this respect RCUK is committed to investing heavily in research personnel to improve the attractiveness of research careers and to increase employ-ability. Professor Diamond suggested that the problem of attracting young people into science ought to be tackled at Year 9/10 to sow the seeds of an idea of a career in research. Although postgraduates go into a diverse range of careers research must also be attractive to them. More needs to be done to improve the flexibility of research careers such that movement between government institutions, universities and industry is made easier. Dr Thomas Koch (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) and Professor Marja Makarow (University of Helsinki) related their success stories following the implementation of structured doctoral programmes within their institutions designed to increase the support and training of PhD students so that they are fit for a range of careers on the international job market. Graduate Schools of this kind are being encouraged at governmental level with additional funding to support their establishment.
Rafaella Öckinger, president of Eurodoc (ref. 9), which is the federation of national organisations of PhD candidates and junior researchers in Europe, set out the aims of her federation and, in particular, drew attention to the fact that in order to achieve the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy 700,000 extra researchers will need to be employed in academia and the private and public sectors across Europe. The reality at the moment is that although Europe educates more researchers than the US and Japan, it employs fewer. Eurodoc aim to contribute to policy and process about Higher Education and research in Europe and consider key methods within this process to be “training by research, not for research; development of scientific and transferable skills under quality supervision; the provision of competitive income and clear career structures and stable employment contracts”.
It is clear that Europe is making a concerted effort to evolve their PhD programmes to meet the overall goals of the European Commission. But is it doing enough? There are still concerns about the nature of PhD training and whether it is producing researchers to support innovative, economic and social development. The purpose of the PhD is changing - postgraduates are needed to support non-academic industries as well as providing high quality researchers for academic institutions in the future. Rosie Sotillo (Head of Graduate Development, Barclays Global Investors) identified the major skills they seek from their ideal candidates: intelligence; ability to learn; able to adjust well from academia to industry; flexibility and responsibility (e.g. for their own career development). One of the main barriers for PhD graduates wishing to pursue a non-academic career is a sense of having 'failed' - a culture compounded by attitudes within the department as well as being derived from their original career expectations. It will be interesting to find out how far things move on during 2007 and I look forward to attending the conferences again next year to find out. Many thanks to the UKGRAD Programme and UKHERD for organising two very stimulating and informative meetings.
Sarah Blackford
Education and Public Affairs
How did we get here?
In January 2000, the European Commission determined to establish the European Research Area (ERA) (ref. 10), which acknowledged the need to introduce a European dimension to careers. When European leaders met at a summit in Lisbon in March 2000 they set the European Union the goal of becoming “the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world” by 2010. This was followed by a further statement in Barcelona 2002, that Europe must raise its investment in research to 3% of European GDP by 2010. This was further supported by the Commission's Communication entitled 'Researchers in the European Research Area: one profession, multiple careers' in July 2003, which provided detailed propositions to ensure the recruitment and retention of researchers in the ERA, including the first outline of the 'European Charter and Code'. The Lisbon Objectives have been reinforced in a recent Council meeting, stating that 'Human resources are critical for research and development and priority must be given to training, retention and mobility of researchers'. (ref. 11)
References
1. www.grad.ac.uk
2. www.ukherd.org.uk/
3. www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/ent
erprise_and_productivity/research_and_enterprise/ent_res_roberts.cfm
4. http://europa.eu.int/eracareers/pdf/am50
774CEE_EN_E4.pdf#search=%22European%20Charter%20for%20Management%20of%20researchers%22
5. http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/activitie
s/rci.asp
6. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20022
034.htm
7. http://www.hesa.ac.uk/holisdocs/pubinf
o/destinations.htm
8. Davis, G. 2005. Doctors without orders. American Scientist 93(3, supplement). http://postdoc.sigmaxi.org/results/
9. http://www.eurodoc.net/
10. http://cordis.europa.eu/era/
11. www.grad.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_
page/Policy/European_policy/Lisbon_strategy/p!eFjlkek