Part-time postgraduate study can be an isolating experience, with students often having to balance their research with careers, family, or care commitments. Factoring remote working into this mix can leave postgraduate researchers (PGRs) without an established community to work within.

This post shares insights from a writing retreat we developed as part-time PGRs, for part-time PGRs. Our retreat was created by part-time PGRs from the School of Education, Learning, and Communication Sciences (SELCS), but was open to both part-time and full-time students within SELCS. We hope it’ll be useful for our part-time PGR colleagues out there, and for those who work with and support this cohort.

Planning a writing retreat tailored for part-time PGRs

What kinds of opportunities might part-time PGRs have less access to? Networking opportunities? Career development? An integrated PGR community? Institutional knowledge around part-time participation? All of the above? Addressing all of these was lot to achieve over a single weekend! With the support of a UKRI Enhancing Research Culture grant from the University of Warwick, a group of PGRs led by Cat Jones set out to design an event with the aim of improving the part-time PGR experience. Through a series of PGR-led co-planning meetings alongside steering groups with academics from SELCS, a plan was devised to run a 1.5 day residential event at Warwick’s Scarman conference facilities.

The planning meetings sought to strike a balance between writing time and collaboration time, providing a dedicated space for part-time students and developing links with full-time colleagues, and creating a focused yet supportive working environment. Mixed into this were discussions about travel and accommodation, catering, and structured fun. This led to a plan which the organising group believed would lead to a productive weekend for all attending.

But how would we know if it had been successful? After a lively discussion between more quantitative and qualitatively-minded colleagues, we settled on a breakfast focus group on the second day for the part-time students alongside a post-event survey for all attendees. The results of these informed the findings and recommendations from the event.

The Writing Retreat

Twenty-four PGRs (13 part-time, 11 full-time) and four staff arrived at Warwick on the morning of Saturday, June 22^nd to begin the retreat. The project leads created a WhatsApp community in the weeks leading up to the event to allow all participants the opportunity to share our research interests and ambitions for the weekend, but we were also offered the more traditional name badges and marker pens to help with the in-person introductions.

With the event being billed as a writing retreat, much of the weekend was focused on writing time. After a brief welcome, we were into our first of four focused writing sessions. These each lasted between one hour and ninety minutes, with provisions made to allow us to work in the way that best suited us. Whether we were looking for silent, focused table groups, discussions while sitting on bean bags, or something in between, the workspaces had been planned out to accommodate this.

Running alongside the sessions were opportunities for one-to-one coaching or academic mentoring sessions. These sessions were driven by the needs of the PGRs who chose to take part. Topics covered included planning for the later stages of the PhD journey, developing action plans, and exploring careers in academia. The chance to discuss these themes with supportive but unfamiliar professionals gave the PGRs new ideas and enthusiasm for their projects. The sessions were described as empowering and inspirational, and were a hugely worthwhile element of the retreat.

Each session was followed by a break with plenty of coffee and biscuits, with the hour-long lunch at the Lakeview restaurant providing a further opportunity for networking amongst part-time PGRs, full-time PGRs and academics. After the final session of the day, we gathered for a top-quality dinner and a fascinating Q&A session with four academics from Education Studies at Warwick. Themes discussed included bridging the gap between research and practice, establishing academic careers, and the research interests of our guest speakers.

The dinner was followed by time for more informal socialising before the first day drew to a close. Day Two started with breakfast and an optional focus group for the part-time PGR students, followed by a final writing session before we all returned home.

How impactful was the weekend? Did it add value beyond our normal studies? Should these weekends become a regular fixture in our calendars?

The Focus Group

During the planning stages of this project, we quickly established the need for a focus group rather than just a written questionnaire to allow the part-time PGRs space to discuss and develop their ideas around the writing retreat. Although this focus group was optional, it achieved 100% attendance with everyone having plenty of ideas to share.

The unique challenges of being a part-time PGR student 

The challenges of part-time study were our first theme of discussion. It was clear that no two experiences were the same, and that opportunities including the online coursework (e.g. Advance Research Methods) and the annual PGR conference were developed with accessibility for part-time students in mind. However, there were still feelings of isolation and not belonging to a community from some students, while the PGR and supervision experiences varied greatly between participants. With part-time students often having significant professional experience in other fields, we discussed how this could be greater utilised within PGR studies. Balancing studies around work, family, and other commitments were recurrent themes, although these would also be considerations for many full-time students, and those studying at other universities.

The writing retreat 

Having established the challenges of part-time study, we moved onto discussing whether the writing retreat had worked towards addressing these. There was a universal agreement that the event had developed a greater sense of connection and community, allowing students the chance to learn more about other people’s research, other departments, and the varying reality of part-time and full-time study for different students. Many people valued simply having the time away from their regular lives to give the headspace to focus on writing, while others discovered opportunities which they hadn’t known were available.

Actions following this project 

The part-time group were in agreement that this should not just be a one-off event but a launchpad to further actions. Suggestions offered included providing similar days but focusing on developing presentation skills, building key dates into the annual calendar to increase the likelihood of attendance, and adding in more regular optional events following the conclusion of the compulsory Advanced Research Methods course in the first year of study. While some believed these events should be exclusively for part-time students within the School of Education, Learning, and Communication Sciences, others felt there would be more value to opening such events out to all students within the faculty or even across disciplines.

There was a clear acknowledgement that nothing would work for everyone, due to the varying nature of part-time study between individuals, so a menu of events at different times would increase the likelihood of PGRs being able to attend at least some of them.

Recommendations and Next Steps

Combining the feedback from the focus group with the exit questionnaire has enabled us to provide a series of recommendations for effectively supporting part-time PGRs – see figure below.

These have been expanded on further in the official project report, and we are currently working on co-authoring an empirical journal article examining the extent to which the co-produced writing retreat met the needs of part-time PGRs. We also disseminated the findings of the project at the International Research Culture Conference at Warwick on 16^th September 2024.

Overall, this project has been a valuable experience for those involved, and we hope to see a strengthened part-time PGR community develop as a result of it.

While our project was based around a group of postgraduate courses at the University of Warwick, we believe that our findings and recommendations will be of use to the wider research community. Part-time PGRs can add great value to the research community, particularly in fields such as Education where many part-time students also bring in current practitioner knowledge of the professional sector being studied. For course leads, reviewing provision to ensure inclusivity for part-time PGRs can lead to improved retention and research outcomes. For our part-time colleagues, we hope that our project highlights the impact your voice can have in shaping your own PGR experience, and provides ideas which could be implemented to increase your involvement within your departments.

Author Bio: Chris Guerin is a sixth year part-time PhD student at the University of Warwick, and an Assistant Principal at a Birmingham secondary school.