Postgraduate & Mature Students Officer Blog

Hello,

The big news is that Birmingham City Council have agreed that all Postgraduate Researchers who are in their ‘writing-up’ phase will now be exempt from council tax during that period. The Council have extended the original 3 month time limit for exemption to a year. The PGMSA and I have been working on this issue since the beginning of the academic year and it is fantastic that all of our work with the Guild and the University has paid off. I want to say a big thank you to the ARC and to Zuki, our VPHC, for making this happen!

More information on how to claim exemption can be found on the guild of students website:

http://guildofstudents.com/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=321033

The other news is that a mature students mailing list is now being constructed by the University and I was asked for my input into which students it will include. This will help the PGMSA, and indeed the University itself, to specifically contact mature students with information about support etc.

In addition, I was recently able to give my input into a new supervisor feedback form which every PhD student will need to fill in every year. The ARC has recently received an increase in complaints from PhD students about their supervisors and this may mean that the students do not think that there are confidential ways of bringing it up in their department. I have put the Graduate School Management Board in touch with the ARC so that they can talk through this issue but also made sure that it was very clear on the form that the contents would be confidential, among other recommendations.

Just a quick one this time but I will blog again asap.

Emily x

Hello, It’s time for another meaty blog post!

Elections

So we have a new Officer team! I made a big song and dance about the fact that there is another non-sabb that keeps being forgotten…the pmso. I was a bit worried that this would be the case due to the pmso being elected in October whilst everyone else is elected in March. So I posted on the better guild forum, asked student voice if the pmso could be mentioned in the Redbrick elections insert and asked our VPDR at the elections results night to mention it on the microphone which he was happy to do. Elections are a great opportunity to make students aware about the Officer team and what positions there are and I think that it is really important that the guild sends the right message to postgraduate and mature students rather than it seeming to non-engaged PG and Mature students like they are not represented.

The Postgraduate, Mature, Student Parent & Carers and International Students elections event went well with every candidate for VPE, VPW and ISO turning up and all but one of the presidential candidats. I would have liked more Postgraduate, Mature, Student Parent & Carers and International Students to have come but I still think it was a really good opportunity to raise awareness about these under-represented populations of students and what a large proportion of students they make up! I feel optimistic that David Franklin (president), Simon Furse (VPE), Katherine East (VPW) will have taken something away from this event and will work closely with myself (PMSO) and Sara Pokki (ISO) to improve the education, welfare and representation for these students.

On that note, it was the Student Parents and Carers & Mature studenta section which the candidates struggled with most. The Student Parents and Carers Association are the only association which do not have a non-sabb which does not seem to make sense to me considering how hard it was for the candidates to speak about what could be done for these students. The SPCA and I have spoken about this I will be meeting with the Guild President tomorrow about this and other related issues (watch this space).

Council tax

Zuki, our VPHC, has submitted a motion to NUS about the council tax issue for PhD students in the writing up phase. It calls for the NUS to lobby the government on this issue and is being taken to the next NUS conference. This is a fantastic development and I would like to thank Zuki as well as CK in the Advice and Representation Centre (ARC) for their work on this. In addition the briefing and forms which the ARC put together can now be downloaded from the guild website:

http://guildofstudents.com/files/housing—pg-writing-up-council-briefing.pdf

We have found four PhD students who are entering/have just entered the writing up phase of their PhD and would like to apply for exemption. They have been directed towards the forms on the website and we will follow their progress closely. Let the ‘testing of the water’ begin.

