Exploring perceived support of postgraduate medical science research students

There is still much to learn about the support required by postgraduate research students, across academic disciplines, to facilitate successful completion of a research degree. The primary aim of this study was to explore postgraduate medical science research students’ perceptions of academic and mentoring support at different stages during their degree programme. A second aim was to explore the feasibility and acceptability of peer mentoring as a strategy to enhance student support in this population. A mixed method study design was used. Students first completed an online questionnaire, which was then supplemented with focus group discussion to explore emergent findings in greater depth. The main results indicated that the nature and quality of academic supervision support have a significant influence on research student training and development. ‘Functional’ and ‘relationship development’ concepts of supervisory styles were highlighted as important aspects to perceived support in this research population. The main facilitators to enhance academic support were effective communication, project planning and timely feedback. There was a high degree of acceptability for a peer mentoring programme as a complementary approach to enhance student support. Peer mentoring psychosocial functions such as friendship, counselling and career guidance were considered potentially beneficial to enhancing student support. Students also discussed peer coaching as central to their learning and research skill development. This work is a useful starting point to explore perceptions of research student support in the target population. Further work is required to develop strategies to enhance student support in academic practice.     

Enabling connections in postgraduate supervision for an applied eLearning professional development programme

This article describes the practice of postgraduate supervision on a blended professional development programme for academics, and discusses how connectivism has been a useful lens to explore a complex form of instruction. By examining the processes by which supervisors and their students on a two-year part-time masters in Applied eLearning negotiated the blended approach adopted to supervision, it illustrates the conditions that enable connections to occur and flourish. The socio-technical context for supervision was supported using learning technologies (VLE, research wikis and ePortfolios), small group supervision (two to three supervisors and students) and traditional individual supervision. Qualitative data were obtained through surveys and focus groups, and analysed using a framework which drew on connectivist principles. Findings suggest that for increased connections between supervisors and their students, a sense of sanctuary, community and regulation within the supervision process is important; the role of technologies in unifying postgraduate supervision in professional development are discussed.     

A Bourdieusian perspective on becoming and being a postgraduate supervisor: the role of capital

The objective of this paper is to map the role of capital in the process of learning to become a postgraduate supervisor. Economic, technological and geopolitical changes in higher education call into question previous assumptions about supervision. Supervision is no longer primarily seen as an intellectual and social enterprise but is increasingly seen as professional work, where one's capital (or lack of) shapes the process of being and becoming a supervisor. It is frequently assumed that the students are the only ones learning in a supervisory relationship. Novice supervisors are, however, often left to their own devices to discover or learn the inherent rules, epistemologies and ontologies in becoming and being supervisors through a process of compromise and negotiation. In this article, we specifically focus on the need for novice supervisors to understand and navigate the field, and plot their career trajectories, as a constant exchange of different aspects of capital. This article is conceptual, rather than empirical. We suggest that it may be helpful to understand the field of supervision in a Bourdieusian sense, with specific reference to the role of (academic) capital in the formative processes of becoming and being a supervisor. We discuss social capital, gender and race, age, values, beliefs and experiences, as well as linguistic abilities, as factors influencing the individual habitus of the supervisor in relation to the doxa of the field.     

Being altruistically motivated: the postgraduate and career motivational orientations of access students at an Irish University

The relative lack of research about postgraduate education, and especially from a widening participation (WP) perspective, is noteworthy in a context of an increasingly expanding and important postgraduate sector internationally. This paper draws on the findings of a study about the ‘impact’ of WP initiatives at an Irish university, exploring the undergraduate, postgraduate, and employment experiences of two groups of former access students. A mixed-methods research design (employing a self-completion questionnaire sent to all relevant individuals (N=195), and 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews) was employed. This paper examines these individuals’ postgraduate progression in relation to a number of factors, with a particular focus on their views about progression, the programmes pursued, and their related motivational orientations. Many of the research participants were altruistically motivated in their selection of postgraduate programmes and related careers, and this motivational orientation is explored in terms of its genesis and implications in a WP context.     

