Jonathan Neves, Head of Research and Surveys, Advance HE, says, “In terms of linking with overall satisfaction, two factors stand out above the rest: sense of belonging and the perception that an institution genuinely values and responds to student feedback.”
Every year, when the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) results come in, there is a moment of reflection before the analysis begins. You look back at the trajectory – the dip during the Covid years, the cautious recovery – and you ask whether what you are seeing represents genuine, durable improvement or something more fragile.
This year, the answer seems clear. Overall satisfaction among postgraduate researchers has reached 83%, the highest figure we have recorded since 2011. More than 35,000 postgraduate researchers (PGRs) across 93 institutions took part, giving us one of the most robust datasets we have produced. It is genuinely encouraging.
But the headline figure, while important, is not necessarily where the most interesting story lies.
What is actually driving satisfaction
Each year, we run a correlation analysis to identify which elements of the postgraduate research experience show the strongest statistical link to overall satisfaction. The findings are, by now, fairly consistent – and consistently instructive. Two factors stand out above the rest: sense of belonging and the perception that an institution genuinely values and responds to student feedback.
That first factor – belonging – might seem intangible, but its importance is striking. Postgraduate research can be a solitary pursuit. Researchers often work independently, sometimes for years, without the structured cohort experience that undergraduate students take for granted. The encouraging news is that belonging scores have nudged upward since we introduced the question in 2023, but at 65%, there remains real room for institutions to invest in the kinds of activities – peer networks, cohort events and shared spaces – that build genuine community.
The feedback loop finding is equally thought-provoking. It is not simply about whether institutions run surveys; it is about whether students feel their input leads to visible change. Interestingly, international students report considerably higher satisfaction on this measure than home students – 71% compared to 55% in the latest data. The reasons are not entirely clear, and we should be cautious about over-interpreting, but it may reflect targeted support that institutions provide for overseas students, or simply that researchers arriving from different systems bring different reference points. Either way, it suggests there are lessons to be learned and applied more broadly.
The financial pressure that deserves more attention
We have now asked about cost-of-living impacts across several of our surveys – for undergraduates through the Student Academic Experience Survey, published in partnership with HEPI, for postgraduate taught students, and for postgraduate researchers. The comparison is revealing. Postgraduate researchers are, if anything, more likely than other student groups to say that financial pressures are affecting their studies. And within that group, international students feel it most acutely – despite, on most other measures, reporting a more positive experience than their home student peers.
I think this is a finding that warrants more sustained attention than it currently receives. The public conversation about student finances tends to default to the undergraduate experience. Postgraduate researchers have their own distinct financial pressures, and international students in particular face much higher fee levels and sometimes a difficulty finding, or being eligible for, paid opportunities, and those deserve to be part of the debate.
Where the gaps persist
An area that provides cause for concern is the experience of postgraduate researchers (PGRs who report a disability. An eleven-point gap in overall satisfaction between disabled and non-disabled PGRs is not new – we have been tracking this for several years – but its persistence in the context of otherwise improving results is telling. In a new question, fewer than half of disabled PGRs agree that their institution provides the reasonable adjustments they need. That is a significant finding, and one that calls for both institutional and policy-level attention.
The overall picture from PRES 2025 is genuinely positive. But the strongest surveys are the ones that do not just celebrate progress – they point clearly to where more work remains.
Download the 2025 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey.
Jonathan Neves is Head of Research and Surveys at Advance HE and author of the 2025 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey.