PhD students & the ARC

The ARC have recently notified me that the number of complaints from PhD students has gone up and make up the majority of all concerns and complaints received. This mainly relates to their supervisors and is very worrying. In the Graduate School Management Board Meeting (GSMB) last week I brought this up and the board was equally concerned by this. Especially as it may mean that their internal systems for dealing with supervisor issues, such as the mentor system, is not working. They would like to establish a communication link between the ARC and GSMB and I have emailed CK in the ARC to suggest this. Also at GSMB in reference to one of the papers I made the point that it did not seem that all the colleges were spending enough of the money allocated to them from the Postgraduate Development Fund. The graduate school then said that if they don’t spend this money they might lose it. I think this will be a good kick up the backside to all the colleges to make sure that they do spend this money, which has already been awarded to specific projects/events, so that these events etc do take place and PGRs are able to benefit from them. In addition at GSMB one of the academics said that they had asked their reps if we know who me and Ben Aylott (senate rep) are and that we sit on this board and that they said that they did not. This was a good opportunity for Ben to push the fact that the colleges need to provide the guild with contact details for the new reps and to do so as soon as they are elected. It is hard to communicate with the reps when the list is not complete.

PGR Rep system

The PGR rep system working group, which I sit on, has now compiled their conclusions and recommendations into a report which will be submitted to the Student Representation System Advisory Board (SRSAB). This contains various recommendations which we have discussed at length, including a greater emphasis on training the chairs and providing them financial incentives. We identified that if the guild could establish a good relationship with the chairs and if they are committed to their roles then the system is likely to be more cohesive and it will be easier to establish good communication throughout the system. In addition the recommendations include holding the elections in the same week/fortnight/month and providing good PGR rep specific publicity, as well as many more.

Mature Students Focus Group

A focus group took place last week which was run by the student experience project officer in student services. I helped to recruit mature students to this focus group which was about Welcome/induction for mature students. I had a meeting at the beginning of the academic year with the project officer and said that I felt that more could be done in terms of welcome/induction events for mature students so I am very pleased that this was taken on board and the focus group was organised. I was not able to attend the focus group but I was told that it was a very positive meeting and 18 people attended, which is a good turnout. I have also emailed the PVC for Estates and Infrastructure again to see if there has been any progress on the mature students mailing list.

NUS Postgraduate conference

I am pleased to announce that myself and the chair of the PGMSA (Ben Aylott) will be attending the NUS postgraduate conference in May.

Graduate School Poster Conference

I am continuing talks with the graduate school and PGMSA about the prize we will be awarding at the poster conference and also the PGMSA are continuing to discuss what event we will run on the evening of the conference.

Thanks for reading! Emilyx

Hello,

The first thing that I want to mention is that with elections coming up there is going to be a Postgraduate, Mature, and International Students Guild elections event! This unique event is going an opportunity to meet the candidates for the top positions and ask them what they are going to do for postgraduates, mature, and international students on campus if they win. This is very important as we are a subset of the student population which is typically under-represented in the guild. All are welcome to this event which will take place on Wednesday 7th March at 6pm. Venue to be confirmed. Just to clarify, all sabbs and non-sabbs except the PMSO are being elected in March. The PMSO elections are in October to allow masters students who are only here for one year to run.

In my last post I published the content of the slides of the presentation I gave to University Council. Following this I was emailed by the Vice Chancellor to say that it should be possible to create a mailing list of all the mature students, as I suggested. I have subsequently been in contact with the PVC for Estates and Infrastructure about this. In addition, this presentation seems to have got people talking about the issue of council tax for PhD students in the writing up stage for example the University has spoken to the Guild about this issue. Subsequently I have been in talks with our VP for Housing and Community (Zuki) and the Advice and Representation Centre (ARC) in the Guild about this issue.

As a re-cap, PhD students in the writing up phase of their PhD are only given 3 months of exemption before they have to start paying council tax. This can be a financially difficult time for these students and it is important to bear in mind that the University charges a writing up fee, or continuation fee as it is commonly called. The plan at the moment is to find some students who are about to enter the writing up phase, or are already in this phase, and to help them apply to the council for exemption as a full time student. We have found a few students who have expressed interest in this.  The ARC have put together all the necessary documentation and have written a briefing about the situation for these students. The idea is to ‘test the water’ and it is likely that the council will say that the students can only have the three month exemption. In this case we will appeal to the local authority who must respond within two months. If necessary after this there are further measures we can take. This is a national issue and there are inconsistencies in what the rules are between different councils.  A recent High Court case (Feller v. Cambridge City Council) is a basis on which to challenge the relevant local authority as the conclusion of this was that a PhD student in their writing up phase is a “full time student” and should be granted exemption. Currently Birmingham City Council states that because they are not required to attend campus during their writing-up stage they are therefore liable for council tax again.

