Rotation cuts frustration

The Wellcome Trust's project to train postgrads for a year in different labs is being expanded. Olga Wojtas reports on how it has taken off at Glasgow University, now one of the premier research sites (bottom)

The keenest prospective PhD students visit the laboratory where they want to work and have perhaps a half-hour interview with their prospective supervisor, says Glasgow University postgraduate Angus Cameron.

"From that, they decide their next three years of work. They do not know if they've met the supervisor on a good day or a bad day. They do not know if the supervisor is going to be interested in their project. People have run into all sorts of problems."

Mr Cameron is one of a pioneering group of postgraduates funded by the Wellcome Trust's four-year PhD programme. It includes an initial year of intensive training with a series of three-month lab placements that allows students to explore new disciplines and consider labs as suitable homes for their studies.

Mr Cameron believes new graduates are often too naive to make a sensible decision about their PhD project. "You grab at the first thing that takes your fancy. The first year of this programme made me more mature."

The scheme was piloted at Liverpool University in 1994 and extended to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and University College London in 1996. Because of its success, the Wellcome Trust is funding the programmes, which have a maximum annual intake of five to ten students, for four more years. Each student costs about Pounds 100,000, but the trust will go beyond its original target of 120 and is expected to seek bids for a new round of programmes.

Glasgow, whose programme is in molecular functions in disease, has gone for the maximum rise in entrants from next autumn. "The scheme is surpassing our expectations," says programme leader Dave Barry, of the institute of biological and life sciences.

"It's so attractive that you're recruiting people of excellence, so part of the success is due to just their very high ability. We have up to 150 applicants each year, and last year there were more than 20 applicants of absolutely outstanding quality. It was very sad that we had only five studentships to offer at the time."

Glasgow has about 60 supervisors available under the scheme, and those left on the shelf after a three-month placement show no noticeable frustration. "We stress that the PhD students are not a neutral pair of hands to help one's personal research progress. We are in the business of training them," Professor Barry says. Because the Wellcome funding is attached to the students, they are not a financial burden and can undertake useful projects that are not substantial enough for a PhD.

The students design their own PhD projects. Half of Glasgow's projects have been collaborative. "(This scheme) is encouraging supervisors to talk to other supervisors," Professor Barry says.

The students keep up the contacts they make, says student Ho Man Chan, which provides them a substantial advice network.

Patricia Chisholm, Wellcome's scientific programme manager for basic and veterinary sciences, says the students find that the rotation between labs gives them a technical head start.

One spur to the project was concern that many PhD students did not complete their degree in three years. Investigations showed that a key to success was a supportive environment and relevant research skills, Dr Chisholm says.

Glasgow sees this as particularly relevant: its first 15 students include a physicist, two biophysicists and several chemists who need to develop skills in biological sciences. "This extra year is partly to allow students to acquire some technical skills while the clock is not ticking on the three years. Then we think they only need three years for the PhD because they hit the ground running."