The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is a national survey conducted by institutions across the UK and globally. The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete.
All postgraduate researchers who enrolled by 1 March 2021 will be invited to complete the survey. This includes all MPhil, PhD and Professional Doctorate researchers.
The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is your chance to tell us your thoughts about your experience. The results help us compare how we are doing with other institutions, to make changes that will improve what we do in future and to keep doing the things that you value. This will help improve the experience of PGRs like you in the future.
Taking part will also help raise money for Micah Liverpool. As a thank you for your time, the University will make a donation for every completed survey. Micah Liverpool is a social justice charity that works to combat unemployment and deliver emergency food aid and affordable food to Liverpool residents.
Your feedback is important. Over one hundred universities and colleges take part in the UK and globally. This means we can compare your experience against similar postgraduates at other institutions to see if we are supporting your learning as we should. We use the findings to improve the support and learning experience for future students.
Student responses are anonymous and are collected by Advanced HE. All the responses are aggregated to produce an overall national report, published on the Advanced HE website. The responses from students at each participating university are also aggregated into a confidential report for that institution. A short overview of the key LJMU results, and how they compare to the sector, will be shared with all PGRs by September 2021.
A full report on the PRES results will be reviewed by the Doctoral Academy, your PGR Representatives, Faculty and University Research Degrees Committees, and other relevant groups and committees. The results inform both University and Faculty-level action plans.
Changes made in response to previous feedback have included the development of a new Research Degrees Framework, the launch of a new online progression system, enhancements to the PGR and supervisor training offer; improved online visibility of regulations and support for PGRs through a new Doctoral Academy website; and the allocation of PGR dedicated study space in the Library refurbishment.
LJMU runs the PRES every two years. See an overview of the 2019 results.
Your survey response is confidential to the team processing the results and no reporting outside of this team will identify any individual. Any results communicated to academic staff will be anonymised.
The survey asks that any comments you make should not identify yourself or any specific members of staff.
You will receive an email with a link to the questionnaire on Monday 12 April. Simply click on the link and complete the online form. It should take no longer than 15 minutes and you can easily do it on your phone.
The survey is open until Monday 17 May 2021.
If you are unsure about anything to do with the survey, or have any difficulty, please contact Victoria Sheppard in the Doctoral Academy by email: v.m.sheppard@ljmu.ac.uk or DoctoralAcademy@ljmu.ac.uk.
