Meet Professor David Maddison, New Director of Doctoral Programmes, Birmingham Business School

I am currently Professor of Economics and Director of the PhD Programme in Economics. I am also Director of the MSc in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and, outside the University, chairman of the Economics Advisory Panel in the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. From January 2014 I will be taking over from Professor Helen Rainbird as Director of Doctoral Programmes for the entire Business School.

Prior to moving to Birmingham in 2006 I was Senior Lecturer and Director of the MSc in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at University College London. Moving further back in time I held positions in universities in Denmark and Germany, and spent a formative period working for the Industry Department for Scotland in the Scottish Office dealing in particular with Caledonian MacBrayne, the nationalised ferry company serving the Western Isles.

Students who decide to undertake a PhD make a huge sacrifice in terms of both time and money. They have to identify academically interesting and societally important questions and then work on them often to the detriment of other aspects of their lives. And although well chosen research ideas usually bear fruit, occasionally, they do not. For many, the acquisition of a PhD will be the stepping stone to an academic career and the relationship that they form with their supervisors will be particularly close. For supervisors having top-notch PhD students represents an opportunity to pursue research interests that have perhaps had to be set aside in order to focus on more mundane matters. But anyone who has ever done it will concede that supervising a PhD student is also an enormous responsibility.

As the new Director of the Doctoral Programmes my objective will be to help colleagues identify high calibre applicants from feeder institutions and encourage them to apply to Birmingham Business School in a timely fashion. Our School has a great advantage because of the existence of numerous large MSc programmes that frequently throw up brilliant and enthusiastic PhD applicants and the fact that Birmingham is an ESRC-approved Doctoral Training Centre. And of course, the pool of available supervisors within the School includes numerous internationally well-known academics conducting world class research. Who would not want to be supervised by such luminaries?

For existing PhD students my task will be to ensure that their studies progress as smoothly as possible. Most obviously this means making sure that all students and supervisors are aware of the regulations governing PhD studies and dealing with any problems which might arise. It also means disseminating guidance on good practice emanating from the College and from the Graduate School, and making sure that students receive every possible opportunity in terms of funds for attending conferences, the organisation of internal training courses or spending periods working abroad in institutions to further their research or to dig up data.

The market for the best PhD students is hugely competitive and institutions must continuously compare their programmes against those of rivals. Universities justifiably need to pay attention to things like completion rates. The future of doctoral studies might also involve closer collaboration with other institutions. So we need to be training PhD students from other institutions. And there are some things that we need to do better, such as monitoring the subsequent careers of those who graduate with a PhD from Birmingham Business School.

Obviously none of these goals can be met without the assistance of supervisors, Departmental leads and countless other individuals working in an administrative capacity across the College and beyond. One of the most challenges that I will face is to liaise successfully with all of these people and ensure the timely flow of information relating to matters our doctoral programmes.

I look forward to working with you all.