Our first PGCG of this year was entitled ‘Enhancing Engagement as PGRs (with the public and the Students’ Union)’
The Postgraduate Consultation Group is one of our initiatives to receive feedback from our postgraduate research community (PGRs) to ensure that Queen Mary Students’ Union can guarantee a positive and supportive experience for our PGRs. This was started by our former Vice President Communities last year and has relaunched this year for its second run. PGCGs are small groups of PGRs who meet regularly to discuss their experiences at Queen Mary, chaired by the Vice President Liberation, International and Postgraduates. Our Postgraduate Research Representation Assistant also acts as a secretary for these meetings!
To ensure these meetings are transparent and accessible for all PGRs, we will be writing up short articles to share the feedback received in these meetings and the steps that we, the Students’ Union, will take going forward to improve on these points. Our first meeting of this academic year was entitled ‘Enhancing Engagement as PGRs (with the public and the Students’ Union)’, please read more about what our PGR focus group suggested below!
Public engagement during Doctoral College inductions
With PGR inductions only taking place a couple of months ago, participants did not recall much discussion on public engagement during their induction week events, and therefore participants suggested various induction sessions to be held at various points in the year. The participants also shared concerns about a lack of consistency in engaging with each PGR student, as not all PGRs start the PhDs in the same manner and all PGR journeys are unique. In a similar sense, some participants also shared fears of unequal treatments in public engagement opportunities of PhD programmes.
Opportunities for disseminating research
Participants shared that they have received funding to present their research at academic conferences through the Postgraduate Research Fund within the Doctoral College. They also shared that there have been opportunities for participants to disseminate their research, but most of these have been shared through academic channels. Ultimately, participants stressed a need for more schools and departments to organise these opportunities for public engagement, rather than leaving it to PGRs to initiate dissemination openings.
Public engagement advised from supervision
On the topic of public engagement from a supervision perspective, participants noted that they often had to write out their plans for impact within their research proposal, then often discuss these with their supervisors. However, with the nature of the PhD, the possibilities of impact with the research are limited. The participants agreed that public engagement and its extent depends on the type of research being conducted. In addition, there seems to be varying levels from supervisor discussions about public engagement, from having very straight forward conversations about it to no discussion at all. Participants suggested that refresher courses on public engagement would be a positive inclusion in the PGR calendar.
Avenues for support from the Doctoral College and schools/departments
Participants agreed that it would be helpful for PGRs to have more avenues for support from the Doctoral College, as well as their schools and departments. On the topic of induction week, participants suggested that the initial introduction to public engagement at the start of PhD programmes should be more tailored to specific schools and departments, to ensure the information is less generic and more specialised. Finally, participants shared the necessity of media training and are keen on how Queen Mary can help with these necessary areas of development as researchers. Participants were informed of training courses on doctoral training platforms (such as LISS and LAHP) that sometimes, run courses on media training that they can utilise.
Engagement with the Students’ Union
Reflecting upon their engagement with the Students’ Union, participants shared that they were unaware of the Part Time Officers and Course Rep positions within their schools. The participants also shared that PGRs could benefit more from participation from the Students’ Union during Welcome Week. In response to this, participants were informed of our segmented communications and PGR-specific stalls and events.
Improvements for the future
The Students’ Union will encourage the Doctoral College and schools/departments to organise more tailor-made public engagement trainings and refresher courses that are suited to the nature of research within their schools.
The Students’ Union will provide support along with the University and Doctoral College in running media training courses, or signposting to platforms to get training on these important areas of development.
The Students’ Union will request the University and Doctoral College to host more opportunities for public engagement through open research days and/or academic conferences prioritising our PGRs.
Finally, there will be more targeted communication on nominations and voting processes for representative positions in the Students’ Union to PGRs ahead of time for increased participation, and we have relaunched our postgraduate newsletter.
Make sure that you keep an eye out for future PGCG updates and wins!
If you want to learn more about PGCGs and what the Students’ Union does for our postgraduate community, please visit our Postgraduate Hub here.