ECLS Monitoring Points - MPhil/PhD and MA by Research

Please note the following points:

At least 6 of the supervision meetings must be face-to-face. This is pro-rata for PT students, at least 3 of the supervision meetings must be face-to-face. Please note that MS Teams is not deemed as being face-to-face. Face-to-face means in person.

If the PhD student plans to have a period of study away from the university, the supervisor must be notified in advance and monthly (or bi-monthly for part-time students) must continue to take place and be recorded on Tabula.

The Supervisor is responsible for logging the date and method of monthly contact with their Supervisee on Tabula and some basic notes about the meeting, i.e. use the Notes tool to summarise the contact. The Supervisee is then responsible for approving the monthly entry made by the Supervisor and can expand on the details recorded if required. If a student and supervisor have a substantially long meeting/contact in one month, they may not have to meet/be contact the following month, and that can be recorded as an authorised missed monitoring point. The PPO should be notified in such cases.

Additional notes to be recorded via Administrative Notes via Tabula rather than monitoring points as not applicable to all students each year:

All students in an extension period before submission should maintain monthly contact with their supervisor. 

Non-tier 4 students: If a student is granted an extension for the submission of their thesis, regular supervision must continue until the thesis is submitted.

Tier 4 students: Monthly monitoring via supervision must continue until the final thesis submission is approved.

The attendance at Viva will also be included in the record of attendance - the administrative team will add a note to confirm attendance at Viva via Tabula.

The Doctoral College advise that a full-time PGR student should not work more than 16 hours a week. If a student would like to work full-time, they should consider changing the mode of attendance to part-time (March 2016).

FULL-TIME RESEARCH POSTGRADUATE (12 points)

Monitoring point	Description	Example of timing	Monitoring methods
Term 1
1	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	October	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
2	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	November	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
3	Submission of Autumn Term Progress Report	December	Student completes form, sends to supervisor; supervisors signs off and emails to PPO to record
Term 2
4	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	January	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
5	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	February	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
6	Submission of Spring Term Progress Report	March	Student completes form, sends to supervisor; supervisors signs off and emails to PPO to record
Term 3
7	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	April	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
8	Submission of Annual Research Review or Upgrade Dossier	May	Student completes form, sends to supervisor; supervisors signs off and emails to PPO to record
9	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	June	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
Summer
10	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	July	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
11	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	August	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
12	Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	September	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.

 PART-TIME POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH (6 points)

	Monitoring point	Monitoring method
5 points over the academic year (October, January, March, June, August)	Bi-Monthly supervision – Email/phone/face-to-face meeting with supervisor	The Supervisor records the meeting immediately after it takes place with basic details – need to make clear how meeting was held. The student has to approve the meeting and can expand on the details of the meeting if required.
December	Submission of Autumn Termly Reports	Student completes form, sends to supervisor; supervisors sign off to PPO; PPO to record
April	Submission of Annual Research Review or Upgrade Dossier	Student completes form, sends to supervisor; supervisors signs off and emails to PPO to record

Attendance requirements

For postgraduate students on work or study abroad placements some of the monitoring points could be via email/online where appropriate (e.g. over the summer months/during work on dissertations/fieldwork/module registration/or electronic submission of work) but a significant proportion must be (at least 6 monitoring points) during in person supervision meetings for research courses. Where research students undertake extended periods of research or fieldwork away from the University face-to-face supervisions may be undertaken online via Microsoft Teams or similar system. It may be appropriate that during periods of extension more of the monitoring points could be via email exchange.

If Tier 4 research students undertake extended periods of fieldwork or research away from the University advice should be sought from the International Office regarding the University’s legal obligations in these situations.

Where a student misses three of monitoring points

The Academic Office will write to the student and the Department will receive a copy of this e-mail. The Department is required to investigate with the student what problems they may be experiencing, to support their full engagement with the course and to explain the consequences of missing further monitoring points. Departments may decide that they wish to initiate such discussions before three monitoring points are missed.

Where four "monitoring points" are missed

It is likely that a student's problems are such that they should be encouraged to seek advice and support from the Department or University Senior Tutor.

Where a student misses five “monitoring points”

It is likely that the student is at risk of imminent withdrawal or failure, so appropriate action should be taken immediately.

Where a student has missed six formal “monitoring points”

In one academic year the Academic Office will notify the Director of Graduate Studies that the student should be referred to the Continuation of Registration Committee as set out in University Regulation 36 - Governing Student registration, attendance and progress. The Department will be given an opportunity to present any reasons why such a referral might not be appropriate. The Department may wish to seek advice on this from their Faculty Board Secretary or the Academic Office. The Department will receive copies of correspondence sent to the student at this point.

Where a student has missed eight formal “monitoring points”

In one academic year the Department or the Academic Registrar will need to invoke the process outlined in University Regulation 36 - Governing Student registration, attendance and progress.

Students should familiarise themselves with the University's Regulation 36 on Governing Student Registration, Attendance and Progress

University Monitoring

The University’s Doctoral College requires that you return an Annual Student Self-Assessment Form which must be signed by your supervisor, but which also gives you an opportunity to comment confidentially on your year of study. It is a university requirement that you complete this form annually to the Doctoral College, and that you indicate how you feel about your progress and supervision arrangements. Further information will be forthcoming from the Doctoral College in due course.

Monitoring of Award Holders

If you hold an AHRC award, your funding body will also send you annual report form to be completed by you and your supervisor. Please ensure that this is completed on time, as continuance of awards depends upon this.