THE University of Chester has been rated as one of the top 10 places in the UK to carry out postgraduate research.

The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) is the only UK higher education sector-wide survey to gain insight from postgraduate research students about their learning and supervision experience.

The university was ranked 10th out of 66 institutions for ‘overall satisfaction’. It also placed fourth out of 60 for part-time students and sixth out of 32 for ‘professional doctorate students for ‘overall satisfaction’.

The University of Chester scored above the sector average for ‘overall satisfaction’ with 86 per cent compared to the sector average of 80 per cent and had an overall aggregate score of 82 per cent compared to the sector score of 78 per cent.

The ‘research culture’ at the university achieved a top result with a score of 71 per cent, compared to the sector average of 63 per cent. Chester exceeded the sector in all of this area, with significant scores in ‘seminar programmes’, ‘research ambience’ and the ‘institution’s research community’.

Postgraduate students were particularly pleased with ‘opportunities to become involved in the wider research community, beyond my department,’ a category which received a score of 67 per cent, compared to the sector score of 59 per cent.

Postgraduate students in sociology were the most satisfied with a score 12 per cent higher than the benchmark average.

Dr Chris Haslam, Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor, said: “It is very pleasing to hear that the university is offering excellent research opportunities. I thank staff for their commitment to this and our students for their feedback, which enables the university to make improvements continually to their experience.”

Professor Nick Avis, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer, added: “These excellent set of survey results reflect the strong research environment and academic support for full time and part time postgraduate student studies at Chester. Postgraduate research students are a critical aspect of the research infrastructure and culture of any university and we seek to continually improve the student experience at Chester.”