The brief
MI TALENT was a project that led and influenced change by advancing the status of and opportunity for technical skills, roles and careers in UK higher education. It was led by the Midlands Innovation (MI) consortium of eight universities in collaboration with key stakeholder and industry partners.
MI TALENT were looking to conduct primary research to understand the perception of technicians by higher education staff and students. This research was conducted to complement the results from the technical community survey, which explored whether participants felt valued by key groups in higher education.
The approach
The project began by sending a small pilot survey to members of Shift’s panel ahead of a full launch. Our final survey generated 1,026 usable responses from academic staff, students and individuals in professional services, across a range of academic disciplines and UK regions. Our survey included multi-choice prompts as well as open questions to find participants’ unprompted perceptions.
The value
We provided MI TALENT with a comprehensive report, detailing the results of our survey on the perceived impact, role and value of technicians among higher education groups. Our report analysed trends amongst key groups and explored the role of Covid-19 in altering the perception of technicians. Shift also provided MI TALENT with a separate technical report with details of data processing and analysis.
