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Department of History

Supervision

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Research Supervision

The relationship with your supervisor will be at the heart of your training in history here at Warwick. Every research student has one or more academic members of staff assigned before they commence their studies, and in most cases, joint supervisors will be appointed. It is the role of the supervisor(s) to guide you in the design of your research and to offer constructive advice and intellectual support as you move through each stage of your project right up to your final viva voce examination.

Guidelines for PGR SupervisionLink opens in a new window

Regular Supervisor Meetings

Your supervisors will meet with you regularly to discuss your work, and agree on a programme of reading, research and writing with you. There is a university requirement that you meet with your supervisor in-person at least once a month, but meetings may be more frequent if necessary.

Students being jointly supervised may sometimes meet with both / all supervisors together, but if individual discussions take place, it is important to ensure that your other supervisor(s) know about the conversations that have taken place. Students should log all formal supervision meetings on Tabula, providing a brief summary of key points discussed and plans of action agreed.

Please see the Tabula Guide for information on how to record your supervision meeting. Note that the guide shows how to record personal tutor meetings; research students can follow the same process, but by selecting the “supervisor” rather than “personal tutor” tab.

Please note you are required to record your monthly supervision meetings via Tabula regardless of whether you are already recording your meetings on another platform such as M4C.

The planning of fieldwork, archival visits, and other aspects of your research design should be discussed in-depth with your supervisor(s) prior to any bookings being made.

Timetable to Completion

You will agree on an overall programme of study with your supervisor, typically aiming for completion in 3.5 years (full-time) and 6 years (part-time), and this is likely to include tasks for you to complete to agreed deadlines, including writing. We have high expectations of you as a writer (as well as a researcher), and consider that one of the factors in the successful submission rate of research theses in the Department, is that we encourage and expect students to start writing very early in their programme of study.

Work plans and timetables to completion will be monitored annually via the PGR Annual Review Process.

Monitoring Student Engagement and Progress

Engagement monitoring happens for all students at the University of Warwick.

To help us gauge how successfully you are engaging with your course, identify any problems which you may be experiencing and offer support to help you, the department has check points throughout the year. For PGR students, in-person supervision meeting records should provide the majority of your engagement points. In-person annual review or upgrade meetings, and research skills training/events are also acceptable engagement points.

Student's can view their monitoring points schedules and attendance records on Tabula via the "Attendance" tab.

If you miss engagement points, this may indicate that you are having problems with the course, health or wellbeing and need additional support.

PGR students are required to meet engagement requirements up to the point of first submission, and then again during the correction period following the viva through to final submission.

It is extremely important that you meet the requirements of each point as failure to do so could result in a warning being sent to you from Student Records reminding you of your obligations as a student.

International students should be particularly aware of the consequences of missing contact points: the Academic Office is obliged to report to the Home Office UK Visas and Immigration (formerly the UK Border Agency) if any student visa holders have been found not to be regularly engaging in person with their degree course. This could lead to the curtailment or cancellation of their visa.

Any students studying at Warwick on a visa who are not able to record an in-person supervision, should please ensure that the record an alternative form of in-person contact in addition to their supervision meeting record. This alternative record can take the form of:

Please speak to your Supervisor(s), of the PGR Coordinator if you feel you might be at risk of not meeting these critical requirements at any point during your University career.

All supervision meetings must take place in-person where possible. If necessary (such as when a student is on a research visit overseas, has applied for a Change of Study Location, or public health requirements dictate), occasional online meetings via MS Teams or by phone may be acceptable, with email contact being used in exceptional circumstances only.
In cases where students are unable to meet with their supervisors in-person, it is essential that a short note of the reason why the meeting did not take place in person is included in their supervision meeting record on TabulaLink opens in a new window. It is mandatory for you to record supervision meetings promptly with a short summary of what was discussed and action points for the future.

The University's Student Engagement and Progress Monitoring PolicyLink opens in a new window is intended to help departments in supporting students’ learning through monitoring their attendance and academic progress at all levels of study.

What happens if I miss a monitoring point?

An email will be sent to any students who have missed a monitoring point reminding them of the University's and, where relevant, the UKVI's requirements. If students miss TWO monitoring points, there are various outcomes depending on the circumstances:

  • Two non-consecutive missed monitoring points

Departments should complete an audit of the students overall engagement, and signpost to Wellbeing Support if they feel that there are well-being issues.

  • The two missed monitoring points are consecutive BUT there is alternative evidence of engagement:

If students studying at Warwick on a visa miss two consecutive monitoring points, the Visa Compliance team will send correspondence to the Department, to request follow up action under the early intervention process.

Department should complete a detailed audit of the students overall engagement. If there is evidence of in-person engagement in teaching activities, attendance at Department events, or strong reassurance from supervisors confirming the student's engagement, the Department will report this to the Visa Compliance team, and ask the supervisors to discuss a re-engagement plan to try and prevent further warnings.

Students may signposted to Wellbeing Support if the Department feels that there are well-being issues.

  • The two missed monitoring points are consecutive, AND there is no alternative evidence of engagement:

Departments will complete a detailed audit of the students overall engagement and attendance, and the missing student procedure will be initiated if the audit shows that we have not had contact from a student for 45-60 days.

On contact from the student, the Department will be asked to provide alternative evidence of engagement or evidence they have met with the student and have a supported re-engagement plan with comprehensive notes. Subsequent attendance will be carefully monitored over the next 2 monitoring points.

At 3 missed monitoring points, for visa students, the University must take swift action to demonstrate that continued efforts to re-engage the student have been made, to ensure that the period of non-engagement does not exceed 60 days

If no contact is made from the student, the Visa Compliance Team will make a further check of attendance with Well-being support and the Department, and will notify Departments of their intention to withdraw the student. Departments will be given 10 university working days to request a stop to the withdrawal if they can confirm re-engagement

Cases will be referred to the Academic Registrar if a student has missed 4 monitoring points, to consider Permanent Withdrawal under Regulation 36Link opens in a new window.

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