Dr Billy Bryan is a senior consultant at Technopolis-Group and continues his extracurricular work as a researcher of doctoral value with Dr Kay Guccione. He completed his PhD in Medical Education at the University of Sheffield. He is a trustee at Sussex Students’ Union and is on the advisory board of the Cardiovascular Research Trust.
Involving postgraduate researchers (PGRs) in activities outside of their direct area of study can feel like going ‘off-script’. Perhaps you consider that they have enough going on and that taking part in extracurriculars might seem like an unnecessary addition to their to-do lists. But the ‘extra’ doesn’t have to mean ‘burdensome’ or ‘surplus to requirement’. There are incredible hidden benefits to extracurricular activities that can enrich the doctoral experience, build researcher independence, enhance creativity and help graduates get the jobs they want.
Demonstrating independence is more than just being able to manage a doctoral research project. It is the ability to critically appraise the world around us, and to develop questions and methods of answering them. These critical skills are increasingly seen as valuable by employers outside of academia who snap-up most doctoral graduates after their studies. However, at department level, the typical doctoral programme in the UK tends to assume every PGR will want to become an academic, neglecting to adequately prepare them for a range of career paths, or positioning such careers as ‘alternative’. This leaves the researchers (and heroic doctoral development staff) to parse the hidden curriculum to work out what careers are out there and how to access them.
Extracurricular activities are a way of both learning about, and better preparing PGRs for, a range of non-academic careers. Most people think of extracurriculars as playing on a sports team or doing extra work on their supervisor’s side project. In fact, anything done alongside the doctoral project can be thought of as ‘extracurricular’. Important skills are built for life and work post-graduation, particularly improved self-regulation (i.e. researcher independence) by planning, managing and reflecting on activities outside of the doctoral project, which non-academic employers find so valuable.
We can use three (non-exhaustive and interrelated) groups to describe the kinds of extracurriculars a researcher might do:
- Doctorate adjacent – publishing articles, reviewing journal submissions, sitting on departmental committees, organising and attending conferences, organising journal clubs and writing groups etc – there are many existing online guides for this type of activity
- Academic side-hustles – paid or unpaid internships, research assistant roles, public engagement activities, schools outreach, tutoring, teaching, supplemental qualifications and professional recognition, writing for a magazine etc
- Social and community – volunteering at a food bank, campaigning at the students’ union, fundraising for charity, organising in the community, taking part in clubs and hobbies etc.
Postgraduate researchers can hugely benefit from these ‘hidden curriculum’ experiences which support, empower and enable them to succeed during and after their doctorates. Dr Kay Guccione and I conducted research into how graduates derive value from their doctorates and found that extracurricular experiences helped prepare doctoral graduates to secure non-academic jobs and build skills they might not otherwise have gained in their doctoral programme. Participation in extracurricular activities can also bring wider academic, social and wellbeing benefits, and help PGRs feel like they ‘belong’ in their academic community. Extracurriculars can help combat loneliness and mental health difficulties, which are increasingly prevalent in doctoral populations.
However, access to extracurricular activity is not equal. Researchers who study part-time, remotely, have caring responsibilities, are disabled or chronically ill, or who or are self-funded are less likely have the time or resource to get involved. Immigrants, women, people of colour and people with disabilities, do not enjoy the same level of access and comfort in academic and professional spaces as what is thought of as the ‘typical’ doctoral candidate (young, white and fully funded).
Extracurricular opportunities and the support to access them should be a permanent and inclusive feature of all doctoral development programmes. Specifically, they should include the following design features:
Staff-PGR partnerships
Staff and PGRs planning and implementing extracurriculars together is not only an effective model for engagement, it reinforces the idea to everyone involved that doctoral education should be holistic. Supervisors (and other direct academic colleagues) are the most influential actors in the doctoral journey. Their building in time for, or helping to organise, extracurricular activities gives implicit permission to researchers to engage in professional and personal development, positioning it as a normal part of academic life, rather than something to hide.
Strategies include: PGR representation on academic and community forums; industry placements that are actively supported by supervisors; co-led PGR-staff training sessions, PGR representative/ambassador programmes – NB: these activities should not exploit the labour of PGRs and remuneration should be offered.
Be driven by the needs of postgraduate researchers
Postgraduate researchers should be empowered to lead and/or inform what kind of extracurriculars are offered to them. Simple surveys combined with ongoing structured or informal dialogue should take place to find out what PGRs are interested in, what skills they want to sharpen and what would motivate them to come and participate. Good dialogue also helps identify access issues. ‘Discovery’ type sessions (e.g. interactive panel discussions with doctoral graduates in very different sectors) should also be offered for those who want to develop but don’t know in what or how they might do it. Researchers being enabled to lead or co-lead the activities helps to build leadership and organisational skills, and is likely to make the activity more relevant to their needs as well as their CVs.
Strategies include: PGR-led departmental fora and consultation; routine departmental review of Training Needs Analysis or annual planning documents; alumni careers seminars showcasing sectors/occupations of interest; regular departmental forums on hot topics; mentoring; PGR exit surveys or interviews.
Have a diverse menu of accessible opportunities
Development needs will naturally be different for each individual student and so the extracurricular offering should reflect that. Career, academic, leadership skills and social and network-budling activities should feature equally, as not everyone is careerist nor does everyone want to come to social gatherings. Equally, not everyone can attend events in the evening or lunchtime, or feel comfortable in purely academic spaces dominated by certain groups.
Strategies include: Rotating the days and times of activities; creating specific self-paced online learning resources; circulating videos and notes from each activity; using different accessible venues and different online platforms; highlight a range of different experiences of study, career choice and employment.
Throughout the different highs and lows of the doctoral journey most PGRs will be looking to meet likeminded people, try something new, connect into new networks, and improve their chances of getting their dream role. They will learn better what their development needs are and how to address them now and post-graduation if they are empowered to participate in extracurriculars. Their ability to independently explore ‘off script’ opportunities will serve them well in whatever they do in future.
It’s time to take advantage of the hidden curriculum of doctoral development by making extracurriculars ‘the norm’ for researchers and all those involved in guiding them towards life post-doctorate.
The hidden curriculum in doctoral education 