<p> GRSG/1415/1</p><p>University of Exeter College of Humanities</p><p>Graduate Research Strategy Group 22nd October 2014, Room 101, Queen’s Building.</p><p>Morwenna Hussey, Administrator.</p><p>Present: Professor Will Higbee (Chair), Professor Jerri Daboo (Drama), Catherine Dawson (ACM, Graduate and Partnerships), Dr Richard Flower (Classics), Dr Stacey Hynd (History), Lori Oates (student representative), Dr Laura Salisbury (English), Professor Jane Spencer (ADR), Professor Gert Vonhoff (ML), Dr David Tollerton (Theology), Morwenna Hussey (Secretary).</p><p>In attendance: Professor Michelle Ryan (Graduate Research Faculty Dean) and Matt Barber.</p><p>Apologies: Dr Linda Hurcombe (Archaeology), Dr Alex Murray (Humanities Penryn).</p><p>Minutes</p><p>14.01 Welcome WH formally welcomed everyone to the first GRSG meeting of the 2014/15 academic year and extended a particular welcome to Jane Spencer, as the new ADR, Lori Oates as the new PGR student representative, Laura Salisbury as new DPGR for English and to Alex Murray as the new DPGR for Humanities Penryn.</p><p>14.02 Professor Michelle Ryan in attendance to discuss the new Exeter Doctoral College Professor Michelle Ryan joined the meeting for a discussion about the new Exeter Doctoral College. Professor Ryan explained that she had met with senior academic and Professional Services colleagues from the Colleges to discuss how the new Exeter Doctoral College should be set up, and was now looking for the perspective from the disciplines within each College. </p><p>A discussion took place around PGR identity within disciplines, and how the Exeter Doctoral College could contribute to that.</p><p>LS informed the group that she felt that a lot of PGR activity, and responsibility for that activity had been devolved up to College level, in particular research training, and that this had led to a slight dispersal of any sense of cohort identity for PGRs in the discipline. She was therefore considering setting up some sort of compulsory element for PGR students to attend, such as a seminar series, to try and rebuild that sense of community amongst the PGRs. It was agreed that there was a tension between the majority of activity naturally sitting in the discipline and how the College and University contribute or manage access to resources and provide support. </p><p>JD informed the group that Drama almost had the opposite problem, with the PGR students really engaged in the discipline, but they wanted to get involved in wider research groupings and seminars across the College and University, and were struggling to do so. </p><p>GV informed the group that until last year there had been no sense of a Modern Languages identity for PGR students in the discipline, and this had affected recruitment. GV had however made a real effort to enhance collaborative activity for PGRs across the discipline and this had so far been successful. GRSG/1415/1</p><p>It was agreed that students were interested in a subject-led environment but the timetabling of most research seminars for a Wednesday afternoon meant that students couldn’t attend all the events that they wanted to go to. It was agreed that some dedicated technical support would be beneficial to help record seminars and create an online archive for current and future students to access. </p><p>It was agreed that a physical space for Exeter Doctoral College activity was really important, and this could help build on and promote discipline level activity, if it were able to host such events.</p><p>DT informed the group that Theology and Religion had been pushing quite hard to build on the research community within the discipline, and had been strongly encouraging PGR students to become more interdisciplinary. He acknowledged however that academic staff don’t always consider themselves or their research activity to be interdisciplinary in the same way, and this was an area that could be worked on in the discipline.</p><p>JS reminded the group that it was important to include Penryn in any decisions on the role of the Exeter Doctoral College, and to make sure that they are included in any activity, to build up the research environment on that campus and help with recruitment.</p><p>14.03 Membership and Terms of Reference The membership and terms of reference were received and approved. </p><p>14.04 Minutes from Previous Meeting The minutes of the previous meeting were received and approved. </p><p>14.05 Matters Arising 13.70 PGR Induction arrangements for 2014/15 . WH thanked all DPGRs and the GSO for their hard work for the PGR Induction in September. The group was informed that this had gone very well, and we had received very positive feedback from the new PGR students. </p><p>14.06 Chair’s Report (a) The group was asked to note key dates for various upcoming Open Days. It was highlighted that the PG Study Fair taking place on 12 November would mainly be aimed at recruitment to PGT programmes, but the College would have a PGR presence at the event as well. It was requested that details about the PG Study Fair be circulated to the group for information as soon as they were available. Action: GSO</p><p>(b) The group was informed that some