Postgraduate Skills Training and Student Support

Durham has a range of PGR-specific support structures (a PhD researcher development programme via the Durham Centre for Academic Development, DCAD; and PGR-dedicated Careers & Enterprise services) for our PhD students to access the support needed to thrive during their doctoral education.  Thus, beside the training in the departments, research groups and with your supervisors, you will have full access to a plethora of resources for further training of transferable skills, such as writing skills, presentation skills, training in ethics in research, trusted research, intellectual property, to name but a few.

Institutionally, the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is used to shape our Researcher Development Programme (RDP) via the Durham Centre for Academic Development (DCAD; https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/centres/academic-development/). Postgraduate researchers have access to a rich programme of workshops, self-study opportunities, and training aligned with the four quadrants of the Vitae Framework. For example, all students have access to core training on critical topics such as Research Integrity & Ethics, Intellectual Property, Open Research, Trusted Research, to name a few. The wider programme enables access to training on topics such as communication, media training, viva preparation, impact & engagement, collaborative research, entrepreneurship (via Venture Lab), networking, digital skills, supporting your wellbeing, conducting interdisciplinary research, and preparing to teach. Furthermore, postgraduate researchers can track their personal and professional development via InkPath – software that enables researchers to track, manage, and reflect upon their profile of development/training and extract this portfolio at the end of their doctoral education. Providing broad training (beyond discipline-specific needs and supervision), is critical to supporting the holistic development of our postgraduate researchers. A DCAD funding scheme supports postgraduate-run conferences (max £500 per event), run three times a year (November, March, May) and gives teams of students an opportunity to develop skills in grant applications, organising and running conferences. Additionally, PGR students are supported to publish and participate in international reputed venues, be involved in international events organised in Durham. This approach ensures our postgraduates are globally competitive and can capitalise on a wider range of potential career paths at their end of their doctoral training.

All students have at least two supervisors in their home department (as per university regulations) and may have additional supervisors for inter-, multi-disciplinary projects, or those involving a partner beyond the academy. Therefore, all students benefit from team-based supervision. Aligned to the UKRI statement of expectations for doctoral training, we provide significant professional development for our supervisors. Durham University supports academic supervisors who wish to apply for Research Supervisor Recognition via the UKCGE, which occurs in addition to core supervision training completed to all new supervisors. DCAD also provide a programme of CPD-style training opportunities for supervisors, for example: supporting neurodivergent PhD students; supporting students on fieldwork; supporting students on placement; supporting racial and ethnic minority students; facilitating interdisciplinary research. The Research Supervision Handbook sets out expectations for supervisors to ensure the highest quality provision.

With currently over 520 potential supervisors and over 640 PGR students within the Faculty, 14  funded Doctoral Training Centres, STF infrastructure investments of £75m, managing over £71m EPSRC-funding in the last 5 years, strongly rooted in EDI principles (with 6 departments with Athena SWAN Silver award and 2 Bronze), the Faculty of Science has the capacity and expertise to continue delivering excellent training for incoming PGR students.

Professional services support within our Faculty of Science includes our team of departmental postgraduate research coordinators who assist with administrative tasks for both students and supervisors and are critical within our PGR provision structures (often liaising with Student Immigration & Funding Service who administer our training grants). As noted previously, our training and development opportunities come from across the institution – including DCAD, Careers & Enterprise Service, Library Services, Research Innovation Services, Student Wellbeing Services, to name a few.

This is supported further by Durham investments – for example a commitment to high quality equipment and facilities supporting world-class science research and researchers (including training the next generation). The Faculty of Science has had significant large investments in the recent past (e.g. since 2018, the Odgen Centre for Fundamental Physics, new Maths and Computer Science building, £75m combined and significant refurbishment programmes in Chemistry and Biosciences) meaning that our postgraduate community can benefit from the significant internal growth and investment.