Research Success and Structured support: Managing early career academics in Higher Education.

Dr Hilary GeberCentre for Learning, Teaching and Development

University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050, South Africa

Tel: +27 11 717-1485 Fax: +27 11 717-1489E-mail: geberh@cltd.wits.ac.za

Fighting for Harmony - students, society and the academy in tune EAIR Forum Vilnius 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania, 23-26 August 2009

University of the Witwatersrand Strategic Goal - 2020 target

Increase the number of academic staff holding PhDs from the current 48% to 70%.

322 without PhDs to be qualified in the next 12 years

Publication rate – increase to 1.5 pa.Increased support & management of

research

Doctoral graduation rates in South Africa

Ranking: UP, UNISA, UCT,US, WITS, UKZN, UFS, UJ, NWU, RU.

Total graduates 1990 - 2004 = 11250Wits:

1990-1992 228

1993-1995 2311996-1998 1991999-2001 2062002-2004 243Total 1107

National shortage of PhDs in the system. 6-7 years to reach 1500 pa

Source: Mouton, 2007

Characteristics of prolific researchers

Robust self esteem, resilience and persistence

Good time and stress management skillsRealistic perception of workload Prolifics engage in consistent, persistent

daily writing, in small bite-sized chunks Prolific writers are networked and have a

community of engaged, interested writers/readers and fellow scholars

Characteristics of prolific researchers

Prolifics have had significant mentors.Prolifics tend to be in stable partnerships /

relationships / marriages. Men and older / more senior academics

tend to be more prolific than women, and younger academics.

Attend international conferences early in career

‘Structured support for Research Success’ Programme

Launched 20073 Professional coaches trained in 2006-710 Academics selected according to

criteriasubstantial progress towards completion of

higher degree, with completion within 18 months from the beginning of programme.

Initial surveyParticipants paired with coaches

‘Structured support for Research Success’ Programme

Hard SkillsResearch Writing SkillsVoice & Presentation SkillsEffective Speed ReadingTime & Stress Management IT tools: MindManager; Virtual training; Visual

ThesaurusHow to write NRF funding proposals

Soft skillsCoaching (12 sessions offered)

Participants

3 obtained PhD before Research Support programme

1 registered for PhD during Research Support programme

4 Registered for MSc in Health Sciences2 Dropouts

Purpose of the study

Structured written surveys & in-depth interviews

Does a structured programme help early career academics achieve their research goals?

What aspects of the structured programme are most beneficial?

Hard Skillsoffered by programme

Research Writing Skills All attendedVoice & Presentation Skills All attendedEffective Speed Reading 5 attendedTime & Stress Management 7 attendedIT tools: Mindmanager; Virtual training; Visual Thesaurus – 3 obtained theseHow to write NRF funding proposals1 attended

Findings

Differing expectations of the programme – career development; publications; and personal development

The effectiveness of goal setting within the programme

The effectiveness of the core courses offered by the programme

The effectiveness of coaching during the programme

The tangible outcomes of the programme

Career development expectations

‘To obtain skills in research writing and guidance in managing my time and tasks effectively. I also wanted to learn strategies to become an effective an independent researcher.’

‘I hoped that through the course I would be able to get a better understanding of how to do good research. I wanted to equip myself with the tools that I could use in my research. I specifically wanted to get a grasp of how to improve my writing skills.’

Expectations about establishing a publication record

Expected to write a number of papers, have some systematic follow-up on progress, and tracking of their own writing deadlines.

‘I was registered for an M.Sc, and having trouble getting going, not getting lot of feedback from my 2 supervisors. I was hoping the programme would help.’

Personal development expectations

to work on strengthening personal attributes which they felt they needed to develop for being more effective researchers.

Goal setting within the programme

‘Especially for someone like me who is just starting out in an academic career, it is too easy to get bogged down with teaching, with the result that research and writing papers tends to fall by the wayside if there aren’t structures in place to draw one’s attention and focus back to these areas periodically.’

Setting specific goals for the year

Career development

Publication

Personal development

The effectiveness of the core courses Research Writing

Participants fall into three groups – those who experience an immediate

transformation and who begin to write and produce writing prolifically;

others are enabled to get through the writing of articles and academic work in a more enjoyable way but do not become prolific writers;

others simply do not change enough to change their old habits or attitudes and do not become productive writers (Badenhorst, 2008).

Research Writing

The course revolutionised the way academics write, how they think about writing and how they view themselves as writers.

It provides many explicit explanations of what happens in the writing processs and techniques.

It empowers participants to take charge of their writing.

It deconstructs some of the mystery about writing.

This does not replace research methodology courses

The effectiveness of the core courses Voice & Presentation Skills

public speaking at conference

presentations and in classrooms

Foreign academics and second language English speakers find it quite difficult to make themselves understood

The effectiveness of the core coursesEffective Speed Reading& Time & Stress Management

Helpful in dealing with reading load for research, literature reviews, reports.

Provided simple but effective ways to avoid time wasting and more efficient ways of managing time.

Coaching programme criteria

There is no transgression on the domain of the supervisor.

The coaches limit their input to providing personal support to participants to achieve their higher degree / research goals.

Participants and coaches enter into a contract explicitly defining objectives.

Coaching programme criteria

The participants take personal responsibility for achieving the agreed objectives in co-active coaching

Each contract constitutes a ‘coaching programme’ of 12 coaching sessions face-to-face.

Coaching is a completely confidential process. No information about any participant is supplied to any party by a coach.

Coaching offered by programme

Goal setting with coaches

3 PhDs: 5 to 12 sessions

1 PhD candidate & 4 M Sc candidates : 12 & several additional sessionsNeed much more support in managing research

outputs & academic discourse

The effectiveness of coaching

Coaching helped with interactions with colleagues, departmental heads, and students.

Coaches who are familiar with the Higher Education discourse are able to weave the strands of the core courses together

Coaches were instrumental in helping participants achieve their goals and keeping them on track.

Tangible outputs from the structured support for research success programme

Papers accepted for publication International - 2(WM) 2National - 1(IF); 7(A, WM) 8

Papers under review - 3(I, WF); 1(WM) 4

Conference presentations National - 1 (CM) 1 International - 2 (I, AF); 2 (A, CM) 4

Conference presentation prize- International - 1 (IF) 1

Tangible outputs from the structured support for research success programme

NRF Rating - 1 (WM) 1

Grant funding NRF funding – National - 1 (IF) 1 (WM) 2Grant funding – International - 3 (WM) 3

MSc completed - 1(AF) 1Promotion - 1(IF); 2(C, WM) 3

Overall evaluation of the programme

The structured support for research success programme has shown that:

a wide variety of support programmes essentialand coaching even for a rather limited period of

less than a year has a dramatic effect gets young researchers into a position where

they perform well and view themselves as successful and independent researchers.

enables supervisors & managers to track research outputs more consistently