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The PGR Voice Survey ran between 12 May and 20 June 2025. A big thank you to all of the postgraduate researchers who participated, and to all of the staff who supported this. 

The survey closed with an overall response rate of 40% (1227 students). We heard from PGRs at all stages of their programme in Schools across the University, giving us an in-depth and representative insight into the PGR experience.

Headline results  

The results were positive overall, and an improvement on the previous PGR Voice Survey - PGRs responded to most questions more positively than in 2023.  

The vast majority of PGRs (94.2%) reported that their overall experience has been excellent, good or satisfactory (92.0% in 2023). 78.4% of respondents told us that the research culture in their School is positive or very positive (74.0% in 2023), and 93.3% said that their experience had fully or partially matched the expectations they had when they started their programme (92.9% in 2023). 78.3% of students still in their tuition fee paying period expect to submit during this timeframe (73.6% in 2023). 

As in the previous survey, the strongest results were in the Supervision section - 87.7% of students rated their supervision as good or excellent (84.3% in 2023), and the comments in this section were predominantly very positive. We know that supervision is a key factor in  students’ overall experience, and are proud of the good work that is happening in this area.  

One of the biggest improvements was in the Training and Development section - 78.4% rated the overall training offer as good or excellent (66.3% in 2023). This was an area of focus for us following the previous survey, particularly making training easier to browse and access, so we are pleased to see this improvement. However, PGRs once again identified this as the number one thing they think we should focus on to most improve PGR experience, so we will continue to prioritise work in this space over the coming year. 

One of our other key priorities following the previous survey was the experience of disabled PGRs, as they responded less positively than students without disabilities in 2023. In 2025 the responses from disabled PGRs improved throughout the survey - in 2023, 66.7% of disabled students agreed that the environment in their School was supportive, this has increased to 79.2% in 2025. A higher proportion of students are now engaging with the Disability and Dyslexia Support Service (DDSS), and are happier with their experience (77.5% of service-users rated their experience positively in 2023, this rose to 89.1% in 2025). There are still several areas where disabled students continue to respond less positively than students without disabilities however, and we understand there is still work to be done to ensure a fully equitable experience across the University. 

As well as the quantitative data, PGRs provided detailed written feedback on many aspects of their experience: some key themes included PGR workspaces, the Elsevier big deal, GTA opportunities, use of Generative AI, and additional challenges for particular groups of students. 

Actions 

The  has conducted a detailed analysis of the 2025 PGR Voice survey and identified a number of priority areas. We have created an action plan to improve the experience of our current and future PGRs. The current financial position of the university means that it is challenging to obtain resources for new initiatives, so we are working hard to use what we do have more effectively, through better joined-up working across teams and identifying examples of good practice that can be applied more widely. Below you will find projects that are underway or scheduled to begin soon, grouped by theme.

Careers and employability

• A 'Postgraduate and Researcher Careers Fortnight' will take place from the 15th to 25th of June 2026, offering a wide range of sessions and workshops. 
• A self-directed digital course will be launched in the Autumn focussing on post-PhD careers development. This will include an optional in-person session to explore the topics further.
• A new online Researcher Careers Hub is currently under development for an Autumn launch. This will bring together a wide range of resources and contain an events calendar to keep track of available opportunities.  
• The Careers Service will now feed into the annual PGR Quality Assurance cycle, (which all Schools take part in) to ensure joined-up working to identify needs and enable support to be targeted more effectively.  
• A School PGR Leads Network focussed on PGR careers took place on 24th March 2026, where common challenges were discussed and examples of good practice were shared.
• We have liaised with Schools to promote the Supervisionaries training session “” to increase supervisors’ confidence in this area.   

Training and development

The survey indicated that female PGRs wanted more opportunities to attend leadership training. As a result the Researcher Development team ran a new 2-day ‘She Leads’ event on 7-8th of May. The event was a great success and will look to be repeated in the future.

Disability support

• All Schools now have a Student Inclusion Officer who is the designated point of contact for disabled PGRs for wellbeing and inclusion support. This standardised approach will provide a consistent level of service across the university. Student Inclusion Officers will work with colleagues in the Doctoral Schools and supervisors to advise them on implementing learning support plans for PGR students. 
• New guidance and resources are currently being developed for supervisors to think about how they can most effectively support disabled students at each stage of the PGR journey. This will be launched later in the year.
• During PGR voice events with both School Inclusion Officers and Doctoral School teams, we have promoted guidance on planning for PGR programmes and how to better support students who are returning from an LOA.. 

Generative AI

• The survey asked about your understanding of AI and how you are currently using it within your research. This has informed our  which was launched as part of the refreshed . 
• This year more specific guidance for PGRs will be added to the Code of Practice on how/when you should disclose any use of AI tools within your research. 

GTA opportunities

• You told us about your concerns about the reduction in formal teaching opportunities, particularly within Arts & Humanities. As a result the Faculty has developed a new Teaching Development Recognition Scheme in partnership with Elevate to provide students with alternative opportunities to gain teaching experience during their programme. The scheme will run again next year in the School of English, with both the faculty of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences committed to extending the trial in the next academic year. 
• The university will be conducting a survey about GTA experiences later this year, which has been developed in partnership with the campus trade unions, to better understand the current issues and evaluate how well the new  is working. 

Workspace

After receiving feedback from UPGRC, Estates and Facilities Management will introduce technology to better monitor and gauge how PGR spaces are being utilised. This data will be used to inform any space developments in line with the new Campus Masterplan, which was recently approved by the University. 

Library resources

• The university took part in national-level negotiations with Elsevier throughout 2025, to seek price reductions that would make access to content more affordable. Unfortunately no agreement was reached so ScienceDirect currently remains unaffordable for the university.
• The Library will work with Schools or research areas who rely on Elsevier publications to understand what alternative support could be put in place. 
• The Library has resubscribed to around 30 journals with the highest usage, and are continuing to review whether further subscriptions would offer a cost-effective way to improve access. 
• The Library will raise awareness of the range of alternative services to access Elsevier content, including how to locate open-access versions of articles. Improvements  will be made to the inter-library loan service to make it easier to request an article, which already provides around 50% of requests within 2 hours.  
• A new service is being developed to provide immediate access to selected articles for researchers undertaking systematic reviews or other meta-analysis. 
• Support will be provided to university authors, to ensure they are aware that they can continue to publish with Elsevier, using the University’s rights retention policy to maintain open access.

Any questions?

If you have any questions, you can email the PGR Voice Team on pgrvoice@sheffield.ac.uk

We conduct an institutional PGR survey every two years, the next is planned for spring 2027.