Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2011 - Higher ...

PRES 2011 Results – September 2011
2.2.12 Expectations versus experience (Q15a-Q15f)
Figure 2.13: Expectations versus experience, Q15a-Q15f
Note: This item uses a seven-point scale from -3 to +3, where: -3 = ‘it is much more negative’, 0 = ‘it has met my
expectations’, and +3 = ‘it is much more positive’. Figure 2.13 uses an ‘expectations met or exceeded’ rating, which
is an aggregation of options 0, +1, +2 and +3.
The results for meeting or exceeding expectations are less diverse than for ratings of importance. The
highest rated area is developing research skills (Q15b), with 87.7%, and the lowest is guidance on
standards and expectations (Q15f), with 79.8%. This difference of 7.9% contrasts with a gap of 25.7%
between the highest and lowest rated items for importance (Q9). The ranking of the different areas over
all the years of the survey shows some consistency: developing research skills (Q15b) has been the top
rated area for every year, and research environment (Q15e) and the provision of guidance on standards
have been the two lowest rated areas for every year (Q15f). The biggest change from 2009 is for research
environment (Q15e), for which expectations met or exceeded has increased by 3.3%.
Comparing the ratings for importance with those for experience against expectations, the two areas
where there is a marked discrepancy are for supervision and the development of transferable skills. For
supervision, respondents felt that the area was particularly important to the completion of their studies,
but did not especially feel that their expectations had been met or exceeded, possibly raising an area of
concern (especially given the fact that supervision has the most powerful impact of all the scales on
overall experience), although the Supervision scale was the most positive scale of the survey. With regard
to developing transferable skills, respondents felt to a reasonably high degree that their expectations had
been met or exceeded (it was the second most positive area), but this was an area that they felt was
markedly less important to their studies than other areas.
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