University of Plymouth June 2023: Staff Roundtable Resources

Generation Delta Staff Roundtable Report

3rd stage of the PGR cycle: Training for Careers (T4C)

Workshop title: “Support available for Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in the final stages of their doctoral study”

Hosting institution: University of Plymouth

Date: Friday 30 June 2023

Time: 1:00 pm to 4.00 pm

Venue: Online

Introduction_ 2
Registration And Attendees 2
Summary Of Students’ Workshop By Professor Shaofeng Liu_ 2
First Round Of Breakout Rooms 3
Second Round Of Breakout Rooms 4

1. Introduction

This roundtable was offered to staff from the six Generation Delta institutions (Universities of Leeds, Goldsmiths, Reading, Sheffield, Plymouth and Sunderland) to engage in a cross-institutional conversation about preparing Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in doctoral study for careers in academia. The roundtable was relevant to colleagues in career development, publishing, doctoral academies/graduate schools, PGR directors at departmental/school/Faculty level, and PGR supervisors.

The aims/objectives for the session were to collaborate cross-institutionally to:

a) Brainstorm and identify ways supervisors and universities can support students to publish their PhD work
b) Brainstorm and identify what facilities/support are or should be available to help Black, Asian and minority ethnic PhD candidates to get into academia and help Black, Asian and minority ethnic women's academic career progression.

The following was the roundtable agenda:

Time/ duration	Activity	Leading
1:00pm – 1:15pm	Project introduction and update	Professor Iyiola Solanke, University of Oxford/Leeds
1:15pm – 1:20pm	Summary of Student’s Workshop	Professor Shaofeng Liu, University of Plymouth
1:20pm – 2:30pm	How can supervisors and universities help students publish their PhD work?	Dr Lijun Tang, PGR Coordinator, Dr Rong Huang, Interim Head of School, University of Plymouth
2:30pm – 2:45pm	Break
2:45pm – 3:45pm	What facilities/support are (/should be) available to help BAME PhD candidates to get into academia and help BAME women academic’s career progression?	Dr Sana Murrani, Deputy Director of Doctoral College, University of Plymouth
3:45pm – 4:00pm	Wrap up	Generation Delta Team

2. Registration and attendees

A total of 18 staff registered for the workshop and 17 attended the session, including the Generation Delta team.

3. Summary of students’ workshop by Professor Shaofeng Liu

Follow this link to access the video of Professor Liu present the highlights from the workshop with the PGR students Feedback from students’ workshop.mp4, and here for the slides 2023-06 Gen Delta Plymouth Student Workshop Summary.pdf

4. First round of breakout rooms

Attendees were divided into two breakout rooms to discuss the following question:

How can supervisors and universities help students publish their PhD work?

Below, the key points raised during the discussion:

Consider other forms of disseminating research other than written word. This can be in the form of exhibitions, podcasts, etc. There is a need to think about how the work of the researcher can best enter the corresponding field. The bigger question being how to help BAME women find the best ways for their work to enter circulation.
Choose examiners strategically as they may help candidates disseminate their work. One obstacle for PGR students who identify as BAME women is that examiner continue to be mostly racialised as white so the students do not see themselves reflected in the roles of these academics. Lack of representation can lead to lack of confidence.
Goldsmith’s University has a fellowship programme that allows PhD graduates to work as fellows within their respective schools for up to a year during which they get support to publish their work (e.g., networking with other fellows, get access to training resources, use library resources, etc).
There is a similar programme at Plymouth University, but they acknowledged they need to step up their efforts to offer more resources so supervisors can support their students publish their work.
Help students break out their theses into smaller pieces of work that they can publish.
Some PhD students may not be interested in academic jobs. This should be clarified form the beginning of the supervisory relationship so time is not spent in encouraging the publication of academic research.
Imposter syndrome is particularly high for racially minoritised students so there should be an effort on behalf of supervisors and/or mentors to encourage them and reassure them their work is worth publishing.
It is important to manage expectations. We have to be realistic about the fact that the academic job market requires publishing experience so supervisors can take an extra step in pointing students to publishing opportunities that students may be missing out on.
Create publication teams or groups right from the beginning, providing the space for PhD students to develop their confidence as well as their writing skills.
It is helpful that supervisors prepare and guide students through rejections. Rather than discouraging, rejections should be seen as normal and as part of the learning process towards publishing academic work.
Supervisors can encourage their students to co-write papers with them or with other colleagues who are also senior academics.
There is need to explain how exploitation in academic occurs, such as a senior academic taking credit for the work of a student, and how this can be recognised and avoided. Acknowledge power relations and encourage students to speak up when the ground rules for collaboration are not established clearly from the beginning.
Some e–journals, working papers within departments or schools promote the work of doctoral students.
Universities should have solid policies for publishing work to avoid copyright disputes. They should estipulate what recourse students have in case any such issues arise, such as establishing who they should talk to if something happens.
We should ask ourselves, what is an appropriate ethically and politically sound way of acknowledging the multiple contributions when co-producing knowledge.
Universities shall increase their support for PGR students. In general, there tends to be more support for undergraduate and PGT students.

5. Second round of breakout rooms

Once again, attendees were divided into two breakout rooms to discuss a second question:

What facilities/support are (/should be) available to help BAME PhD candidates to get into academia and help BAME women academic’s career progression?

Below, the main points raised during the discussion:

Alongside Generation Delta, the Yorkshire Consortium for Equity in Doctoral Education (YCEDE) is one of the thirteen projects funded by RE and OfS to tackle the evidenced year-on-year inequalities faced by Black, Asian and minority ethnic students in postgraduate research. The YCEDE organises workshops to demystify PhD students and on overcoming common barriers during the application process to encourage and support students access doctoral study.
Internship programmes that can help students secure access to PhD study as well as funding.
Career fairs covering academic and non-academic work after doctoral studies.
Goldsmiths makes a point in advertising as many opportunities as possible to support students accessing doctoral study.
Other than supporting access to doctoral study, Plymouth also focuses on climbing up the ladder of the academic career.
Raise awareness of the need to have representation. For Generation Delta in specific, this is about the need for more BAME female researchers at all academic levels.
Structures of interviews (to access doctoral study as well as academic jobs) should consider the cultural codes and norms of racially minoritised students, home and international.
Race and felt experience are not valued at the same level as developed academic language as expected in the Global North. Efforts to decolonise curriculums, which often try to address this, are still in baby steps.
We need solid guidelines against racism in all of its forms at all stages.
Visibility and contribution through awards, such as targeting BAME female PGR students for example.
We have moved way from having all-men interview/recruitment panels but we haven’t yet moved to non-white panels. If institutions have few BAME academics able to cover these roles, then external researchers should be recruited for this purpose. At the same time, and to bridge this gap, organisations should also think about recruiting researchers from diverse backgrounds in terms of gender and ethnicity.
Workshops on acknowledging failure, such as failed grant applications, as regular incidents or experiences during the academic career.
Lobbying for binding policy recommendations and resource commitments. This means getting into the spaces where power and decision making happens.
We do not need to reinvent the wheel. Most universities already offer different resources to support aspiring and current doctoral students, is just that we need to be more targeted.
Increase efforts to collect intersectional data on BAME female aspiring and current doctoral students.