confusion had arisen from the phrasing used in our PGR offer letters, and this had resulted in the loss of at least 2 international PGR students. It was confirmed that this issue was being raised at Faculty level but DPGRs were asked to highlight to colleagues the importance of informing prospective students about the upgrade process and the UK PhD system. DT informed the group that he had a number of examples of offer letters sent out by other UK institutions, and it was agreed that these should be sent to MH in the first instance, and the Graduate School would then discuss with other Colleges to find out whether they have had similar problems. Action: All DPGRs, DT and GSO</p><p>(c) The group was informed that new study and social space had been created for PGRs in Amory and all DPGRs were asked to encourage their PGRs to use the social space as much as possible. Action: All DPGRs GRSG/1415/1</p><p>(d) The group were informed that the Graduate School has been given £4,000 to help fund PGR student-led research activities in Humanities. The group received for discussion a proposed application form to be used by PGRs to bid for this funding. The additional fund and the proposed application form were well received and it was confirmed that the proposed cap for funding bids was reasonable. It was agreed however that some amendments should be made to the form before it was sent out to PGRs, and these were: 1. A line should be added to ask for details of the proposed audience for the activity 2. It should be made clear that students should contact Cathryn Baker in the Humanities Graduate School Office if they had any queries about completing the form. 3. The budget template document should be appropriately titled. Action: GSO</p><p>(e) The group was reminded of the University’s regulations regarding academic staff eligibility to act as first supervisor, and that retired members of staff could continue to supervise their PGR student, with the permission of the DDGS, but not as first supervisor. It was requested that this regulation be changed, to allow lead supervisors to see out their PGR students in that capacity, as it was often detrimental to students to break that supervisory relationship. It was agreed that this request would be taken to Faculty Board for discussion. Action: CD </p><p>Part 1</p><p>14.07 Update on PGR ASER meeting The group was informed that the University level Humanities PGR ASER meeting had taken place on Monday 13th October, and that it had been a very positive experience. </p><p>PRES was an item of discussion, and it was suggested that the phrasing of the questions had led multiple interpretations, making it difficult to understand why students had answered as they did, or to pinpoint problems. The group was informed that a suggested action from the meeting was for the PRES questions to be discussed at each discipline PGRLF, so we could get qualitative information on these, not just the quantitative data that normally comes from PRES.</p><p>It was confirmed that the overall feedback we had received was that there was a lot of good practice in Humanities, with excellent management systems and monitoring processes in place. No criticisms had been raised that we had not already raised ourselves as areas for improvement. </p><p>The group was informed that the College was currently waiting for the official feedback to be provided before we could update the action plan. It was confirmed that the final version of the action plan would be circulated to the group once it had been updated. Action: MH</p><p>14.8 AHRC DTP Update The group was informed that JS had held introductory meetings about the DTP with academic colleagues and DTP funded students based at Exeter, and the SWW DTP Knowledge Hub was now up and running. It was acknowledged that there had been a few teething problems to start with but these had been sorted out, and things were now running a lot smoother. GRSG/1415/1</p><p>JS thanked colleagues for generating interest in their various disciplines about the DTP research clusters, and it was confirmed that 4 people from Exeter would be attending the DTP cohort Induction Event next week to talk about the research clusters. A further call was made however for colleagues to come forward and participate in the Creative and Critical research cluster. Information would be sent out from the DTP Hub shortly about the cluster leads from the other institutions, and once this had been received colleagues could begin dialogue across the consortium.</p><p>It was confirmed that there had been sufficient interest from colleagues willing to participate in the proposed ‘Gender and Body’ research day and it was confirmed that this would be going ahead in Term 2.</p><p>The group was informed that the DTP Information Day would be taking place at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, which would be a really great space for this event, as it is much bigger than the Arnolfini in Bristol. It was confirmed that registration was now open for the Information Day, and would be open until 10th November. It is anticipated that numbers of registrations in particular subject areas will go to Subject Leads before the Information Day, so they can invite appropriate colleagues to attend the event and talk to the prospective students. It was confirmed that the College would be providing a coach to transport academic colleagues to the National Museum of Wales for the Information Day, and details would be circulated in due course.