Establishing a postgraduate research community: a response to postgraduate research consultation: Higher Education Institutional Research Network Conference

At many new universities research is often seen as a fringe and/or niche activity, which falls well behind learning and teaching in the list of priorities of such institutions. This has major effects on the research experience of postgraduate research (PGR) students, especially when the research community is small and fragmented across campuses. This raises the necessity to create a university-wide research community that aims to enhance PGR students? experience throughout their studies. This paper aims to investigate the influence of a PGR network (PGRNet) on PGR students? research experience across various faculties at one post 1992 university in the UK. Questionnaires and workshops were conducted across six faculties at Birmingham City University, to gather feedback from PGR students regarding their overall needs. Results were used to develop a framework that reflects research values for PGR students in alignment with the University?s core values. It will also highlight common issues faced by PGR students across the faculties involved in this study. Findings of this paper may not necessarily apply to other universities, as all institutions are different, but a number of the principles are transferrable. This paper provides a good model to enhance the overall experience of PGR students.