Graduate Studies in the UK: Some Impressions and Suggestions

Many western countries are paying increasing attention to the organization and administration of graduate studies. Such attention has developed from primary concerns about completion times, completion percentages, programme quality, and student quality, as well as secondary concerns about supervisors, funding, coursework, inter-organizational co-operation, and policies and practices of both universities and research councils. Using information about British graduate programmes as a basis, the article presents policy issues related to research councils, funding councils, and control, followed by discussion of the themes of the nature of programmes, supervision and evaluation, completion time, quality, and innovation. The final sections address several concerns and offer some suggestions.     

Occupational Knowledge and Practice amongst UK University Research Administrators

With the exception of lecturing staff, research on occupational groups and cultures within the UK higher education system is relatively sparse. This paper focuses upon one specialist group, to-date under-researched but which plays a central role in contemporary higher education administration: graduate research administrators. This occupational group is of particular interest as its members administer and manage an increasing complex and key area of university life, which in many cases appears to span the putative occupational divide between 'academic' and 'administrative' work. Based upon qualitative interviews with 27 research administrators, and using some of Bourdieu's conceptual devices, the paper analyses particular kinds of informal occupational knowledge and practice, necessary in order effectively to 'do' the complex task of research administration in the pressurized environment of contemporary British higher education.     

Should Children Attend Their Parent's Funerals?

The paper discusses elements of the findings of 'Iceberg', a doctoral study at the University of York addressing many issues of child bereavement through a retrospective study of nearly one hundred individuals who had either experienced the death of a parent when they were at school, or were the surviving parent of such a child. The research revealed issues of lack of control and information for children after a parental death. Forty-seven per cent of those in the study attended the funeral of their parent. There was correlation between the age of children and attendance at the funeral. Of the fifty-three per cent of children not attending, twenty-four per cent of them were forbidden to attend, whilst eleven per cent of them were distracted from attending the funeral, such as being sent to school or a neighbours and being unaware that it was taking place. None of the children attending the funeral reported any negative experiences, and two thirds of them reported it as a positive or helpful event. In contrast, over three-quarters of those not attending later wished that they had. Over a third had feelings of regret, others feeling that they had been excluded from the family at the time of the death, and felt anger, hurt, and frustration. The conclusion was that the best strategy is to give children informed choice about whether or not to attend. If children do attend a negative outcome seems unlikely, but it would be prudent to prepare them as to what to expect at the ceremony.