These guidelines are intended to assist institutions and Departments in the planning of their provision and to serve as an indication to students of what they might reasonably expect. If you have suggestions for updating or revision of these Guidelines, please email Donna Willis.
Detailed information should be made available to applicants and intending students, including:
- available programmes of study;
- conditions of full-time and part-time registration;
- permitted periods of registration;
- fees and other charges; sources of finance;
- and the social and academic services provided for postgraduate students, including details of accommodation and childcare facilities.
Staff members registering for higher degrees should be informed of arrangements for time off for study, which should normally be available.
Specialist information should be provided for international students who may need to attend pre-sessional orientation courses.
Departments should provide more detailed information on programmes of study. Where students are required to take a taught masters degree before embarking on a research degree, this should be made clear.
Full details should be provided of research training programmes, language teaching and other specialist provision as well as arrangements for supervision and the monitoring of student progress.
Details of facilities for postgraduate students, including work space, computer facilities and teaching opportunities or expectations should also be provided.
Policies on intellectual property rights should be clearly and explicitly explained.
Departments should generally only accept students for registration in areas in which they have relevant expertise. Students should have a supervisor, or supervisory team, capable of satisfactorily covering the specific thesis topic.
Where appropriate such a team may require to be drawn from more than one department and institutional policies should facilitate this.
Where joint supervision is used, there should be arrangements for regular joint meetings or other forms of contact (see 3.1 below). Departments should also have arrangements for ensuring continuity of supervision during periods of staff leave.
Where institutions offer postgraduate awards/studentships, teaching assistantships or other opportunities for teaching, prospectuses and departmental booklets should give full details. Contractual rights, obligations and expectations should be made clear to students in advance of acceptance.
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All students should receive a programme of induction on arrival. Departments should ensure that students receive regularly updated written information on the matters listed below:
- organisation of postgraduate provision, arrangements for supervision and for reviewing students' progress;
- procedures and requirements of postgraduate students including: the submission of research proposals; progress reports; and the form in which the thesis is to be presented;
- eligibility for up-grading from MPhil to PhD, transfer and appeal procedures;
- complaint and grievance procedures;
- student regulations and disciplinary procedures;
- equal opportunities and harassment policies, codes and procedures;
- availability of, and access to, resources including: work space; stationery; photocopying; telephone; computing facilities; travel and conference funds;
- library facilities, careers and counselling services;
- relevant departmental activities such as departmental seminars;
- institutional research ethics policies and procedures (students should also be alerted to BSA codes on Ethical and Professional conduct);
- institutional policies and procedures on intellectual property rights.
There should be a code of practice for research students which should, inter alia, clearly define the responsibilities and expectations of students and supervisors.
Supervisors should agree formally with students how these requirements are to be met and this agreement should be kept under review. It is good practice for a formal written record to be kept of such agreements, as well as of important supervisory advice.
All students, whether research council supported or not, should receive formal research training in line with current ESRC requirements. Students already suitably qualified may be allowed exemption.
Guidance on techniques specific to thesis topics are the province of the supervisory relationship but provision should be made at an early stage for specialist advice required on technical aspects of the proposed research.
The frequency of exchanges between students and their supervisors will vary according to the stage of the work and the rate of progress. As a general guide, fortnightly meetings for full time students (monthly for part-time students) are likely to be desirable in the early stages.
Students should be encouraged, by the end of the first year, to have reviewed and written up relevant literatures and drawn up plans for any empirical work.
A timetable of work should be developed from the outset, and kept constantly under review.
Students should be expected to submit regular written work to their supervisor and to make presentations on their research to their peers and the department more widely.
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Supervisors and students remain jointly responsible for ensuring frequent contact. The details of these arrangements, and the frequency of meetings, should be the subject of formal agreement between students and supervisors.
As a guide, face to face meetings should take place at least every four weeks for full-time students and at least every eight weeks for part-time students. Contact can also be maintained in a variety other ways, depending on the student´s circumstances. For part-time students, or full-time students away from the institution doing fieldwork or other data collection, contact by phone, letter, fax or email may be appropriate.
The regular production, discussion and constructive criticism of written work is central to the supervision process. Agreed dates and topics should be set for the production of this work and the provision of comment.