Last week I attended the first meeting of a Working Group which I have previously mentioned on this blog as being established to consider writing up fees and the issue of council tax. During the meeting there was a lot of discussion about the definition of the writing up phase” which is very important considering the “full time student” issue with regards to council tax as well as being important in terms of the University providing the students with enough support and guidance during this time. The group seemed to come to the conclusion that there was not much difference between what is provided to a PhD student and a writing up PhD student, which adds a lot of weight to the council tax exemption argument! I was concerned to hear that there was pressure on the academics in the Group to allocate desks away from writing up students. This seems counter-intuitive as surely this is the time when a PhD student needs there desk most! It is very important that the university supports their PhD students at this time and I made that clear in the meeting.

On February 7th it was the Postgraduate Open Day and the PGMSA had a stand in the Great Hall. I think that it was very important to be there and engage with as many postgraduate and mature students as possible before they arrive so that they know about the PGMSA in advance. I am very keen to run welcome events in September for the new students. It was interesting that it was the mature students who were most keen to talk to us. This reinforces my desire to get more mature students engaged this year.

I have also been involved in recruiting postgraduate students to various focus groups. I think that it is important that we take all the opportunities to feedback to the university and make positive change. A focus group about the development of a Personal Skills Award (PSA) for postgraduates will take place during next weeks PGMSA meeting (6pm Wednesday Thomson Training Suite). All are welcome. In Guild Officer Group the VP for Welfare (Luke) mentioned that there are committees which ask for a postgraduate student but there is no process for recruiting this student so Luke, Mark and I will sit down and work this out soon.

On a lighter note the PGMSA, in association with the International Students Association held a speed dating event recently to which around 80 people attended! Although a little chaotic I am really happy about how this event went and would like to say a big thanks to all the people who helped me run it. I have also been in talks with the graduate school about organizing a ball for the night of the Graduate School poster conference. Watch this space. The PGMSA will also be presenting a PGMSA prize at this poster conference.

Have a lovely day!

Emily

Hello!

As part of my role as PMSO I sit on University Council, which is the highest governing body of the University. My second Council meeting is tomorrow and the night before every meeting one of the members gives a presentation. This time the Guild president was asked to talk about the guild and the ‘student experience’. I was also able to speak for around 15 minutes as part of this presentation, so this evening I stood up in front of the members and told them of the issues currently facing postgraduates and mature students. I then followed this up with various recommendations as can be seen in the outline below:

Slide 1: Introduction

I’m a PGR in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences.

• Postgraduate and Mature Students Officer (PMSO)
  • The elected voice for PGTs, PGRs and mature students in the Guild.
  • Non-sabbatical position.
  • Work closely with other Guild Officers, staff, and PGMSA.
  • Currently involved in PGR rep working group (SRSAB), writing up working group (GSMB), and GSMB.
  • Recent history – position usually held by PGT/vacant/or inactive.

Slide 2: Postgraduate student experience at Birmingham

• Postgraduates comprise almost a third of the student population
• Greater diversity in student experience, academics:
  • PGT – 1 year taught courses
  • PGR – 3-4 year research courses
  • Higher proportion of international/mature students, more diverse demographics.
  • Considered ‘under-represented’ in Guild of Students. Perception that Guild only provides for undergraduates.

Slide 3: Working Space for Postgraduates

A common problem faced by postgraduates currently is access to space and facilities. This is a standing item on GSMB agenda.

Ideas:

• A long term solution is needed. Currently problems are dealt with on ad-hoc basis and tend to re-appear.
• Being able to ‘guarantee’ working space and facilities to a certain standard would be a major selling point for prospective PG students.
• Should be incorporated into long-term planning.

Slide 4: Postgraduate Research Students – Providing a Unique Level of Support

Ensuring that the University provide a wide range of training in research and teaching methods for PGTs and PGRs.

