Reflections on the ESRC internship scheme for postgraduates

Daniel Bos,Robin Finlay,Peter Hopkins,Jenny Lloyd,Michael Richardson

doi:10.1080/03098265.2016.1260099

Abstract

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the UK is one of the main sources of funding for postgraduate study in human geography. For some years now, the ESRC has offered funded students the opportunity to apply to undertake a short internship in a government department or with a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). This paper provides a collective reflection from the perspective of four former postgraduates who completed different ESRC supported internships in the UK. We discuss the enhancement of writing skills for diverse audiences, the advancement of knowledge in diverse subject areas, and the opening up of employment opportunities as key benefits of participating in the ESRC internship scheme.

Highlights

A major source of funding for postgraduate study in human geography in the UK is the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of Research Councils UK (RCUK)
As the ESRC have devolved much of the responsibility for doctoral funding to Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs) – which have recently been recommissioned into Doctoral Training Partnerships
This paper provides a reflection of the ESRC Internship Scheme

Summary

Background

A major source of funding for postgraduate study in human geography in the UK is the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of Research Councils UK (RCUK). For a number of years they offered CASE (Co-operative Award in Science and Engineering) studentships, which involved the student conducting their doctoral studies collaboratively with an outside organization such as a local government department or Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) (who made a small financial contribution to the studentship) These studentships helped RCUK to meet its objectives around knowledge transfer (Demeritt & Lees, 2005) or knowledge exchange (Munro, 2016) between universities and external organizations. Different models of CASE studentships emerged, one being the collaborative studentship between the ESRC and the Scottish Government where broad topics were advertised and potential supervisors had to apply to become the supervisor of the project upon which, they would recruit a student to take the project forward for their doctoral studies (see Reid & McCormick, 2010) These studentships often involved annual one-month placements in a Scottish Government department where students were offered the opportunity to see the research and policy process in operation.

Aims and approach

Findings

Conclusion