Satisfaction of postgraduate researchers increases at University of Leicester
The satisfaction levels of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) at the University of Leicester have gone up, according to the results of a national survey.
Four-out-of-five of those from Leicester completing the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) expressed overall satisfaction with their course. This positive result has seen Leicester move up 24 places to 26th nationally, in relation to ‘overall satisfaction’.
Leicester also had its highest-ever response rate to the survey, with 900 postgraduate researchers taking part in what is the only national survey of their experience.
Professor Richard Thomas, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise and Dean of the Doctoral College, said: “I was absolutely delighted to see the significant improvements in the satisfaction scores for the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey.
“When we last ran the survey, in 2022, we identified a number of areas for improvement. Over the last two years we have been working in partnership with the postgraduate researcher community, Students’ Union, schools/departments and relevant University services to take a strategic focus and deliver improvements in the postgraduate researcher experience at Leicester. The improved results are testimony to the hard work of colleagues and the value of taking a ‘whole university’ approach. There are still areas for further improvement of course, and these will be the focus of attention in the next survey cycle.”
The survey focuses on PGRs’ experiences of: supervision; resources; research community; progress and assessment; skills and professional development and wellbeing.
The survey saw 81% of Leicester’s respondents express overall satisfaction with their course, which is up from 73% in 2022.
Nationally, Leicester ranked highest in the Supervision and Professional Development areas of PRES, improving by over 20 and 24 places respectively.
Agreement with the statements ‘regular contact with supervisors’ and ‘helpful supervisor feedback’ were both significantly higher than the sector and in the top quartile of pre-92 institutions.
Since the previous survey, there has been increased and improved supervisor training at Leicester, developed and delivered by the Doctoral College, PGR Directors, and HR Business Partners, which contributed to the improvement in PRES.