The University of Sheffield
The Medical School

Procedure for transfer of registration from MPhil to MD & PhD

The decision to transfer from MPhil to MD or PhD will be taken towards the end of year one and is based on satisfactory progress as indicated by the supervisor, the production of a mini-thesis, and a satisfactory performance by the student at an interview with two examiners about the mini-thesis. The candidate must also have achieved agreed development needs and produced a clear and credible development plan for the succeeding two/three years. If they are registered on the RTP, the candidate must also have gained the requisite number of RTP credits. Students will be requested to submit a title for their mini-thesis to the relevant PGR Programme Administrator approximately 9 months after beginning registration. This will allow time for their examiners to be appointed for the transfer.

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Mini-thesis

The mini-thesis should be submitted to Jodie Burnham or Carol Fidler (PGR Programme Administrators, LU116) no more than 10 months after commencing. The document should be no more than 50 pages, not including references, and should describe the research undertaken and results obtained since commencing registration. Two hard copies (each with a signed mini-thesis title page) should be submitted along with an electronic version and endnote library.

It is expected that the literature review undertaken for research training module MED6950 will form the basis for the mini-thesis, which should include the following: table of contents, list of figures, list of tables, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, future work and bibliography.

DDP Documents

Candidates commencing registration from October 2010 onwards, and therefore registered for the Doctoral Development Programme must, along with the mini-thesis, have achieved agreed development needs and are expected to produce a development plan for the succeeding one (MD) or two (PhD) years. In addition to their transfer report, candidates are therefore expected to submit the following documents:

1. Copies of the training needs analysis and development plan completed shortly after commencing registration

2. A training needs analysis completed in the month prior to submitting your transfer report, and a development plan for the remaining one (MD) or two (PhD) years of registration

3. Evidence of having completed MED6950 Research Training: Literature Review and MED6960 Research Training: Techniques, Safety and Report (this will be provided centrally by Jodie Burnham and Carol Fidler)

The examiners will be requested to comment on the candidate´s proposed development plan in their report.

Transfer Interview

The purpose of the interview is to allow the examiners to clarify any ambiguities in the mini-thesis, to satisfy themselves that it is the student´s own work, that the student is familiar with the relation of his/her work to the field of study and that his/her knowledge of the field is of the standard one would reasonably expect at the time of MPhil to MD or PhD transfer. The conduct of the interview should be as close to that of a final PhD viva as possible. Examiners should make every effort to ensure that the student feels at ease during the examination, and discuss strengths as well as weaknesses of the student´s work. Whilst some intense questioning of the candidate may be needed, this must be non-aggressive.

Transfer interviews will take place in the month following submission of the mini-thesis. The time and location of the interview will be organised by one of the examiners. The interview should last for 30-60 minutes. After the interview, the examiners will prepare and sign a report either:

In the latter case, the panel will make a recommendation to either transfer or not which will be based on the performance of the student during the first year (i.e. development portfolio, laboratory notebooks, mini-thesis, supervisor´s assessment, personal tutor´s reports, interview of the student). The student will be given the option to revise their mini-thesis before consideration by the review panel if desired. The review will take place no later than month 11 in the first year of registration.

Alternative transfer method

There is more than one way to transfer registration from MPhil to MD. The usual way is via submission of a mini-thesis of 40-50 pages in length, which describes the research undertaken and results obtained since commencing registration as described above. If your research has already been published in part, it may be possible to transfer registration to MD via the second, less usual way which is through the presentation of a portfolio of your publications and submitted papers. The portfolio should also include a brief introduction to your work which leads to your hypotheses, a plan for how you would present your thesis and a detailed plan of the future research which would be required to complete the thesis.

Regardless of the route you opt for, you would be expected to participate in a transfer interview with two examiners who would assess your work, and your performance before making their recommendation.