Question Time with the VC

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Last Wednesday, the Guild hosted a Question Time debate with Fabian Neuner and the Vice-Chancellor, David Eastwood.

Pre-submitted questions were submitted by students in the preceding weeks and these were then asked by the panel Chair, Steven Johnson, throughout the debate. Follow-up questions were allowed from the floor.

Around seventy students attended and I spotted various postgraduates around the room.

Two questions were asked relating to postgraduate issues:

1. The first was pre-submitted anonymously and related to the University deciding to refer to Postgraduate Research students (PGRs) as Doctoral Researchers (DRs). There was some concern that this removed the student emphasis and instead implied that they were part of the University staff team.

However, David Eastwood assured the room that this name-change was intended to make the PGRs feel part of the University academic community. Personally, I am skeptical about how much is achieved by name-changes and rebrands. However, I appreciate the logic.

2. The second question was asked by myself on the night.

I have long felt that there is a hierarchy of postgraduates at this University. I am referring to PGRs receiving lots of support and PGTs receiving very little. Most PGTs that I speak to feel like second-class citizens.

The Grad School offers training and development to PGRs but not PGTs. Plus, the new postgraduate employment initative Adept is only open to PGRs. PGTs are not even invited to the monthly Grad School networking lunches.

This is particularly unfair considering that PGTs comprise the majority (5000+) of the 8000 postgraduates at this University. As such, PGTs across the board feel undervalued and disenfranchised.

I addressed this concern to David Eastwood. I am pleased to say his response was very positive and I feel like I raised an issue he was not currently aware of. He reassured me that he did not want any PGTs to feel undervalued and he promised me that the University were working on it. I later discovered from Brigid Jones that the University is hoping to increase its numbers of PGTs and so my question has particular potency.

If nothing else, I had several students approach me afterwards to compliment me on my question, therefore at least awareness of this issue has been achieved.

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