Defining ‘Best Practice’ in PGT

Dr Janet De Wilde

Assistant Director , Head of STEM, HEA 08.05.2014

STEM and the Global Economy

Knowledge economy

Comprises skills, experiences and knowledge. The highly skilled, experienced and knowledgeable ‘human resource’ is the main contributor to economy. They contribute to the economy in terms of new ideas and soft skills, particularly in the service sector.

Innovation-led economy

In innovation-led economy the ‘human resource’ is able to create more jobs for others, contributing and creating opportunities for themselves as well as others.

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Which Economy?

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Top Ten Skills Employers Want

Reference - CIHE report: Graduate Employability – The Employers View

Postgraduate 3.64

One of the most powerful levers for improving productivity will be higher level skills. Postgraduate or level 5 Skills … These higher level skills are key to driver of innovation, entrepreneurship, management, leadership and R&D.

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Leitch Review: World Class Skills 2006n

2006

SA A PA D SA+A

Analytical Thinking Skills 52 40 6 3 92%

Subject specialist Knowledge 46 34 14 9 80%

Research/ Technical Skills 33 46 18 3 79%

New ideas, help innovate 24 50 24 3 74%

Maturity 15 39 33 12 54%

Future leadership potential 16 34 44 6 50%

Guaranteed High quality graduates

6 24 52 18 30%

6SA = STRONGLY AGREE; A = AGREE; PA = PARTLY AGREE; D = DISAGREE

CIHE: Talent Fishing 2010

What is the value of recruiting staff with Masters Qualifications

Communication

Team working

Integrity

Intellectual ability

Confidence

Creativity

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Skills to drive innovation

Student Experience

Passenger

Pioneer

Passive

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Lectures and private study

Students taughtand tested

Exceptional Pedagogies???

Traditional: Postgraduate projects

Students learn– Experiment design– Data gathering– Data analysis– Report Writing

‘Smith Report’ (2010), One Step Beyond: Making the most of postgraduate education sector

Higher Education Commission report (2012), Postgraduate Education

British Academy (July 2012), Postgraduate funding: the neglected dimension

1994 Group (2012), The Postgraduate Crisis

NUS proposals (2012), Steps towards a fairer system of Postgraduate funding in England

‘Milburn report’ (October 2012) University Challenge: How Higher Education Can Advance Social Mobility

Sutton trust report on social mobility (February 2013), The Postgraduate Premium

 

 

Researching Postgraduate education

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Report by P. Wakeling & G. Hampden-Thompson

• Focus on national, institutional and individual differences

• Focus on f/t UK- and EU-domiciled first degree grads who completed in 2009-10 and 2010-11

• Uses HESA data about their studies, background and activities after graduation (DLHE).

HEA Publication:Transition to higher degrees across the UK

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What influences student satisfaction?

Scale Rank BetaThe teaching on my course

1 0.326

Personal development =2 0.211

Organisation and management

=2 0.209

Academic support 4 0.156

Assessment and feedback

5 0.082

Learning resources 6 0.027Impact of learning experience on overall satisfaction

Multiple regression of National Student Survey 2011 dataset

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey

Year HEIs Responses Rate

2009 30 14 421 17.7% 

2010 76 32 638 14.8%

2011 80 38 756 17.8%

2012 83 54 640 24.7%

2013 89 58 679 26.0%

Participation in PTES, 2009-201314

104 institutions participated at least once in the last two years

PTES currently focuses on:

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey

Teaching and learning Skills and personal development

Assessment and feedback Career and prof. development

Dissertation Experience vs. expectations

Organisation and management Motivations

Learning resources [Institution specific]

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PTES 2013: published in October 2013

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PTES 2013

Teac

hing

and

lear

ning

Asse

ssm

ent a

nd F

eedb

ack

Disse

rtatio

n

Organ

isat

ion

& Man

agem

ent

Lear

ning

Res

ourc

es

Skills & P

erso

nal D

ev.

Caree

r & P

rof.

Dev.

Expe

rienc

e ex

ceed

ed e

xpec

tatio

ns50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

Russell GroupPre-92 (excl. RG)Post-92

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Profile by discipline

More research and information required

Especially in a STEM discipline context

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What is needed?