Monitoring Procedures
Academic departments are responsible for:
(a) Establishing and operating clearly documented monitoring procedures for research student progress, including feedback to students on their progress, which are consistent with University and external funding body policy and which are well-understood by both staff and students. Such monitoring procedures should comply with the Good Practice Guide on Monitoring Student Attendance and Progress.
(b) Maintaining a record of student progress in the departmental student file. It is expected that departments should have established systems to ensure that the frequency and length of supervisory meetings with postgraduate research students are recorded, noting that PGR supervisory meetings are expected to be held at least once a month.
(c) Ensuring that the departmental student file contains a record of the student’s attendance at compulsory training sessions or seminars and a full note of the outcome of any upgrade or review and of any difficulties experienced by the student which may affect the progress of their research programme. Student files, whether physical or electronic e.g. via the Tabula platform should be maintained for the duration of the student’s registration at the University and should not be solely reliant on copies of email correspondence between supervisor(s) and the Student. Students should also be given the opportunity to record their own activities, through personal development plans and/or individual web pages.
(d) PGR students are normally responsible for filing reports after a supervisory meeting recording discussions and any relevant action points, with supervisors confirming the content of these reports are accurate before adding to a student’s file. There are no expectations as to length or format of these reports and departments may wish to develop standard forms to record such information.
(e) The Doctoral College will operate a process whereby there are spot checks to ensure that academic department’s operations in relation to recording students’ progress and monitoring are aligned with the University’s Guidelines on Supervision and Monitoring.
(f) Encouraging students to begin work on the research project at the start of the period of registration. The early submission of a piece of written work will help to identify any areas in which further training or development is needed. Departments may wish to require the submission of a formal piece of written work within the first six months of registration.
(g) Upgrade and progress review
(i) Putting in place procedures for monitoring progress during any period of fieldwork or study away from the University, in line with the Guidelines for the Supervision of Research Students Based Away from the University. This might include an expectation of regular contact with the supervisor, for example through email if meetings are not possible. The student may also be expected to submit regular brief reports of progress during the period of field work.
(j) Departments are expected to monitor the progress of students nearing the end of their period of registration particularly closely so that the member of staff responsible for postgraduate research students is aware of cases where a student is likely to find it difficult to complete on time. The situation should be discussed with the student and supervisor to agree a plan to improve progress.