The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES): deep dive into supervision practices and experiences

Kay Renfrew Associate Consultant, Advance HE, UK

Kay Renfrew is an experienced consultant and researcher who has delivered assignments for clients in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She has a Masters degree in information management. Kay has expertise in data analysis and reporting, to assess project impact and performance.

This report, commissioned by RSVP and produced by Advance HE, analyses open-text responses from the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) between 2021 and 2025 to explore how research supervision shapes the postgraduate researcher (PGR) experience. Drawing on a sample of 1,000 respondents from UK higher education institutions, the analysis provides qualitative insights into supervision practices, complementing sector-wide satisfaction data.

The analysis examines comments from the open questions in PRES, specifically: comments from the dedicated supervision section of PRES; relevant supervision-related comments from the overall experience questions; and references to supervision within comments about other PRES dimensions (resources, research community, progress and assessment, skills development, and wellbeing).

The findings highlight the central role of effective supervision practice in supporting researcher progression, wellbeing, belonging, and professional development. Positive supervisory relationships are consistently associated with enhanced confidence, engagement and success, while poor supervision, absence, or supervisory turnover can negatively affect wellbeing, progression and completion. The report also identifies the importance of holistic supervisory support, ongoing supervisor development, clear expectations and accountability mechanisms. Overall, despite some variability in experience, the findings reinforce the significant value of high-quality research supervision practice and its impact on the wider doctoral journey.