Formally structured research training should be available beyond the first year of study. Supervisors should ensure training meets the needs of students.
There should be arrangements for involving research students fully in the intellectual and social life of the department. Attendance at seminars and other events will facilitate student contact with the full range of staff expertise in the department.
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A named staff member should have overall responsibility for research degrees. In addition, a research degrees committee, or its equivalent, should regularly review and monitor the progress of students and be empowered to intervene in the case of problems or disputes.
Supervisors´ reports on student progress and student self-reports, should be scrutinised under the aegis of the research degrees committee or its equivalent.
Students should be informed of the content of supervisors´ reports and arrangements should be in place for them to appeal or to articulate any dissatisfaction or anxiety about the supervisory relationship. There should be clearly defined procedures for effecting a change of supervisor where necessary.
On occasion a student may wish or need to change supervisor or to transfer from one institution to another. There should be clear procedures for internal and external transfer which should be made formally known to students.
Departments should endeavour to overcome students´ potential feelings of isolation by:
- organising informal social events;
- encouraging the formation of peer support groups;
- setting up seminar sessions or reading groups for those working in similar areas;
- and facilitating access to departmental, institutional and professional association seminars and conferences.
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Supervisors should ensure that students are encouraged and supported in their professional self-development. They should be put in touch with relevant professional associations and groups, and contacts facilitated with relevant colleagues in other departments or institutions.
The writing and presentation of seminar and conference papers should be encouraged wherever possible. However, supervisors should also ensure that the writing of the thesis does not become secondary to such activities and that theses are completed within the required time limits.
Students should be aware of their rights, subject to any institutional regulations about the use of already published work in a thesis, to publish papers independently of their supervisors.
Where students are working as part of a larger project team, or where joint supervisor/student publications are proposed, questions of intellectual property rights should be carefully considered. In joint publications drawing on their work students should have the right to be first named authors.
Students should also be aware of the extent to which joint publications may affect the judgement about whether the thesis is their own work.
It is helpful to students´ careers for them to have teaching opportunities. These should not exceed Research Council maxima, should be properly remunerated and should be supported by appropriate training and supervision.
Students should have their attention drawn to external sources of support and development such as:
- the BSA Postgraduate Summer School;
- the Postgraduate Forum;
- the BSA Support Fund;
- BSA Conference and membership concessions.
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Requirements for the examination of theses and for appeals should be made formally known to students at an early stage and changes notified individually in writing.
Supervisors should be conversant with current regulations and take responsibility for reminding students of such matters as length limits and the issue of plagiarism. Workshops on examination procedures and requirements might usefully form part of research training programmes.
Regulations about the appointment of examiners should also be made known to students. Supervisors should play an active role in the choice of appropriate examiners, and it is good practice for the issues involved to be discussed with students. If the topic is an unusual one or crosses conventional boundaries, an additional examiner may be necessary to provide sufficient expertise.
Supervisors should not act as examiners, although one person from the institution should always take part in the examination.
Whether or not the institution has a formal procedure for this, it is a supervisor´s duty to advise whether a thesis is ready for submission.
Where students choose not to take advice, supervisors should have the right to place a written statement of the advice given on file.
All staff involved in the examination process should do their utmost to deal with their part in it with reasonable promptness and within deadlines. Students should be appraised of the formal stages which have to be completed and be kept informed of the progress of their own cases.
Where a thesis is referred for revision, relevant examiners´ comments and suggestions should be made available to the student as soon as possible. The time allowed for revision should be calculated from the date when such comments are supplied.
If further supervision is required, its availability should be taken into account in setting deadlines. The student should be formally notified of the supervision which will be provided, and the supervisor should be credited with it.
There should be an institution-wide appeals procedure. Students should be informed in writing of its provisions and of the steps they should take if they wish to invoke it.
A member of academic staff who is not directly involved should be available to give the student advice on procedures which should follow the general principles currently specified by the CVCP.
Departments and students should also refer to the ESRC Postgraduate Training Guidelines, 1996 edition, which is available from ESRC.
Ratified by the BSA Executive Committee 6 December 1996.
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