Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)

PRES 2013 is currently live in 121 institutions and runs until 16 May. If you're a postgraduate researcher, your institution will give you a link to use to enter the survey.

PRES

PRES is a unique service provided by the Higher Education Academy to all higher education providers. The survey collects feedback from current postgraduate research students in a systematic and user-friendly way. Results are anonymous, allowing comparison against the sector and within benchmarking clubs, while ensuring that they are used for internal enhancement. You can see the new PRES questionnaire here.


Key Benefits of PRES

  • Evidence from across the sector that PRES informs enhancements to the experience of postgraduate researchers.
  • As a sector-wide survey (31,202 postgraduates from 102 institutions participated in 2011), PRES is a unique opportunity to benchmark your PGR provision against aggregated results for the sector as a whole and benchmarking groups.
  • Each institution’s results are confidential and the focus of the survey is on enhancement rather than league tables.
  • Institutions can add their own questions to the survey allowing it to be tailored to local needs.
  • The survey runs between March and May allowing time to analyse and report on results in advance of the next academic year.
  • The HEA provides extensive support for the administration of the survey and advice on analysing and using the results to make positive changes.
  • Included as part of your HEA subscription with no further charge from the HEA, PRES offers great value for money as a way of evaluating the experiences of your entire PRES cohort (Institutions must have a valid Bristol Online Surveys licence including survey access control).
  • The survey is also available for a fee to other higher education providers, including those outside the UK


Using PRES for Enhancement

The data collected by PRES are designed to inform enhancements to the student learning experience. In addition to delivering the PRES (and PTES) surveys to the sector, the Higher Education Academy also provides resources and runs events on using student surveys (both undergraduate and postgraduate) for enhancement.

For case-studies of how institutions have used PRES for enhancement, please see Using PRES to enhance the experience of postgraduate researchers.
This resource will continue to grow so if you would like to contribute a case-study, please contact us at surveys@heacademy.ac.uk

Our flagship event is the annual Surveys for Enhancement Conference. Information about the 2013 conference can be found at:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/16_May_S4E_conference_2013

Presentations from 2012 conference can be found at:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/17-may-surveys-for-enhancement



Further Information

Contact

surveys@heacademy.ac.uk

+44 (0)1904 717500