Political Science: A Look at the Discipline from a Postgraduate Perspective

In: Politics, Band 16, Heft 2, S. 113-120

Abstract

Research has become increasingly important within social science since the introduction of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The RAE has served to simultaneously focus the attention of academic institutions upon research output and emphasise the obvious penalties of poor performance in this area in terms of potentially lower academic status, lower income and lower student numbers. Academic institutions have, therefore, begun to pay an increasing amount of attention to postgraduate research and the needs of postgraduates. This article questions the extent to which institutions are actually meeting these needs and reviews the extent to which institutions reap the potential benefits that employment of postgraduates can bring.