The Education, Training and Careers Committee (ETCC) met on 30 June 2022. The main items on the agenda were: Fellowship Review; Studentship Algorithm; CDT Strategy; Annual Student Survey Exercise; Fellowship Questionnaire.

Fellowship Review

Two meetings of the Fellowship Review sub-group have taken place so far. Points of discussion have included remit, nationality, demographic profiles, resubmission of applications, reasons for terminating or not taking up Ernest Rutherford Fellowship offers and reasons for transfers. The third meeting will focus on EDI and will include processes as well as data, to ensure that no aspects have a negative effect on EDI.

Studentship Algorithm

Following discussions from the March meeting, STFC presented ETCC with various simplified models of the studentship algorithm as well as a comparison of student allocations over the last ten years. ETCC discussed the models and agreed that no changes should be made to the current algorithm at this time.

CDT Strategy

ETCC agreed to further investigate a long-term strategy for establishing Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) for the future. This would also include a consideration of the skills that are required in the community and how CDTs and other studentship approaches could support those skills and drive research forward.

Annual Student Survey Exercise

ETCC noted the findings of the recent Annual Student Survey Exercise. The students targeted in the exercise are those who undertook their PhD between 2018 and 2022. The findings will be published on the STFC website in due course.

Fellowship Questionnaire

STFC issues a Post-Award questionnaire to holders of its Ernest Rutherford Fellowships. ETCC noted the statistical findings of the questionnaires from fellows who completed their fellowships between March 2021 and 2022.