Research Institute for Social Sciences

Internal Training

A wide range of training modules are provided through our MRes courses. Please see below for the full handbooks for both the MRes in the Humanities and the MRes in Social Sciences.

• Humanities Research Training Handbook 2012-13
• MRes Social Sciences Handbook 2012-13

The nature of Research Training is such that, together with your supervisory team, you may identify a modules / course elsewhere in the Faculty or the wider institution.

External Training

The Research Institutes for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Keele have strong collaborative links with a wide range of institutions providing research training. Details of external opportunities will be posted on this page on a regular basis, but these are examples of the programmes that you may wish to consider:

Training in Arts and Humanities - Arts Methods North West

Artsmethods North West intends to support research training in the arts and humanities across 7 institutions who are currently seeking AHRC BGP 2 funding to create the AHRC North West Consortium (NWC).

It will bring together institutions that have large volumes of world-class research with those that have smaller pockets of research excellence in the North West. Through its continuing partnership with the AHRC, the NWC will develop world-class postgraduates through high-quality subject-specific and interdisciplinary training. A distinctive feature of the NWC will be its combination of student learning and skills for employability through productive engagement with the creative economy in the region. It is uniquely positioned to build on disciplinary groupings, collaborations, established media and major knowledge exchange hubs such as the AHRC KE hub at Lancaster University and Salford’s MediaCityUK campus.

The NWC is committed to fostering excellence and diversity in arts and humanities training and research, and responding to the needs of the community.

Find out more on the website: http://www.artsmethodsnorthwest.ac.uk/

As part of this collaboration, a range of events at Manchester University are open to students at Keele. Please click here for the latest details of the events calendar run by Artsmethods@Manchester: ArtsMethods@Manchester Events 2012-13

Training in Social Sciences - MethodsNorthwest

MethodsNorthWest highlights the depth and breadth of methodological expertise in the social sciences within the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster. It promotes and facilitates methodological excellence, innovation and inter-disciplinarity - within and beyond the social sciences. They run events aimed primarily at doctoral students throughout the year. These events are styled and targeted to provide something a little different to the standards methods training, and many of them are open to students at Keele University.

Find out more on the website: http://www.methodsnorthwest.ac.uk/

Vitae Training

Vitae is the national organisation that provides research skills training on behalf of RCUK, the overarching body of
all the UK research councils. These courses offer the opportunity to meet and network with other PGR students from across the UK. All our research students are encouraged to attend at least one Vitae course during the three years of their research at Keele.

Find out more on the website: http://www.vitae.ac.uk/

Our Vitae contact at Keele University is Jen Smith: j.h.smith@keele.ac.uk

Research Funding

If you are considering attending an external event, please contact your supervisors and also the Faculty Research Office Finance Administrators to discuss an application for funding support.

Sue Humphries, Finance Administrator for Social Sciences Centres for Economics and Management, Psycholgical Research and Social Policy - s.e.humphries@keele.ac.uk

Yvonne Lomax, Finance Administrator for Social Sciences Centres for Law, Ethics and Society and for the Study of Politics, International Relations and the Environment (RC4SPIRE) and for the Humanities - y.lomax@keele.ac.uk

We offer two funding schemes for PGRs. Our Research Support Fund (RSF2)‌, provides support for individual focused activities such as conference attendance, costs associated with fieldwork or archival work, and other project-related expenses.

Our Researcher Development and Transferable Skills Fund (RDF) provides support for a broad range of training activities, including support to attend external courses, the costs of coordinating research events at Keele, and generic skills training.

You can apply for both streams of funding by completing our Research Funding Form 2012-13

Learning and Professional Development Centre

The Learning and Professional Development Centre support all staff in their learning and development and many of their programmes are open to postgraduate research students. 

Details of a range of workshops in 2012-13 are available to download here: LPDC Training 2012-13

Visit the Centre webpages for more details on the training available and to book onto a course.

One of the training opportunities currently featured by the LPDC is the Introduction to Teaching Programme, which is compulsory for all Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). Full details on the programme are available at the following site:

http://www.keele.ac.uk/lpdc/coursesworkshops/

See the course flyer here: Teaching Support for PGRs

The Centre can be found at:

59 and 60, The Covert (See map and photo)

Keele University

Staffordshire

ST5 5BG

Seminars, Workshops and Conferences

We have a busy programme of research events across the University. Virtually all of our research events are free to attend, and where there may be a charge involved, you can apply to one of our research support funds for financial assistance.

To see the full programme of Research Seminars and Events in the Research Institutes for the Humanities and Social Sciences, please visit our Calendar or Events

If you are interested in coordinating a research event, please contact your PGR Representatives and Directors.

Annually the RI hosts a Humanities Symposium coordinated by the Director of Postgraduate Research in the Humanities and the PGR Students:

2013

• Humanities Postgraduate Research Student Symposium - 2013

• Humanities Symposium Report
  
  
  
  

Training Requirements

Formal research training for research students is required by the Universities’ funding council (HEFCE) and the Research Councils as well as the University, and the expectation is that you will evaluate your needs against the Joint Statement of the Research Councils’ skills training requirements for research students (RCUK 2001) – to be found as Appendix D5 of the Code of Practice and Appendix 2 of this handbook. Full details of the University’s RT requirements are given in Section2 of the Code of Practice on Postgraduate Research Degrees.

If you are a new full-time PhD student you will need to obtain 40 credits in your first year (20 credits for full-time MPhil). Those taking professional doctorates – EdD, DBA, DMedEth, DSW - take research training modules as part of their formal programme and do not need to choose modules.

Accreditation of prior learning and experience

If you can demonstrate that you have already acquired some of the skills needed, either through prior learning (eg masters degrees) or through experience (eg working as a research assistant), then you may apply for exemption from some or all of the required credits. The form on which you can apply for exemption (research module exemption request) can be downloaded from the web: http://www.keele.ac.uk/gradschool/codeofpractice/

Getting started and your Learning Plan

One of your first tasks will be to sit down with your supervisory team and develop a Personal Development and Learning Plan. Minimum requirements for a Personal Development and Learning Plan - please use the Progress and Monitoring link on the left hand menu to access further details.

Analysing your RT needs:

Research skills and techniques

Your needs will depend very much on the discipline within which you are undertaking your research project, and the specific nature of the project itself. In most cases you will start your research degree with an appropriate disciplinary background, but there may be gaps which you need to fill in relation to your specific project. In addition, there are likely to be specific techniques and methodologies in which you need to acquire competence, so you can evaluate their appropriateness for your project and then use them competently to ensure valid results. Your supervisory team will be able to advise you about these issues.

Transferable skills, personal development and employability

All students need to have acquired, by the end of their programme, the range of skills associated with personal development and employability set out in the Joint Skills Statement (JSS) under categories B-G. The normal expectation is that all research students need to include some of these ‘generic’ skills modules, applicable to all students, irrespective of discipline. You will find these are a good way of meeting and interacting with students from other disciplines and research institutes.

If you believe, and can demonstrate, that you are already competent in one or more of the skills listed in RCUK categories B-G, then you should discuss this with your supervisor from the start so that you are not spending time on activities which give you no additional benefit.