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Postgraduate Researcher Admissions ReportPostgraduate Researcher Competency-Based Admissions Framework
The Postgraduate Researcher Competency-Based Admissions Framework has been developed as part of the Equity in Doctoral Education through Partnership and Innovation (EDEPI) project, led by Nottingham Trent University in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores and Sheffield Hallam Universities.
The EDEPI project is funded by Office for Students and Research England to widen access to and participation in research for racially-minoritised groups.
EDEPI seeks to tackle inequality at scale by framing PGR admissions in the context of the competencies required to successfully undertake PGR study, reducing over-reliance on narrower measures related to degree classification and previous degreeawarding institution.
Last year, the EDEPI project, in partnership with the UK Council for Graduate Education, carried out a comprehensive survey to explore current PGR admissions practices. Based on the analysis of this study, ten barriers in the PGR admissions process for individuals who were from racially-minoritised groups were identified. One key barrier was the use by some supervisors of applicants’ Master’s degrees and the degree-awarding institution as the main assessment criteria. This was considered a potential barrier to access for some individuals from racially-minoritised groups because of systemic inequalities in access to higher-tariff universities, attainment gaps at undergraduate level, and unequal access to loans for postgraduate study.
We are grateful to the many respondents who provided extremely useful feedback throughout the consultation, and to Prof. Jane Ching for her detailed and helpful comments on the draft Framework. We want to thank our PGR representatives for their scrutiny and feedback throughout the development of the Framework. We also wish to thank LJMU’s EDEPI Steering Group, NTU’s Directors of Doctoral Programmes and SHU’s Doctoral Team for their support and guidance.
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