Information for supervisors of research students
News – Direct entry to PhD
The Doctoral and Researcher Development sub-Committee has decided that the University should discontinue admission of postgraduate research students to MPhil leading to PhD, replacing this with direct admission to a PhD. In addition to affecting PhD candidates of all types (including those on Integrated Studies and Doctoral Training Centre programmes), the direct entry model will apply to candidates for all other doctoral degrees for which students are initially registered for an MPhil (e.g. MD, DDSc and EngD). This change will take effect from the start of the 2012/13 academic year and will apply to both home and overseas applicants. The University Senate is expected to approve the changes to the Regulations on 28 March and further guidance will be provided to departments thereafter. Further information can be found on the Postgraduate Research Admissions website.
This page provides information from the Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes on the following aspects of postgraduate research student support:
- Supervision
- Academic progress
- Examples of good practice
Supervisors are advised to familiarise themselves with the Code of Practice, which is available to download. In addition, the main topics covered by the Code of Practice are available to students as individual web-pages from the Code of Practice website
Supervision
The relationship between a student and their supervisory team is a critical one. This section provides guidance on what is expected from students, supervisors and departments:
- Ethical Approval
- Attendance Monitoring
- Induction
- Physical & social environment
- Responsibilities of the student
- Responsibilities of the supervisor
- Responsibilities of the department
- Change of supervisor
- Conflicts of interest in postgraduate supervision
Academic progress
Examples of existing good practice
The following pages provide examples of existing good practice in use within departments across the University. These examples were identified following visits to each academic department to discuss provision for postgraduate research students and are included here to assist departments in considering ways to enhance their provision.