Summary of Museum Professionals Group Survey, September 2007

Last summer, Chris Taft, MPG Research Officer at the time, conducted a survey of the museum profession to ascertain current opinions and to try and gauge which areas of the museum profession ought to be more fully addressed by the MPG.  An online survey form was developed using a form builder website, this was designed by Committee members of the MPG and approved at a Committee meeting.  The presence of the form was then made known to the museum community though direct marketing across professional groups and through members of the MPG.  An email link was sent to all Specialist Subject Network contacts, Museum, Library and Archive (MLA) regional councils, specialist interest groups, such as the Social History Curator’s Group and the Group for Education in Museums and museum studies courses throughout the country.  In September a report on the findings of this survey was produced, this article will summarise the main findings, or view the full report.

In total 81 responses were received.  The survey found that the main age group of respondents was between 21 and 42 and unsurprisingly there was no-one under 21 or over 65.  Over half of respondents had worked in museums for between 2 and 10 years, with 18% also working in museums for up to 15 years.  Only 4% had worked in museums less than 2 years.  Surprisingly 37% had never volunteered and only 2% had spent more than 4 years volunteering.  Of those that had volunteered, most had spent less than a year volunteering, closely followed by 1-2 years and 2-3 years.

Most participants (59%) had an undergraduate degree in a history based subject and over half the respondents held a postgraduate degree in museum studies or equivalent, whilst only 13% had no postgraduate qualification.  The majority of participants were evenly split across salary bands £15,000 to £34,000, with only 5% earning less than £15000 and 4% earning more than £40,000.  Considering 56% of these respondents were in posts with management responsibility, this does not equate well with salaries of other professions.

Opinions expressed by respondents about the museum sector as a profession were generally very positive.  When asked why they entered the museum profession, most replied that it was either for love of the subject or a desire to share knowledge and collections with users.  59% responded positively when asked if they would still go into museums if they could start their career again and only 12% said a clear ‘no’.  It was no surprise that the three major issues for museum professionals today were revealed as funding, salaries and pay and the security of the job market.  Only 9% of participants felt they would not recommend a career in museums to students today and 46% thought a postgraduate qualification was essential, with 19% saying ‘maybe’. 

Participants convincingly felt that the skills most lacked by museum professionals today were Management and Business skills, followed by Specialist Skills and Collections knowledge.  Surprisingly only 22% of respondents were individual members of the MPG, whilst 33% were members of the Museums Association.  When asked how the MPG could help address issues that museums face the majority of responses suggested an advocacy and lobbying role on behalf of the museum sector.

The MPG plans to use the results of this survey to help address the issues brought up and to determine where to focus its research priorities in the future.  It is very encouraging that there was so much positively and very little negativity expressed by respondents about working in museums today.