The AHRC has been seeking to work with institutions to improve the submission rates of doctoral students in the arts and humanities.
To this end, it has implemented a policy of penalising institutions where the submission rate of students supported by the Council falls below certain thresholds. Institutions identified in the survey with submission rates below the target thresholds are then rendered ineligible to submit applications and receive awards for doctoral students for two years.
The implementation of the Block Grants Partnerships (BGP) scheme and the Studentship Competition in 2009 has led to the AHRC reviewing its policy on submission rates. As studentships held within a BGP are allocated to institutions by subject area rather than by department, the AHRC no longer applies sanctions at a departmental level. As of the 2008 submission rate survey exercise, sanctions are applied at an institutional level only. The subsequent move from the Studentship Competition to the Block Grants Partnership: Capacity Building Route for studentships commencing in October 2011 does not affect this policy.
Changes to thresholds
As a direct result of this change, the AHRC will be increasing the percentage threshold for submissions at an institutional level from 60% to 70%.
The minimum number of students required for an institution to be subject to sanctions will also be raised from 4 to 8.
The AHRC will implement these increases over a two year period. The new policy of sanctioning at an institutional level only was implemented for the 2008 submission rate survey exercise with increases in thresholds in subsequent years as follows:
|
Survey Year |
Minimum number of students |
Institutional threshold |
|
2008 |
4 |
60% |
|
2009 |
6 |
65% |
|
2010 |
8 |
70% |
For full details of our submission rate policy and procedures can be found in the Submission Rate Survey Guidance (75kb).