Since we established the Doctoral School in late 2014, one of our objectives has been to raise the profile of SHU’s doctoral activity.  Student successes in the national 3 Minute Thesis competition (James Reynolds, finalist; Shruti Mandhani, winner) and Supervisor success in the THE awards (Christine Le Maitre, commended finalist) have been particular highlights to this end.

We’re also now able to announce two further developments.

Firstly, Doug Cleaver has been elected as the next Chair of the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE), the national representative body for postgraduate education and research.  Doug joined the UKCGE Exec Committee 4 years ago, and had a coordinating role in their Directors and Deans of Graduate Schools Network throughout the Covid lockdown.  He will take on the Chair role in July for a three-year term.

Secondly, Nicola Palmer has just been appointed to the VITAE “Researcher Networks Working Group”.  This group of ten researcher development leaders has been drawn from across the UK to enable cross-institutional networking and the sharing of practice to support the Researcher Development Concordat.  One of the group’s key activities will involve bringing together collective knowledge and examples of practice, including case studies, to be included in a ‘Toolbox for developing and sustaining effective Researcher Networks.’