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Graduate schools in the UK and Ireland: What are they?

At most universities, students can enrol to complete a PhD, Masters by Research, or other research degrees. One of the key decisions of universities around graduate research is related to whether a central unit—sometimes called a graduate school—should administer these courses. Although many considerations may shape this decision, the existing trends at universities could be informative


In 2021, the UK Council for Graduate Education conducted a survey that explores this matter. They discovered that about 75% of UK and Irish universities that award graduate research degrees have established a central academic unit to administer these courses. This percentage was only 38% in 1994 but had reached 76% by 2009. Although usually called a graduate school, this unit has sometimes been labelled a doctoral college, doctoral school, or doctoral academy.


This central unit or graduate school almost invariably governs the PhD but in about 70% of instances in the UK and 60% of instances in Ireland also governs the Masters by Research. Yet, this unit may also support other students or even staff. For example


  • about 9% of UK graduate and 20% of Irish graduate schools also assist students enrolled in Masters by coursework rather than research

  • about 40% of graduate schools assist early career researchers—appreciably higher than was the 17% of graduate schools that assisted early career researchers in 2015.

  • some graduate schools facilitate the development of all research staff as well

  • some graduate schools support the training of research supervisors.

The number of staff employed in graduate schools varies across universities. Sometimes, fewer than 3 staff are employed by these graduate schools full time. Sometimes, more than 20 staff are employed by these graduate schools. Perhaps the most common number is between 6 and 10. The number of staff did not seem to depend greatly on the number of graduate researchers. For example, in two instances, the number of graduate researchers was low—at fewer than 700—but the number of staff in the graduate school exceeded 20.


Even leadership varied across the graduate schools. Although directed by one leader in 90% of instances, occasionally the schools were led by an executive body or by two individuals: perhaps a dean and a deputy vice chancellor of research. When directed by one leader, the individual was usually a dean or director but was sometimes a pro vice chancellor of research, a deputy vice chancellor of research, or even a provost.


Strategic priorities also varied across the graduate schools. The most common priorities revolved around funding doctoral education, career development of doctoral education, wellbeing of graduate research students, student satisfaction, and enhancing supervision. Similarly, the majority of graduate schools were heavily involved in the enhancement of progress and completion, improvements in the student experience, coordination of responses to national consultations or accreditation bodies, quality assurance, and the website. Fewer than 20% of graduate schools were involved in pre-doctoral bridging or pathway programs, attraction of exemplary research staff, or liaison with industry.

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