Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2008 Final report

Figure 2 summarises student responses with regard to importance (the percentage
rating that factor ‘important’ and ‘very important’), satisfaction (the percentage rating
themselves ‘satisfied’ and ‘very satisfied’ with that factor) and experience against
expectations (the percentage rating their experience of that factor as having ‘met’ or
‘exceeded expectations’).
With regard to experience against expectations, students rated their experience
of supervisory support and guidance as highest of the items included in the study
(79.0% agreed it had met or exceeded expectations: Figure 2). In decreasing order of
experience against satisfaction, they rated opportunities to develop a range of research
skills (82.9%) and transferable skills (82.4%), access to appropriate facilities (78.2%),
provision of guidance on institutional standards and expectations (75.8%) and research
environment (75.4%).
3.3 Confidence about completing on schedule
Two-thirds (67.0%; 65.2% in 2007) of the research students expected to complete their
research degree programme more or less on schedule (Table 3).
Table 3. Confidence about completing on schedule
Item Mean SD % disagree % neutral % agree
15. I am confident
that I will complete
my research degree
programme more
or less within the
planned timescale
3.78 [3.74] 1.12 [1.16] 13.8 [15.2] 19.2 [19.6] 67.0 [65.2]
In general the subject differences regarding confidence to complete on schedule are small,
but non-science students and medicine and dentistry students were on average slightly
more confident about completing on schedule than science students. Multiple regression
analysis (Appendix 3) shows that supervision and skills development are moderately
important factors affecting confidence to complete on schedule (however, in total all
scales account for only 19% of variance of this item, which means that there are more
important factors not measured for in this survey).
There are slight variations between institutions in student confidence about completing
on schedule (Figure 3), but it should be noted that this was measured on a five-point scale,
so direct comparisons with Figure 1 (based on a seven-point scale) are not possible. The
overall mean score for this item is 3.769 (standard deviation = 0.23), and mean scores for
individual institutions range from 3.12 to 4.13 (except for the low outlier of 2.5, which
represents an institution with only five responses on this question).
The Higher Education Academy – PRES 2008 13