2004:18 R
Follow-up of 16 National Research Institutes - Collaboration, Recruitment, Supervision and Education
- to promote collaboration in postgraduate education
- to improve postgraduate education further.
The study was conceived according to these purposes. Its main aim was therefore to describe how the institutes have been engaged in collaboration, recruitment, supervision and courses during their initial years of operation.
Broadly speaking, the study is based on interviews, conducted during autumn 2003, with the directors of all 16 institutes. In addition, statistical data on doctoral students have been taken from Statistics Sweden’s (SCB’s) register of postgraduate education.
Organisation and collaboration
Each individual research institute comprises a host higher education institution (HEI) and one or more partner HEIs. Host HEIs are primarily responsible for activities and their coordination. Small HEIs that are not themselves entitled to issue doctoral degrees also participate, as partners.
Each research institute is headed by a steering group that takes decisions about activities. The steering groups include representatives of both host and partner HEIs and of doctoral students, and sometimes also external members from industry or the public sector. The directors’ role in their respective institutes is crucial: they are in charge of day-to-day activities, implement the steering group’s decisions and work for fulfilment of the objectives adopted.
In interviews, the directors have related largely positive experiences from the collaboration. Several of them have, for example, reported that the board work has gone well in the main and the board representatives have succeeded in reaching agreement.
One of the most gratifying effects of collaboration is that doctoral students at various HEIs get to know one another. This bodes well for current and future cooperation.
Recruitment
Six research institutes have opted to start the recruitment process by announcing project grants that senior researchers (future supervisors) can apply for and only then, in the subsequent state, recruiting doctoral students. The other ten research institutes approach prospective doctoral students directly instead.
In many cases, the research institutes have implemented joint, and often national, announcements of places for doctoral students. The numbers of applicants for project grants and doctoral-student places alike have, in general, been well in excess of the funds and places available, and there is therefore heavy pressure on places.
One characteristic of the research institutes is that, on the whole, they admit doctoral students in groups. Admission has been dual in the sense that the doctoral students are admitted both to the research institute concerned and to an HEI (with the right to award postgraduate degrees). This dual procedure has very seldom, however, caused problems connected with recruitment: only in exceptional cases have the research institute and the HEI failed to agree.
Most of the research institutes have, to a greater or lesser extent, taken the distribution of doctoral students’ places among the HEIs into consideration in some way. One method used is to guarantee a minimum number of places per HEI.
The majority of the research institutes have a policy of appointing people to doctoral studentships from the very start. Consequently, a high proportion (74%) of the doctoral students at the research institutes are employed in that capacity from their first term of study.
Supervision
More than half the research institutes have drawn up a policy requiring at least one secondary supervisor to be assigned to every doctoral student. At almost all the other research institutes, a secondary supervisor is also very common, and many of the institutes are in favour of this kind of arrangement. Otherwise, extended supervision may consist in various forms of get-togethers for doctoral students and a large group of supervisors, for example in conjunction with seminars, workshops or residential courses.
The directors have reported few changes of supervisor. In general, their interview replies give the impression that the research institutes, through their respective directors and others, have served as an extra support for the doctoral student concerned when a change of supervisor has nonetheless taken place.
Courses
All the research institutes arrange and provide courses. More than half also prescribe that some of these courses are compulsory for their doctoral students.
Since the doctoral students at the national research institutes come from several HEIs, providing courses on a residential basis is fairly common. This may, for example, mean that the students attend an intensive course for a week, but ongoing residential courses are also offered. Sometimes a kind of intermediate form, in which doctoral students and teachers repeatedly get together for a few intensive days, has taken shape. The courses have been held at both host and partner HEIs, HEIs outside the research institute, course centres or the like. Occasionally, courses have also been held outside Sweden.
All the research institutes state that doctoral students from their regular educational activities have been allowed to attend the courses. However, the interviews indicate that availability may sometimes be limited owing to a shortage of places, lack of information for external doctoral students or the expense of attending for such students when courses are residential, whether they are held in Sweden or abroad.
The research institutes’ own seminars have developed to varying degrees, from not existing at all to being held continuously. Since the doctoral students are often so geographically dispersed, arranging joint seminars may be difficult. Solutions tried to date are dividing them into small seminar groups, holding video conferences (with the doctoral students taking part at their respective HEIs) and joint residential seminars.
Many supervisors state that the research institutes have meant a chance to develop new courses. One example of innovative thinking mentioned is that courses have been developed at different levels: advanced courses build on those of a more basic nature. Other quality-enhancing factors that have emerged are the use of specialist skills from various HEIs and departments, larger and more cohesive groups of doctoral students, a broader range of courses, development of more courses with a multidisciplinary focus, course collaboration with the business sector, and courses that recur more regularly.
Degree targets and throughput
The target is that altogether, by year-end 2007 at the latest, the research institutes should have awarded at least 392 doctorates. This time limit may be extended by not more than a year if the doctoral students concerned hold positions at HEI departments.
It is still too early to gauge the throughput of students at the research institutes, since figures are available for two academic years only. Nonetheless, there is good reason to expect a throughput in line with the degree targets. First, 385 doctoral students were registered at the outset of their studies up to and including spring term 2003, and the research institutes have also continued to admit doctoral students since then.
Secondly, there are various factors indicating that throughput will be high: dropout has been very rare; most doctoral students are in a secure financial situation; their activity level is high or very high; many of them have secondary supervisors; and a fairly small number have needed to change their supervisor. In addition, every research institute provides its own courses, designed to meet the needs of that particular institute’s doctoral students.
The Agency’s future studies of the research institutes
The present study is part of the National Agency for Higher Education’s successive follow-ups of the 16 research institutes. The Agency also plans to survey the institutes from the viewpoints of the partner HEIs and the doctoral students. A final follow-up and evaluation will be implemented in 2007.
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