Description

Doing a doctorate – alongside making contributions to knowledge – can be a life changing experience but the system as it stands is far too heavily geared around unconstructive gatekeeping.

The ongoing negative implications of this, through the unrepresentative demographics of the academic workforce and how it refracts into a lack of inclusion in our university cultures, are immense.

UKRI’s new deal for postgraduate researchers is a welcome step, but there are arguably still far too many unnecessary barriers that could and should be abolished, clarified or lowered.

Untangling this all of this requires more than tinkering, and for a lot of things to be significantly changed.