RSVP Newsletter: September 2026

Sep 30

3 min read

🚨 Call for contributions deadline extended 🚨

New submission deadline: Wednesday 7 October 2026

You now have extra time to submit your contribution for the inaugural RSVP International Research Supervision Conference 2027!

Due to several requests for extensions, the call for contributions will now close at midnight on Wednesday 7 October 2026. Don't miss this opportunity to celebrate, challenge, collaborate, and cogitate on the value, purpose, effectiveness and quality of doctoral research supervision practice.

We welcome submissions from across the sector, including supervisors based in higher education or industry, postgraduate researchers (PGRs), industry partners, research managers, and policymakers, to share ideas and challenge the status quo across four flexible submission formats:

Scholarly papers
Interactive culture change workshops
Work in progress carousels
Platform pitch

Need last-minute guidance on submission formats, writing prompts, or selection criteria? Visit our website for top tips and to see what reviewers will be looking for.

Submit an abstract

View submission criteria

⌛ Update on free RSVP resources: what’s coming first?

The countdown is officially on! In just a few short weeks, we’ll release the first set of free professional development resources to support research supervisors. We can now exclusively reveal that this first release will focus specifically on writing and feedback.

Supporting PGRs with writing

Giving feedback on PGR writing

As part of the release, the full package of resources needed to deliver and adapt these interventions, as well as the rationale and evidence which underpins this work, will be shared. This will be supplemented by an online webinar that will provide an opportunity to explore these materials further in a discussion with the intervention author. Stay tuned for further updates!

📄 Latest releases in the RSVP Collection

To help shape data-informed supervision practice and policy, this month we published two new reports examining doctoral supervision through the lens of postgraduate researchers and Deans and Directors of Doctoral Schools (DDDs).

What do doctoral candidates really think about supervision?

RSVP, funded by Research England, commissioned Advance HE to conduct a ‘deep dive’ analysis of the qualitative responses from PRES. Examining 1,000 responses selected from over 100,000 PGRs’ surveys across five years (2021-2025), the report offers a unique lens on the current state of doctoral supervision in the UK.

Over five years of Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) data reveals a clear pattern: supervision shapes the PGR experience - not just in terms of academic progress, but in respect of isolation, wellbeing, and professional identity.

The full analysis also highlights how the intersection of supervisor support, team dynamics, and institutional culture contributes to a positive, or less positive, PGR experience.

Download the PRES Deep Dive report

How do Deans and Directors of Doctoral Schools (DDDs) characterise, oversee, and regulate supervisory practice?

Capturing insights from approximately 15% of the total body of UK DDDs, this report explores good and poor supervisory practice, and the DDDs’ experiences of addressing the latter. It unveils how these key players navigate varying institutional structures and disciplinary norms to identify and remedy situations affecting the experiences of their postgraduate researchers.

Interestingly, the DDDs challenged the framing of specific supervisory practices against a basic “good vs poor” dichotomy, and when reflecting on their responsibilities around poor supervision experiences, the DDDs’ responses fell into three distinct categories: oversight, response, and enhancement.

Download the DDDs focus group report

Is AI going to change the PhD?

While there is growing agreement that AI will transform the PhD, how this will happen remains uncertain. Key questions include what capabilities researchers will need, how to develop them, and how to confidently support doctoral researchers as expectations evolve.

As a partner of the AI.RDN+ project, we invite you to take part in this new survey on researcher development and AI. The survey is aimed at researcher developers and others involved in supporting doctoral researchers, including colleagues working in graduate schools, doctoral colleges, researcher development, research culture, careers and related roles

Take the survey (open until Friday 23 October)