TRAINING IN OPEN SCIENCE FOR PHD STUDENTS: THE STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

"Studies in recent years from around the world have shown that between 15 to 50% of PhD graduates go on to work in Higher Education (depending on the cohort studied and how “work” is defined). These figures have led to the “PhD crisis discourse” (Cuthbert & Molla, 2015). A key feature of the PhD crisis discourse is that universities are producing too many PhD graduates compared to the number of academic jobs available, and that graduates lack skills that render them employable in jobs outside academia. Thus PhD education has been moving towards a pro-skills development agenda, with a particular focus on transferrable skills. This poster presents work undertaken as part of an EU funded project – “Opening Doors”. The goal of this project is to shape more innovative, socially aware and integrative research graduates, ready to meet the challenges of the future through a training module in Open Science - the design of which was informed through stakeholder interviews and a co-design workshop. This was a for-credit, online, interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international learning experience that consisted of challenge-based learning with external organisations, lectures and activities about open science and open innovation, and included facilitated work on career planning. Course participants were invited to take part in entry and exit interviews and submitted a written reflection at the end of the course. Their perspectives on this training are presented here where issues around career prospects, communication in collaboration and a new understanding of impact were to the fore."