Discussion Area for INLT Post-IGC Workshop paper on Postgrads
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Comments / Threads So Far
- Comment on Postgrads paper (from Eric Pawson)
- Comment on Postgrads paper (from Karl Donert)
- Comment on Postgrads paper (from Ruth Healey)
- Comment on Postgrads paper (from Michael Solem)
- Comment on Postgrads paper (from Brian Chalkley)
Subject: Comment on Postgrads paper
From: Eric Pawson, University of Canterbury, NZ
Date: 7th June 2006
Posting:
There are some really interesting themes emerging here that collectively we should be able to flesh out in the web discussion and at Brisbane.
The internationalisation agenda. From a New Zealand perspective, where institutions from high school onwards have become very dependent on full fee students in recent years, I’m intrigued that the UK government thinks it realistic to attract an extra 100 000 overseas students. The recent NZ experience is that this is a very variable source of students that plays havoc with institutional and school budgets. This reflects ...read more (21kb rtf opens in Word).
Subject: Comment on Postgrads paper
From: Karl Donert ,Liverpool Hope University, UK
Date: 11th June 2006
Posting:
This is indeed an interesting start - I think that the case for internationalisation has to be made .. why internationalise at postgraduate level specifically?
A European example would illustrate the point: Internationalisation is being encouraged through the Bologna process, this and other related policies give a sound rationale. The mobile workforce is one thing for example. There are major specific EU programmes that encourage such internationalisation, including most recently Erasmus Mundus. This would make a really nice example to demonstrate the desire to encourage internationalisation. Under Mundus, students from third countries are expected to study in at least 2 EU countries. Visit http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/mundus/index_en.html and http://www.erasmus.ac.uk/mundus.html for example
There are other examples of joint European degrees and courses at Masters level. In other subjects euro-Masters are being developed. What about Geography? Is there a core curriculum all postgraduates ought to have? In Europe should they learn and know about Europe and being a citizen/employee in Europe for example?
Concerning high quality - do we actually mean high prestige? High quantity? Is this what the marketplace wants? for example consider the way that MBAs have become less acceptable to students - their value has been nfluenced greatly by mixed quality. Even prestige courses have struggled to recruit. Does Geography have an MBA alternative? Do we need one? could an important question be that sustainability is not possible in such a market-orientated environment. flexibility is the key. Perhaps the gold standard PhD is alo under threat.
A debate about levels and standards and benchmarking might be profitable. Should we have uniform standards against which we can measure achievement?
Subject: Comment on Postgrads paper
From: Ruth Healey, University of Sheffield, UK
Date: 15th June 2006
Posting:
As a postgraduate myself, I found this paper interesting. As it happens, one of my fellow PhD students is looking at the foreign students in the UK following on from the UK Government's aim to attract an additional 100,000 overseas students. Although I'm afraid I know little about this myself. Therefore the following are just some thoughts I had when reading the paper:
1) An area that I find of interest is the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate. One of the key aspects of this is the relationship between staff and students within departments. This is important to developing postgraduate networks and skills within academia. However, it is perhaps often overshadowed by other factors sometimes maintaining the power relation hierarchy between staff and students. The deconstruction of such boundaries takes time and is variable within departments often depending upon particular individuals who see it as a priority.
2) In the UK I wondered what the implications of the changes in the ESRCs provision of funding from the open competitions in the 1+3 and +3 to the quota awards allocated to departments within universities have been?
3) The variation in experiences of students with supervisors and departments from feeling like a commodity to feeling fully supported by supervisiors e.g. bursary allocations designed to maximise student numbers rather than provide individuals with an adequate income, or the variation in the level of contact with supervisors and the support provided.
4) One thing I hadn't thought of before was that of postgraduate collaboration. My experience has been similar to those of the students in the focus group. I have frequently worked with other postgraduates in relation to our teaching, however other than discussing our work informally I have not worked with my peers in other roles e.g. research.
Subject: Comment on Postgrads paper
From: Michael Solem, Association of American Geographers, USA
Date: 16th June 2006
Posting:
This group has an impressive range of credentials and experience in the area of graduate education. In reviewing the draft, I thought one lucrative contribution the group might consider would be to explore and comparatively analyze the process and outcomes of educational change at the graduate level. Much of the discussion in the U.S. in the past 15 years has focused on the need to diversify the ways graduates are prepared for future careers, a recommendation that stems from surveys indicating that, despite strong preparation in research, many graduates lack a broad foundation of knowledge and skills that enable them to perform flexibly in professional careers, whether in academe or in non-academic sectors. Several initiatives have appeared, including the Re-envisioning the PhD and Responsive PhD projects, to encourage graduate programs in many disciplines to become less specialized in their approach to graduate education. Are similar trends occurring outside of the US — if so, where, what is happening, how are institutions responding (or not), are there any measures of impact on students graduating with Master’s and PhD degrees, and how can international perspectives on these questions (a) improve our understanding of the nature of educational change and (b) assist graduate programs in making decisions about what elements of their programs should be retained, adjusted, enhanced, or otherwise transformed?
Subject: Comment on Postgrads paper
From: Brian Chalkley, University of Plymouth, UK
Date: 29th June 2006
Posting:
- This paper seems to be shaping up really well and already has lots of interesting material.
- I wonder whether there should be a slightly stronger focus on Geography as a discipline and its particular characteristics and experiences. What is distinctive about postgraduate education in Geography?
- Martin Haigh (Oxford Brookes) has done some interesting work on the internationalisation of the Geography curriculum which might be of interest.
- Those of us who work in the area of education for sustainable development might find the prospect of 100,000 more overseas students coming to the UK interesting in terms of carbon emissions and sustainability! Is there a green agenda here which ought at least to be mentioned?