By Dr Debbie McVitty (NUS) on what NUS can do for you...
First published in GRADBritain issue 10 spring 2010
Let's say you are a busy PGR student. Your time is taken up with research, conferencing, teaching, more research, seminars, and trying to imagine a world in which you don't eat, sleep and breathe thesis deadlines.
You might live far from your institution and you probably have a partner and family, a social life, and paid employment to hold down. It's not implausible that when you think of the students' union, you think of that building where your students source the beer that makes them unable to stay awake during your 9 am class.
On the other hand, this picture might not be true at all. PGR students are as varied as their research topics and you might be actively involved in your students' union, agitating for a better funding deal for postgrad students, organising postgrad socials or coordinating, volunteering or researcher development opportunities.
If you were more the former than the latter, it would be understandable. Historically (and with a few honourable exceptions) neither students' unions nor NUS have exhibited best practice in understanding and meeting the needs of postgraduate researchers. But the times they are a-changing. In the past twelve months NUS has undergone a major restructure, enabling it to create a brand new Postgraduate Campaign, with a committee of postgraduate student representatives. It has also taken on a full-time staff member to conduct research into the postgraduate experience and work with organisations like Vitae, the UK Council for Graduate Education and the Higher Education Academy to develop policy on postgraduate issues.
This year, just to kick off, NUS has conducted a survey on the experience of PGRs who work in HE, particularly as teachers. Some are happy with how teaching is managed; others have found the experience of teaching undergraduates stressful, badly paid and poorly supported. Yet there is no reason why teaching should be an unpleasant experience. NUS has also been working with the results of the HE Academy's Postgraduate Research Experience Survey which tells us that around 40% of PGRs are not satisfied with the intellectual climate in university departments. Despite improvements in provision over the last five years, some PGRs still feel isolated and excluded from departmental research cultures. One obvious example is a lack of dedicated space for postgraduates where PGRs can meet, socialize and plot future collaborations. The stakes are high for postgraduate researchers in the current economic climate. As PGR numbers grow while sources of funding shrink, PGRs will find themselves under greater pressure to be productive, to submit within an approved deadline, to see their supervisors less often, to list a wider range of skills on their CVs and to be satisfied with short-term postdoctoral employment contracts.
Yet, paradoxically, the government sees PGRs as crucial to economic growth in the UK, while universities value PGRs because of the contribution they bring to the research environment. PGRs are, quite simply, the life-blood of any research institution, a potentially powerful cohort in agitating for change.
Students' union officers recognize that university structures, by and large, were not designed for PGRs, and want to know what they should be doing to improve support systems for postgrads. The more PGR students engage with students' unions, the more students' unions will be forced to take into account PGR concerns. Likewise, once students' unions begin to understand what the issues are for PGRs, they will find it easier to lobby for improvements. NUS encourages students' unions to talk to PGRs in ways which don't drain time away from research. Some institutions have a separate graduate union, some have a full-time elected officer with sole responsibility for postgraduate students and others have a postgraduate society. Find out how it works in your institution and if it does what it is supposed to - represent your views. It might be a distraction or it might be the chance to really make a positive difference to your PGR experience.
Further reading: Government's response to the NUS Annual report 2009
GRADBritain issue 10 spring 2010