This response to the ESRC Research Training Consultation was sent to the ESRC Training Board:
The following recommendations are the product of a one day workshop hosted by SOAS postgraduate students on 11 June 1999. The proceedings were financially supported by the National Network for Teaching and Learning Anthropology. The one day workshop, entitled Alternatives and Innovation: imagining the future of Research Anthropology brought together 25 MPhil/PhD students from anthropology departments across the country, including Cambridge, Edinburgh, Goldsmiths, Kent, Manchester, SOAS, and UCL, to discuss current training provision in anthropology. Discussions were informed by the ESRC Consultation Remit and the Postgraduate Training Guidelines and were aimed specifically at providing a student response to the ESRC Training Board Consultation.
While most of the points as laid out in the consultation document were raised and given consideration during the Workshop, not all are included in this response as many were considered to be beyond the arena of ëstudent concerní. The issues of greatest interest centred around the question of how to enhance existing research training so that students may be better prepared not just for the PhD research project but a professional career in various fields beyond the PhD.
1) SUGGESTIONS ON NATURE OF RESEARCH TRAINING
Generally, participants were disturbed at the levels of discrepancies which existed between training provisions in different institutions (Cambridge was flagged up as having a particularly rigorous programme). While flexibility was seen as very important, it was agreed that some level of harmonisation would be a useful goal, and consensus was reached on the following points:
a) more training is generally required in practical fieldwork methodologies and techniques (e.g. audio visual skills development; interview techniques; field notes production);
b) more emphasis should be placed on language training, and institutions should ensure that adequate provision is made for that training;
c) training should not be focused in the first year of the PhD programme alone, but ongoing with more opportunities for post-fieldwork acquisition of a variety of skills, such as ëwritingí or ëpresentationí workshops;
d) more specific, enforceable and enforced guidelines should be disseminated to supervisors, with corresponding information made available to students;
e) greater institutional and financial support should be given to student-led initiatives (like the SOAS E@TM seminar), including seminars and workshops which should also be recognised as an integral part of official training programmes. The flexibility of student designed and run seminars would allow students themselves to tailor their research training programme according to the broad needs of different yearsí constituencies, and also according to the evolving needs of students during the first intensive year of training.
2) BALANCE BETWEEN VOCATIONAL AND RESEARCH TRAINING
It was felt that existing courses are biased towards preparing students for an academic rather than ëappliedí career. Although it was agreed that such courses play a vital part, it was also agreed that there should a greater emphasis on courses that aim to develop studentsí professional skills through, for example, consultancy workshops, journal editing and the possibility of job placements.
3) ENCOURAGING INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Departments should be encouraged to share resources to a greater degree. For example, ICT departments could provide training for other departments in the use of multi-media. Students would also benefit from a greater degree of co-ordination between departments in different institutions.
4) THE BALANCE OF FUNDING BETWEEN PART-TIME AND FULL-TIME STUDY
Participants expressed that there should be greater support both financial and practical (e.g. in coursework organisation and time tabling) for those wishing to study part time for the MPhil/PhD degree. Such an arrangement would enable students to combine vocational and academic development, while also enabling students with extra-academic commitments to accommodate these various obligations.