</p><p>It was confirmed that details of any corrections that still needed to be made to the DTP website should be emailed to CD in the first instance, so she can pass this information on to the Hub. Action: All DPGRs and CD JS informed the group that she would be meeting with James Clark (DTP Academic Director) and Andrew Thorpe (College Dean) in the near future to discuss funding for training in the DTP and she would update the group on the outcome of these discussions as soon as possible. Action: JS A query was raised about the identity of DTP Subject Panel Chairs for 2014/15 and the group was informed that this information should now be up on the DTP Knowledge Hub. It was agreed that the list would be circulated to the group as soon as possible. Action: MH</p><p> a) SWARM allocation for AHRC DTP roles. The group was informed that the DTP Management Board (MB) had reviewed the various responsibilities attached to the DTP, and had come up with a number of suggested definitions and workload hours for these roles. The suggested workload hours devised by the MB were significantly different to the workload allocation previously agreed in Humanities. JS therefore agreed to take a proposal for an increase to the Humanities workload allocation, to bring the number of hours in line with those suggested by the DTP, to the College Executive for approval. JS also requested that DPGRs email her to support this proposal by 31st October2014. Action All DPGRs and JS </p><p>14.09 Researcher Development Update The group received a paper providing an update from the Central Researcher Development team for information. a) RD Researcher-Led Initiative Awards 2014/15. The group received a reminder about the RD Researcher-Led Initiative Awards 2014/15 for information. The group was reminded GRSG/1415/1</p><p> that Humanities PGR students had been very successful in receiving these awards last academic year and colleagues were asked to highlight these awards to PGR students in their disciplines, as we would like as many of our students to apply for these awards as possible. Action: All DPGRs It was agreed that the Graduate School team would contact the successful Humanities students who had received funding last year, to ask whether they would be happy to offer some practical advice to students wanting to apply for funding this academic year. Action: GSO</p><p>14.10 MyPGR audit results – September 2014 The group received a copy of the results of the latest MyPGR audit, carried out in September 2014, which had been submitted to the Graduate Research Faculty Dean for review. It was noted that the overall results had not shown much of sign of improvement over the last academic year, and a number of supervisors were still consistently not signing off contact events. It was confirmed that the Graduate School Office would be redoubling its efforts to encourage MyPGR compliance, from both students and supervisors, and all DPGRs were asked to continue to press colleagues to engage with MyPGR. Action: All DPGRs</p><p>14.11 PGR Liaison Forums Update The group received an update on arrangements for PGR Liaison Forums for 2014/15. </p><p>Part 2</p><p>14.12 PGR Admissions Data The group received a copy of the PGR registrations data for 2014/15 for information. It was requested that the number of students entering on studentships be added to these figures, and that they be recirculated to the group for information. Action: GSO The group also received a paper proposing changes to the PGR application decision making process for the 2015 application cycle. It was confirmed that all DPGRs were happy with the proposed change to the decision making process, subject to each application being made available as either a single PDF, folder or zip file. </p><p>14.13 Information for the year ahead The group received copies of the 2014/15 versions of the College Code of Practice for PGR Students, the College PGR handbook and DPGR handbook for information. The group also received the first draft of a College PGR Supervisor Handbook for information and approval. It was requested that detail about the format and presentation of doctoral submissions be added to the handbook, including details about the word limits for research degrees. Action: MH Colleagues were asked to send any further feedback to MH by 31st October 2014, so the handbook could be finalised and circulated to supervisors as soon as possible. Action: All DPGRs and MH CD asked that the committee minute its thanks to MH for the additional time she had put in to delivering a comprehensive first draft.</p><p>14.14 Other business A query was raised about the availability of language training, particularly German for academic purposes. It was confirmed to the group that arrangements were being made to start these classes shortly and further details would be circulated to PGR students shortly. Action: GSO</p>