From the President, July/August 2023

Having a supportive postgraduate community can play a positive role in the development of psychologists. Many of our chartered members and those in senior BPS positions were once members of our Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group (PsyPAG) – it has an important place in the hearts of many psychologists as the group which helped to develop their careers.

Our postgraduate members are central to the future of the society, so it's vital that we have a space within our community for postgraduates to flourish, and where they can access useful support and guidance for the first steps of their careers.

We, as the BPS, are determined that PsyPAG will play this role for generations to come. However, over recent years it has become increasingly apparent that the current PsyPAG model needs updating, to make sure it continues to be of value for our postgraduate members.

Late last year, PsyPAG committee members told us that they were particularly concerned about the cost of membership, the resources dedicated to our offer to postgraduates, and the way that they were struggling to fill vacancies on the committee. Sadly, some of those committee members took the decision to resign.

When their concerns about the future of PsyPAG were raised, we were keen to listen and invited those former committee members to a meeting with our senior management team. Now we want to open up that conversation to everyone who has an interest in postgraduate psychology.

To that end, we have invited current postgraduate members, past members and prospective members for the future to take part in a series of focus groups, which will allow us to design a postgraduate community that delivers for everyone, together and in partnership. These groups will look at all facets of PsyPAG membership, including the cost, with nothing off the table.

We will keep you updated on the progress of this work, and on the solutions that come out of these focus groups, but I felt it was important that members are kept up-to-date on what is happening with a group that is so central to the future of psychology. PsyPAG itself continues as an active part of the society, and we are absolutely committed to shaping and developing a community our postgraduate members can be proud of.

You will read plenty in this issue about the European Congress of Psychology 2023 theme 'Uniting communities for a sustainable world', and we regard nurturing our future leaders of psychology through a dedicated postgraduate space within the society as crucial to making sure that UK psychology is ready for the challenges the future will bring.

- Nicky Hayes is President of the British Psychological Society