Daily Junction

They say that students, academics and researchers live in a world of ideas. Well, yes we do – and what a dynamic world it is - so it is about time we broadcast them to the world. Daily Junction offers a line-up of different interactive discussion sections for each day of the week. Browse, select and/or interact with your favorite daily forum, ranging from the latest news in academia, news and global affairs editorials, and interviews with featured Graduate Junction researchers as well as other individuals making an impact upon your graduate community. You can subscribe to the whole blog or just your favorite days with the RSS feed in order to keep up to date with all the latest goings-on at Daily Junction.

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Overseas Numbers Rising

It appears that rising number of students moving overseas to study is pushing up UK immigration figures and causing some people in government to complain louder than ever for the introduction of a cap on immigration. According to this article more students than ever before are interested in pursuing PhDs overseas. A brief look around the web reveals that numbers of international students are reaching record numbers in many countries around the world. The reason for this trend is obvious and comes from the mutual benefit foe both students and universities. Students get to study at world renowned education systems and universities benefit both financially and from the diversity that is provided, bringing innovation and cultural mix to their instituion.

A report from Universities UK showed that in 1998/9 there were just 117,290 international students at UK universities and by 2007/8 the figure had shot up to 229,640 - an increase of 96 per cent.

This trend is now starting to influence government decision makers. Although fewer people moved to the UK in 2009, the overall immigration figure rose by 20 per cent as fewer people left. Figures released by the Office of National Statistics in their quarterly migration report showed that overall, the net number of people moving to the UK rose last year to 196,000. In 2008 the net figure was 163,000.
Some politicians have quoted these figures to justify the introduction of a cap on immigration as pledged by the new government. Immigration minister Damian Green told the BBC the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures were proof that the coalition government had inherited an immigration system that was "largely out of control".

However, the pictures is complicated by the massive rise in overseas student numbers in recent years. The Chartered Institute for Professional Development who believe that an abrupt introduction of a cap on net migration would lead to major UK skills problem highlights the fact that there has been a sharp fall in the number of work-related visas in the past year, which the institute said showed that the current points-based system is working.

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Presenting at job interviews

Most postgraduates will have to give a presentation at least once during their course and many of us will have to present many, many more times. However, there is a massive difference between presenting in a purely academic environment and presenting at a job interview, even if the job is not a purely academic one - although being asked to talk about your research probably means that research will be partially involved in this new job. In my experience, while your CV and covering letter might get you in the door, it is a presentation that will set the tone for the rest of the interview process whatever that might entail.

For this post I am going to focus on presenting in an environment where you cannot assume that all of the audience will understand the basic background knowlegde and so allowing you to jump straight into the advanced stuff. This might be because you are switching fields slightly or are moving into industrial or commercial roles that only involve a small part of your background work. In this case your interviewers will want to see how well you present, understand your subject and how much you were personally responsible for success and drove the project forward. Key postgraduate employability skills are project management and independent working so employers will want you to show these. Many of the same principles apply for more academic environments where it will be up to you tune the level of the content.

There are 3 basic objectives that should be met in your presentation: (1) the audience must understand the talk, (2) the audience must be excited and enjoy the talk and (3) the audience should like you by the time you have finished. Remember, they might have to work with you for years to come.

So here are some top tips for preparing your job interview presentation

Plan ahead by attending the job interview presentations of others. If you're like me it can be easy to ignore presentations that aren't directly related to your field, but going to a presentation can be about learning how to present. By attending other job interview presentations you can find out what works and most importantly, what doesn't.

Rehearse your talk at least ten times before you give it the first time. Do this in a way that works for you. I used to stand in an empty room, but I know people who talk to a mirror. You should also ask colleagues to watch you and even book a room if you can to get some real internal feedback before the real thing.

If you want to use a pointer or clicker to move through slides then bring your own hardware so that you know how it works and won't be panicing about the kit you hvae to use.

Start very general. What are the pressing problems in your field and what are the long-term trends? Depending on how long you have been given to speak, spend at least 5 minutes on general stuff and include pictures, chart and embedded movies to show that you understood the relevance of your work and shaped the direction of the work yourself - i.e that you are an independent thinker.

If you are moving into industrial or commercial roles, make sure you demonstrate awareness of commercial issues. It shouldn't just be about the research. Show that you understand the needs for outcomes that are applicable in the real world.

Moving into the more detailed part including methods and 'results' or 'outcomes' make sure you only select a few aspects of the work you have done. You shouldn't try and cover all of your work in detail, it will be confusing and hurried.

Move around when you speak and maintain eye contact. Show that you are a confident individual that understands their work well.

Highlight examples of leadership, teaching or independence at every available opportunity. You might want to talk about people you supervised or taught, or mention large events that you have attended.

Invite people to ask questions during the talk and don't be thrown if they do. Take a moment to consider your answer and don't be afraid if you don't know it. Lying or waffling will be worse. If you can't answer a question just say so confidently and offer to look it up later if they would like to know more.

At the interview stage, ask for feedback on the talk. Ask them to be honest and thank them for the feedback. If there was something they have misunderstood then you could explain it more clearly (if appropriate).

Finally, be yourself.

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Postgraduate Plagiarism

I was digging around in the Independent website and I came across this article looking at postgraduates and plagiarism.

According to a JISC report, twice as many postgraduates were guilty of plagiarism in 2008 with an average of 1.19 per cent of postgraduate students involved in cases of plagiarism, compared to 0.67 per cent of undergraduates. This data was supported by statistics from the University of Glasgow.

What was even more surprising to me was that it is students from overseas that tend to plagiarise, with 1.76 per cent of all overseas postgraduate students from outside the EU committing plagiarism, compared to 0.11 per cent of all postgraduate students from the UK.

According to the Independent article, reasons for this discrepancy are primarily cultural since different educational systems handle referencing in different ways, with some systems having very little established framework for doing so. As numbers of overseas students increase, particularly on postgraduate courses, plagiarism issues will naturally increase.

However, an issue only touched on lightly in the Independent article is that of language. I personally think the problem of English as a second language is a key driving force in cases of possible plagiarism. The act of undertaking postgraduate study inherently involves significant reading of other people's work. Not only is it beneficial to reference the work of others, it is entirely and unequivocally expected. But let's be honest, when it comes to writing a thesis or dissertation there are only so many ways you can work references into your text whilst maintaining the flow of the document.

For example, let's say you reference a paper and then go on to discuss that paper for the next two pages. Just how many times do you refer back to the paper again? Are there any rules governing repeated referencing? I don't know, but I do know it bothered me when I was writing my dissertation which included a lot of mathematical derivations which I followed from the work of others, sometimes over several pages.

For those who speak English as a first language the inclusion of references in a well structured system is comparitively straightforward, particularly with the use of referencing software. But for those who are less fluent in English I imagine it is much more difficult to include references in a well structured, well ordered way.

If universities would like to reduce the number of cases of suspected plagiarism I suggest they make sure to discuss the practicalties of referencing in their induction courses.

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