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.     

Establishing Boundaries: problems and solutions in managing the PhD supervisor's role

The PhD supervisory role is depicted as containing two principal dimensions. First, the involvement of supervisors in the provision of intellectual expertise to students, and secondly, their involvement in counselling practices which attempt to bolster students’ confidence and morale. The dimension of intellectual expertise is subsequently portrayed as having two components: those of guidance and criticism which generate a particular tension. This tension is centred around decisions made by supervisors concerning the kinds of intellectual knowledge they provide for students, when simultaneously required to comply with institutional regulations stipulating that PhD research be both original and autonomous. The management of such tension, by supervisors’ erecting boundaries to their intellectual involvement, is then examined, together with the consequences of failing to erect such boundaries. The paper then focuses upon the counselling dimension of supervision and illustrates how this dimension, if not regulated by further erection of boundaries, also has the potential for negative impact upon intellectual involvement with students. The problem of managing the combination of intellectual and counselling dimensions of the supervisory role was found to be increased or alleviated by particular forms of communication with students.     

Practice–Based Research Degree Students in Art and Design: Identity and Adaptation

Within the United Kingdom higher education system there has been a recent growth in practice–based research degrees in art and design. This constitutes a relatively recent innovatory step in doctoral education, with students now able to submit for examination a written thesis combined with practical work in over forty academic departments. It also constitutes an intellectual innovation in terms of attempting to combine the creative impulse with traditional research criteria such as the need for systematic analysis, documentation, theorisation and so on. To–date little has been written about research students adaptation to such practice–based research degrees, and so, in order to chart the experiences of such students, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 50 research students at various UK universities. This paper based on those interviews examines one dimension of how students adapt to this kind of study, focusing on their conceptions of identity.     

Motives and Meaning amongst PhD Supervisors in the Social Sciences

Effective supervision of research students is acknowledged to be a crucial factor in the latter's successful completion of the social science PhD. How well supervisors supervise is likely to be linked to why they choose to occupy their role. These reasons constitute the supervisor's vocabulary of motives and are examined in some detail from the perspective of interpretative social‐psychology. Three dimensions of the vocabulary are depicted: intellectual, functional and subjective. The vocabulary is then situated within its specific locus, namely the institutional context of higher education. Links are then made between the vocabulary and various aspects of the formal value system of academia, a value system which legitimates the depicted vocabulary of motives and declares others to be illegitimate. The paper concludes with some comments on the relationship between why supervisors supervise and the quality of that supervision, citing a range of factors influencing that relationship.     

Strategies and tactics in the supervision of UK social science PhD students

While there is a literature on PhD supervision, little research has been undertaken upon the intricacies of the actual relationship between the PhD student and supervisor. One particular facet of this relationship was examined, namely the strategies supervisors choose to implement when supervising social science students at this level. Two general overarching strategies were found to exist in this context: a relatively unstructured approach, giving students a large degree of intellectual freedom, and a much more structured approach within which close operational control was maintained by the supervisor. The selection and implementation of these two strategies, and associated tactics, were found to be more effective in cases where supervisors were able to balance involvement with their students with a degree of professional detachment. Effective supervision was also found to be correlated with the possession of certain skills, including the ability to foresee the general direction of the student's research, to communicate clearly with the student about the supervisory relationship, and to facilitate that relationship intellectually and emotionally. Such skills were in turn found to hinge upon the possession of particular qualities, such as flexibility and sensitivity.     

中华人民共和国第10届冬季运动会冰球比赛调研报告

为更好地掌握我国冰球运动发展现状 ,提出指导性发展纲要 ,采取问卷调查、现场跟踪、数理统计和音像定格分析等方法 ,对第 10届全国冬季运动会男、女冰球参赛队伍进行调研 ,系统地分析了我国冰球队运用的技、战术体系 ,找出了我国冰球运动与世界冰球运动之间的差距。     

The Supervision of Practice-based Research Degrees in Art and Design

Literature on the supervision of practice-based research degrees in art and design is at present relatively underdeveloped, particularly in relation to empirical studies. This paper, which is based on qualitative interviews with 50 supervisors engaged in the supervision of practice-based doctorates in a range of UK universities and colleges, aims to begin to remedy this lacuna. It examines specific problems encountered by supervisors of practice-based research degrees, and portrays some of the strategies developed and employed by supervisors as they attempt to guide student endeavour towards the successful combining of creative and analytical work.