A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

178 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
[C]
[D]
[E]
[F]
[G]
Research management;
Personal effectiveness;
Communication skills;
Networking and team working;
Career management.
Under each heading is a short set of competencies that the student must be able to meet
by the end of the training period. Although the JSS comes from RCUK and other funders,
it is recognised that all students, both full-time and part-time, should receive this type of
skills training.
Case study 2: The skills agenda: background
information and support for supervisors
Supervising your first postgraduate researcher can be a daunting prospect.
As well as grappling with all the internal policies and procedures, you are
suddenly subject to a whole new range of external drivers, policies and
jargon.
An area which may be new to you, and which you may not have experienced
while doing your own Ph.D., is that of skills development for Ph.D. researchers.
A slew of reports and recommendations around this issue were published in the
early years of the new millennium.
Background information
In 2001 the UK Research Councils in collaboration with UK GRAD and the HE
sector identified a set of competencies that postgraduate researchers should have
or develop during the course of their Ph.D. degree programme (QAA, 2004).
Known as the Joint Skills Statement, this is now the accepted framework for
doctoral competencies.
Sir Gareth Roberts (2002) published a key report SET for Success. Briefly, the report
recommended increasing Ph.D. stipends and the average length of a Ph.D. degree
and introducing skills development, aimed at improving the attractiveness of
research careers.
Crucially, this report was followed by government funding (commonly known
as ‘Roberts’ Money’). The Research Councils issued included guidance on the
allocation, use and monitoring of the additional funds for postgraduate and
postdoctoral training – recommending two weeks’ training in skills development.