Ideas:

• For the training provision e.g. PGCert to be expanded and diversified so that PhD students can obtain/certify transferable skills/knowledge which will be valued in the wider economy.

Slide 5: Postgraduate Research Students – Student Representation System

PGs are notoriously a hard to reach group and generally have less contact with the Guild than undergraduates

Ideas:

• The student representation system is the major contact point between PGRs and the Guild and the University, therefore improving this system is likely to enhance key areas of the student experience and help to identify areas for improvements.
• It is particularly important that the system recognize the distinctiveness of postgraduate study. PGRs are in a sense ‘academics in training’ and have a clear measurable input into core activities such as research and teaching. There are several ways this could be recognised:
  • More student representatives on school-level Graduate Studies Committees, or equivalent (in addition to SSLCs).
  • Recognising the importance of being a PhD student representative SSLC Chair by providing modest remuneration (has been trialled successfully at other universities).
  • Providing more resources and staffing (in the Guild) to support the PG rep systems.

Slide 6: Postgraduate Research Students – Council tax

PhD students who enter the writing up phase only have a three month grace period before they have to start paying council tax

Ideas:

Major recurring national problem. Inconsistencies over level of support given to PhD students nationally. Relatively recent development in Birmingham.

Need to bear in mind that Birmingham charges a writing up fee.

• Could be solved through negotiations between this University, Aston, BCU (and their respective student unions) and the council.

Slide 7: Postgraduate Taught Students

As support for PGTs is not within the remit of the Graduate School there is a danger that providing support for PGTs may be forgotten at times

Ideas:

• PGTs need to be given a really good induction as soon as they arrive, so that they are able to make the most of their year here.
• Rep system for PGTs needs to reflect diversity of programmes
• Guild-led representation may work better in this case, but needs more staff and resources to support promotion and operations of regular drop-ins and induction programmes.
• Extension of the remit of the Graduate School to include PGTs?

Slide 8: Mature Students

This is a subset of the student population which is hard to identify and to contact. Mature students often struggle, especially if they have dependants.

Ideas:

• To ensure that the welfare needs of Mature students are met.
• To target welfare support at mature students e.g. building university wide mailing lists, holding welfare drop-ins for mature students and parents.

Slide 9: A full-time Postgraduate and Mature Students’ Officer?

• Leadership and substantial time commitment is needed to focus Guild and University efforts on improving student experience for postgraduates and mature students. One part-time officer is not enough.
• Guild should perhaps consider a full-time elected role to provide this, as well as funding for additional staff and resources.

Happy new year!!

I’m afraid this post is a little late due to the christmas holidays and a very large workload! Since my last post there has been lots going on. Perhaps the most exciting news is that a motion was passed by the last Guild Council to increase the number of postgraduate guild councillors! This motion was submitted by Ben Aylott, the chair of the PGMSA and it considers the proportion of students that are postgraduates and increases the number of councillors accordingly. In an upcoming PGMSA meeting (date tbc) the President of the Guild is going to come along to discuss postgraduate and mature student representation in the guild and what more can be done for such students.

We had the second meeting of the PGR rep working group, which is continuing to put measures into place to improve the system. Students can now find out who their representatives are via the ‘my learning’ tab on my.bham.ac.uk, which is a useful development. I also helped to run the PGR rep training session/forum event. Again the issue of working space was raised, which is an issue I would like to work on this year.

This term we should have the first meeting of a working group which will consider writing up fees and council tax exemption for PhD students in their ‘writing up’ phase. This is a spin-out of the graduate school management board and myself and Ben Aylott (as senate rep) will sit on this group. In addition, thanks to the lovely VPAD, I am now on the working group for the development of a postgraduate version of the Personal Skill Award (PSA) and have attended my first meeting.

