Additional Language, Additional Experience? Insights from the EAL-PGR Lived Experience Project
How do multilingual researchers experience the relationship between their languages and their research journey? If Universities took steps towards understanding this relationship more fully, could we support this group of PGRs more effectively?
‘Additional Language, Additional Experience?: Understanding the EAL-PGR [English as an Additional Language Postgraduate Researcher] Experience at UofG’ was developed to answer these questions by exploring, understanding, valuing, and responding thoughtfully to the lived experiences of postgraduate researchers who use English as an Additional Language [EAL-PGRs] at the University of Glasgow. Funded by the University’s Student Experience Strategy via the UofG Together Internship Fund, the EAL-PGR Lived Experience Project was realised as a collaboration between Research Culture and Researcher Development and the PGR Policy Team, and was delivered across June — October 2025.
We held a series of six focus groups with EAL-PGRs, hearing from 26 participants who shared valuable insights drawn from their lived experience. Findings from this project disclose several key challenges encountered by EAL-PGRs, and offer incisive reflections which address lived experience of policy, practice and educational structures. These findings suggest both the far-reaching impacts of working multilingually for EAL-PGRs themselves, and the potential benefits for Universities who embrace the collective multilinguality they hold institutionally.
This is a resource produced by the University of Glasgow. UKCGE has not been involved in the production of the content and the materials themselves have been uploaded with the permission of the University and its project leaders. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders; if we have made omissions or you feel certain materials should not be included here, please get in touch via ukcge@ukcge.ac.uk.