Last week I attended the fantastic 3rd UKCGE Conference on EDI in Postgraduate Research over two days in Leeds. More than 50 doctoral students and leaders of doctoral education gathered to explore how to attract, support and empower a more diverse student body.
Starting with a panel of doctoral students reflecting their varied experiences, including their efforts to support inclusion, and ending with a panel of university staff leading projects to diversify doctoral student admissions, we shared our perspectives and approaches to ensuring we not only recruited a more diverse body of students, but that they were supported to thrive.
I was privileged to lead two round tables on the Tuesday morning based on our pilot study of how doctoral students understand research culture. Participants immediately saw the relevance, and recognised the value of exploring this alongside the hugely important work to establish an inclusive, positive research environment. Further discussions over the two days established a consensus that we can’t simply assume the work to shape the environment through culture change will naturally percolate across to change the influence research culture has on how research is carried out. This validated our assumptions and has encouraged us to progress with the work .
We are exploring other implications from our pilot study data, ahead of publishing a more complete analysis. In the mean time, we are interested in extending the collaboration to different academic disciplines, including doctoral students, supervisors and leaders of doctoral programmes. As our study develops, we will also be seeking a steering group.
Critical to our approach is the core inclusion paradigm of “nothing for us without us”. We are experienced doctoral supervisors, as well as leading research groups and doctoral programmes – and of course were doctoral students at the start of our research careers. But we know we need to include the perspectives of current doctoral students in shaping our work, and disciplines beyond our own experiences in science.
Please get in touch so we can keep you informed and seek opportunities to involve you.
Eyres Inclusion Consulting 