Undergraduates 'poorly prepared for PhDs'

Lack of independent working blamed for difficulties making the leap from undergraduate
to doctoral work
Undergraduate courses are not properly equipping students to pursue doctorates,
meaning that many undertaking PhDs are less confident than those in past cohorts, a
conference has heard.
Alison Hodge, professor of engineering leadership at Aston University, made the
warning as universities prepare for a new government loan scheme that could help more
students to enter doctoral study.
Undergraduate programmes have been quite heavily structured, she told delegates at
a conference in London on 7 April. Course leaders have tried to encourage
independence among undergraduates, but students are nonetheless less confident,
less standalone when they embark on PhDs, than in the past, she said.
Later during the conference, she added: With the expansion in numbers there are more
people going into PhDs than perhaps were formerly. But not all of these have the
independence, self-reliance and slightly rebellious streak needed to get through a
doctorate, Professor Hodge warned.
More students believe having done well at undergraduate level that they can sail
through a PhD using the same ways of working, she argued. The conference heard that
a sizeable minority of PhD students still start a doctorate without studying a masters
first.
Asked whether she agreed with Professor Hodge, Clare Jones, a senior careers advisor
for research staff and students at the University of Nottingham, said: I do think there is
a bigger difference [now] between being on an undergraduate programme and then
moving through to a PhD.
New PhD students need to get hold of the fact very quickly that they are working
differently, she said.

A total of 12.8 per cent of research degree students in England will end up leaving
without a qualification within seven years, according to projections by the Higher
Education Council for England (Hefce) relating to those who started a doctorate in 201011. However, this is a very slight improvement on earlier cohorts.
In March's Budget, it was confirmed that from 2018-19 doctoral students will be able to
take on a 25,000 loan to help cover the cost of a PhD.
Steven Hill, Hefces head of research policy, told the event, Next Steps for Postgraduate
Research: Funding, Quality of Provision and the High-Skilled Workforce, organised by
the Westminster Higher Education Forum, that this sum would not cover the full living
and fees cost of a PhD. Many students would therefore still need to find other sources of
funding.
Dr Hill added that 56 per cent of postgraduate research students now enter with a
masters qualification, a figure that had been increasing in recent years