Enhancing postgraduate supervision through a process of conversational inquiry

This paper argues for, outlines and begins to evaluate a process of building a critical and reflective community of postgraduate supervisors who can develop their supervision practice through reflective conversations, with the sharing of best practice and reference to research-based evidence. In 2009, the initiative of the Postgraduate Supervisors' Conversations was set up through the collaboration of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Postgraduate) and the Teaching Development Unit at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. This initiative was designed to complement the compulsory workshops for postgraduate supervisors that are intended to provide foundation skills. We aimed to create a professional development opportunity that could meet institutional requirements as well as enhance supervisors' capacity to manage the ongoing interpersonal and academic complexity of the supervision process and its dynamic character. This paper outlines the rationale for the Postgraduate Supervisors' Conversations, describes its implementation and discusses the implications of an initial evaluative focus-group discussion with attendees.     

Reflections on teaching research ethics in education for international postgraduate students in the UK

Research ethics in education is a challenging topic to teach and to learn. As the staff and student body in UK higher education and elsewhere diversifies, the challenges increase as shared reference points diminish. My teaching reflections focus on a key tension explored in this article: how the imperative of internationalising the curriculum conflicts with hegemonic codes of conduct regarding research ethics that seem resistant to change. The framework of threshold concepts is applied to the teaching and learning of research ethics in education not, as is usual, to identify such concepts, but to draw attention to the critical role of the intersection between learner and curriculum and how institutional expectations need to be re-appraised.     

当代大学生“考研热”的社会心理探析

近年来,考研人数连续大幅增长,考研热已经成为一种不容忽视的教育现象。从社会心理角度出发,逃避、从众、补偿和学历光环效应的心理是造成这一现象的重要原因。探析这些心理带来的问题,对我国高等教育改革和发展具有重大意义。     

我国研究生教育评估的主要特征分析

经过二十多年的发展,我国研究生教育评估已经取得了一系列的进展,但也面临不少的难题.现阶段我国研究生教育评估,具有评估理念现代化、评估主体多元化、评估类型多样化、评估程序规范化和指标体系科学化等主要特征.     

中俄研究生教育之比较

俄罗斯研究生教育拥有悠久的历史传统,在世界上享有很高的声誉。我国的高等教育起步较晚但发展迅速,并在改革开放的过程中取得了令世界瞩目的成就。本文对中俄两国研究生教育的历史与现状进行比较,探寻二者之差异,为我国的研究生教育提供有益的借鉴。     

福建研究生教育发展战略辨析

福建省研究生教育发展战略目标是：形成适应福建发展的学科结构和学位授权体系。研究生教育规模能满足本省经济和社会发展的需要，培养质量总体上达到国内先进水平。文章阐述了实现目标必须解决好人才培养的数量与质量、人才培养观念的转化与更新、人才培养结构的优化与调整、人才培养模式创新等几个问题，以适应社会可持续发展的总体要求。     

我国研究生教育的发展、现状及其问题

我国的研究生教育已有近一百年的历史.近十年来,我国研究生教育在数量上呈超常规发展之势,规模迅猛扩张,因而带来了一系列与培养质量有关的问题.控制规模,保证质量,应该成为今后一段时期内我国研究生教育政策的基本取向.     

比较视野下的我国研究生教育学科结构分析

1996年至2006年,我国11个学科门类授予硕士、博士学位数量的比例变化不大,基本上是"存量决定增量";各学科发展过于均衡,未能出现结构性变化,授予的硕士学位与博士学位的学科结构很接近。这种结构雷同表明我国研究生教育没有体现出不同学科专业对于不同层次人才需求的差异性。我国硕士研究生教育应在保证基础性、理论性学科专业基本需求的前提下,大力发展应用型学科专业,培养高层次应用性人才;博士研究生教育则需在稳定规模的基础上,着力优化结构,积极发展博士专业学位教育。     