At the end of last term I was involved with the campaign to save the MSc in Biological Recording. The students have run a very well organised campaign and the university has agreed to try to transfer the course to another institution rather than close it altogether. I will continue to support these students this term. You can find out more about this issue and find out how to sign their petition by following this link:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Biological-Recording-at-BHAM-needs-you/156737367761523

Lots more to talk about but I must get on with my essay…deadline is fast approaching! Emilyx

Hello,

As PMSO I am co-chair of the postgraduate and mature students association (PGMSA). The association is doing really well and now has its own website, which is www.pgmsa.org (nice and easy to remember). If anyone would like to come along to the Wednesday meetings and/or find out about the social events that are being run then all the information can be found on that website. We had our biggest event to date on Wednesday, which I think was a great success. This was a screening of “The PhD Movie” to around 300 people, organized primarily by Alex Upton (our treasurer). This event was made possible by a generous grant from the Graduate School, for which we are very grateful.

Another very exciting event for postgraduates this week was the first “Cafe PhD” event, held for students of the College of Arts and Law. This event was held by Holly Prescott and was an informal social event designed to showcase and discuss exciting PhD research being done at Birmingham, as well as offering the chance to find out what postgraduate research is all about. This was a great success and Holly is hoping to eventually hold a “Cafe PhD” event for every college.

I was hoping to run a speed dating event for postgraduates and mature students this term but have been having some room booking problems. I am therefore hoping to hold this event in January. I think that it is going to be a lot of fun!

I went to my first University Council last week which was a little daunting but a very good experience. I am looking forward to contributing in the next one. In the last couple of weeks I have also been speaking to the student experience project officer at the university and we have discussed what could be done to improve the experience for Mature, PG taught and PG Research students.  In particular we thought it would be good for there to be more engagement events/measures for PGTs, as they are not part of the Graduate School, and for Mature Students,  some of whom may feel isolated at times.

At the moment one of my priorities is to get involved in lots of postgraduate-related events/meetings/working groups and establish good communication links with University and Guild Staff as well as the other Officers.

Emilyx

ps: I got my PMSO T-shirt today…very exciting!

I’m very happy to be the new PMSO, thank you to everyone who voted for me!  I have learnt a lot in the last three weeks and feel that I have pretty much found my feet.

As stated in my manifesto I have been working closely with the Postgraduate & Mature Students Association (PGMSA), of which I am the co-chair. We had our AGM on Wednesday and therefore now have a full committee. I’m looking forward to the continued development of the association and have been taking action to increase its visibility as well as let PG and mature students know about my role. This included arranging for an email to be sent out to all postgraduates and for the new postgraduate booklet to contain more information about the PGMSA and PMSO. In addition, I have written an email for postgraduate recruitment to send out to all offer holders about the association, which I will follow up with a printed booklet.

Some of the key issues which have come out of the PGMSA meetings are a lack of study space for postgraduates, the need for improvements to the PGR rep system, concerns about PhD writing up fees and concerns about the financial burden of council tax on postgraduates who are in “writing up” status. An important aim for the year is to strive to increase postgraduate and mature student representation in guild council, where the proportion does not reflect the fact that postgraduates make up about a third of the student body.

The other PGMSA chair and I are part of a working group which is seeking to improve the PGR rep system and therefore are in a good position to make a positive difference. I have been invited to the PGR rep induction/forum event in February and attended the EPS rep induction a couple of weeks ago. I have recently been invited to sit on the Graduate School Management Board (GSMB), and hence attended the meeting of the board yesterday. Attending this meeting allowed the senate rep and I to bring up the issues of writing up fees and council tax. It will also allow me raise other issues in the future, such as the issue of postgraduate working space.

As well as dealing with postgraduate issues I am very keen to reach out to more mature students, particularly undergraduate mature students. We recently changed the name of the PGSA to the PGMSA and have included a mature students officer as part of the committee. I feel that our newly formed links with the Student Parents and Carers Association (SPCA) and Home Students Association (HSA) are a positive step towards reaching out to more mature students as well as postgraduates. We are planning a regular multi-association drop in session, where a representative from each association will be in the staff house at a certain time every month to answer questions and provide support.

Looking forward to future progress and my second guild council,

Emilyx