Method In order to gauge the attitudes of PhD students who do teaching work it was considered appropriate to use a survey that could be completed by as many students as possible. The survey questionnaire was initially designed by the PhD section of the UCU at QUB. This was then revised and edited by the UCU committee, with input from the Students’ Union (SU), before being updated and prepared for delivery by the SU. The “Survey Monkey” platform was used and the link for this was sent to the secretaries of all schools to be forwarded to all PhD students. This message was conveyed by most departments, although no responses were forthcoming from some. The survey was first conducted in April 2016.
The survey was designed to give a thorough overview of how many students do work for the university, how much time this takes, how much they are paid, and what, if any, work they are expected to do without pay. The data was also analysed to show discrepancies between schools.
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