研究生教育产业的特点与运作机制探析

教育是一种特殊产业 ,研究生教育产业又具有自身的特点 ,包括资源的短缺性、产品的专门性、消费活动的个体性、消费者的主动性、消费结果的多效性和投资回报的长久性等。相应地 ,研究生教育在运作上应建立市场准入机制、多元投资机制、自主管理机制 ,以强化市场作用 ,转变政府职能     

医学院校本科生考研现状与对策研究

通过对医学硕士一年级研究生的考研问卷调查,回顾性地讲述了他们当年准备考研的经历,准备考研所花的时间及复习的过程,以及他们临床实习与考研复习上时间的处理。它山之石,可以攻玉。本文对打算考研的考生具有一定的帮助。     

Measuring the research experience of research postgraduate students in Hong Kong

To date, there has been little research in non-Western contexts exploring the research experience of research higher degree (RHD) students and the effect of research experience on student outcomes. The purposes of this study were to validate the Student Research Experience Questionnaire (SREQ) developed in Australia in the Hong Kong context and to explore the relationships between student research experiences and their perceived skill development and overall satisfaction with their research degree experiences. Data were collected from 599 RHD students. The results supported the construct validity of four SREQ scales (supervision, infrastructure, intellectual climate and skill development). The results of the structural equation modelling suggested that supervision related to students' perceived skill development and overall satisfaction, while intellectual climate and infrastructure were related to overall satisfaction only. The data provide a better understanding of how we can promote positive learning outcomes of RHD students.     

职业教育期刊研究生作者队伍培养探析

职业技术教育学研究生是职业教育科研的生力军,其研究论文是职业教育期刊稿源的重要组成部分。因此,职业教育期刊要高度重视研究生作者队伍的培养,积极扶持学术新人,并采取措施提高研究生的写作能力,进而提高其论文质量。     

提高研究生思想政治理论课教学实效性的策略思考

为提升研究生的政治理论水平和思想道德素质,提高思政课的教学实效,教师必须从教学过程的各个环节入手,寻求多种策略：一是从教学主体看,增强教师信心,提高学生兴趣;二是从教学内容看,把握社会现实,关注形势发展;三是从教学方法看,强调讨论环节,加强实践教学;四是从教学评价看,创新考核方式,重视平时努力。     

对全日制硕士专业学位研究生教育的几点思考

在阐述全日制硕士专业学位研究生教育发展的必然性基础上,重点论述了研究生招生和研究生培养模式的选择方面的问题,主张应从研究生初试、复试、课程体系、教学模式、实践训练、导师队伍等方面着手,全面提高其培养质量。     

美国专业学位研究生教育的学位结构及启示

从系统理论视角研究美国专业学位研究生教育学位的层次结构、类型结构和学科结构的结果表明,美国专业学位研究生教育的学位结构具有层次分明、类型多样、学科柔性等特征。我国专业学位的发展需要明确学位类别、建立专业学位体系,满足社会需求、扩大专业学位规模,丰富学位类型、扩展专业学位学科。     

Juggling competing activities: academic staff as doctoral candidates

ABSTRACT

This article explores the experiences of a group of established academic staff in New Zealand and the UK, as they undertake a doctorate in their home institutions. Our interest is in how individuals negotiate this dual status from a cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) stance that explores how rules, tools, community and divisions of labour, and interacting activity systems, shape doctoral experiences. The focus in this article, having analysed their detailed narrative accounts, is on how academics experience three interdependent activity systems: those surrounding the thesis, the institutional context, and the home-life spheres. Issues related to time, workload and supervision issues, variability in collegial support and impact on personal priorities and time emerged. There is a range of particularities – from easy access to resources/supervisors to inflexible institutional regulations – applicable to this group of doctoral candidates. Negotiating life as an academic with concurrent doctoral candidature provides positive outcomes in terms of teaching, research confidence and general personal and professional development. However, a range of difficulties can also be encountered, particularly in relation to personal and professional relationships, and workload management.