Annual Review and monitoring
The Supervisor/s should carefully and regularly monitor the student's work and ensure that the student is made aware as to whether progress and standards of work, including written or oral presentations, are meeting expected levels. As part of this activity, a formal assessment of progress is undertaken, as a minimum, once per year of study. The assessment is generally called the Annual Progress Review. Doctoral Review Board (DRB) Meetings every 6 months count as the Annual Review for students in the School of Management.
The student and Supervisors should prepare a planning schedule with indicative deadlines and milestones for the completion of distinct stages of the research programme and completion of written work.
In monitoring progress, the Supervisor/s should analyse and assess the student's progress against the objectives set out in the original plan of work.
Annual Review
- Supervisor/s are required to submit an Annual Report on the progress of each research student (through the Director of Postgraduate Research or Dean's Nominee) to the Research Degrees Committee
- There are currently separate forms for Students (A) and Supervisor/s (B), though they should always be completed and returned together
- The University's standard Annual Progress Report forms are issued annually by the Hub-SAS (Research) team directly to Schools via Departmental Administrators, but are available online (Forms) to enable completion at any time of year
- All PGR students please note: it is a requirement of your University registration that we have an Annual Report for each year of study up until formal thesis submission and this includes the writing-up stage and whether you study onsite with us or at a distance
- As part of the Annual Review process students should be given the opportunity to comment, in the absence of the Supervisor/s, to the Director of Postgraduate Research (or Dean's Nominee) on any aspect of their registration
- For doctoral students, one of the most important monitoring stages is the transfer of registration from MPhil to PhD (further online information is given here: MPhil to PhD Transfer).
A key element of the monitoring process is if problems arise, corrective action is clearly identified and full guidance and assistance are given to the student. Where alteration to the original plan of work is necessary, this should be fully discussed and agreed, and approval sought as appropriate. In any instance where progression is in issue Schools should initiate the Capability Procedure.
