Framework for monitoring progress
Research students must undertake monitoring assessment twice yearly in order to check whether their progress is on track or not. Monitoring assessment forms will be distributed to supervisors by the College Graduate School at the appropriate time – it is the supervisors' responsibility to ensure that these forms are completed.
Although the University has a generic monitoring framework, Colleges are responsible for their own monitoring procedures and adapt the framework to meet their needs. Please contact your relevant Graduate School Office for the exact details of the monitoring procedures and forms to complete. The details will also be published on the Graduate Schools’ websites.
Details of the generic monitoring framework - called Research Study Frameworks - can be found here.
Guidelines for dealing with unsatisfactory progress
Unsatisfactory progress can be raised in the monitoring forms – the forms will have space to declare if a student’s progress is unsatisfactory and whether the student’s studies should be terminated. It should then be for the Graduate School to review the form and request that the Head of School meet with the student to discuss the situation.
Unsatisfactory progress can be raised outside of the monitoring forms by following the procedures laid out in the Research Code of Practice.
Attendance monitoring
In addition to bi-annual monitoring, which normally focuses on academic progress, students must also adhere to the University’s attendance monitoring requirements. If they fail to do so, they will risk having their class certificate withdrawn.
Note, class certificates are not actual physical certificates, they are simply terminology used to describe a student’s eligibility to submit a thesis for examination. If a student’s class certificate is withdrawn, they are not eligible to be examined. In the case of research students, this means that they will be withdrawn from study.
Research students are required to attend a minimum of one formal minuted supervisory meeting a month, although more frequent, less formal meetings will likely be scheduled. If a student fails to attend scheduled meetings, or submit a piece of expected work, the School can initiate attendance monitoring procedures.
Full details of attendance monitoring procedures can be found in the Monitoring section.
Assessment
Research students are assessed by the submission of a thesis that is examined by two examiners (one external and one internal examiner, or two external examiners). Research students also take an oral examination (viva) as part of the examination process.
At the point of submission, supervisors should advise students of the submission process and ensure that examiners are nominated for the viva.
Supervisors can find out more information on the submission and examination process in the Code of Practice