Meetings with Supervisors
Supervisory meetings/hours
The Supervisors have a responsibility to provide regular and frequent support for the research student, including face to face meetings, informal meetings, email and telephone contact.
Students are required to attend meetings with their supervisors which will normally be a mimimum of 6 times per year for a full-time candidate and 4 times per year for a part-time candidate.
A record of the meeting should be made by the student and this should be emailed to the department administrator and hub-research@bradford.ac.uk - this record should summarise the main outcomes of the meeting between the student and supervisors. In the subject heading of the email please state "Student Meeting Record", date of meeting and UB number. Students are also required to keep records of meetings with their Supervisors.
Schools/Departments are required to monitor attendance at supervisory meetings and inform Student Administration and Support (Research) where students persistently fail to attend planned meetings or where they consider there to be an attendance problem that is adversely affecting the student's progression on their degree programme. It is essential this is reported as soon as issues arise.
As a minimum a research student can expect to have, on average, the equivalent of four hours' support per month with their Supervisor(s) whilst registered on a Full-time internal basis (two hours in the case of a Part-time study). The extent of support is likely to be high during the initial stages of the programme when design and preparation work are being undertaken and will vary subsequently.
A research student can likewise expect, as a minimum, the equivalent of one hour's support per month with their Supervisor(s) when they have transferred to writing-up status.
Organisation of meetings
- Schedule a series of meetings - these should be linked-up with the monitoring stages for the research, also planned in agreement with any collaborative partners
- Meetings should be arranged so that they are free from interruption as far as practicable
- Informal day-to-day contact is not a substitute for meetings
- Student and Supervisor(s) should be accessible to each other at reasonable times
It is the student's responsibility to make contact to arrange meetings. Supervisor(s) are responsible for working with students at times that are mutually convenient.
Agendas of scheduled meetings
- Focus should be on key progression points and professional development of the student
- A formal record should be kept of meetings in the form of a summary of progress to-date (linked to project plan) and actions/targets agreed. This summary record should be prepared by the student and then agreed with the Supervisor(s). This formal record should be clear and concise.
- The agenda will depend on the stage reached in the research and progress made. You may find it useful to use the meetings PROFORMA.
- The following issues may serve as agenda items for meetings:
- Planning and strategic thinking: ideas generation, viability, implementation strategy, hypotheses
- Evaluation of work in progress: awareness of current literature and debate, relevance of other research, analysis of results, interpretation
- Review of progress in relation to overall timetable
- Dissemination: presentations to others, other opportunities to communicate research output
- Skills/training: identification of needs
External Students
It is important that External students keep in regular contact with their University Supervisors throughout the year by email/telephone and they are required to attend the University at least once a year to report on and discuss the progress of the research. It is expected that they will visit the University normally for a minimum of two weeks up to a maximum of four weeks in total per year or as determined by the Research Degrees Committee.
External students are required to keep records of all meetings with their Supervisors whether held face-to-face, by telephone, by email or video-conferences. Meeting records should be emailed to the department administrator and hub-research@bradford.ac.uk - this record should summarise the main outcomes of the meeting between the student and Supervisor(s). In the subject heading of the email please state "Student Meeting Record", date of the meeting and UB number.
Schools/Departments are required to monitor attendance at supervisory meetings and inform Student Administration and Support (Research) where students persistently fail to attend planned meetings or where they consider there to be an attendance problem that is adversely affecting the student's progression on their degree programme. It is essential, that Supervisor(s) take action when an External student has failed to make contact over a three month period.
Monitoring and Annual Reports are regarded as being particularly important for Part-time and External students.
