Current Students

Pursuing a research degree can be a lonely undertaking. The following information details alternative ways through which you can 'meet' your fellow research students, get hints at how to get through the 'darker' moments of postgraduate study, and help you realise that you're not the first person to have faced that difficult question or seeming dead end you came across earlier today!

Research Student Network

The Research Student Network is a forum within which you can put across any views/issues that you want to be raised at the Research Degrees Committee, by the Research Student Representatives.  The Research Student Network always meets 1 week before the Research Degrees Committee (dates are posted in VLE and are emailed out).  The Research Student Representatives are elected at the start of every academic year.

Blackboard

The School has an active Blackboard facility for Research Students, with a full calendar of events, resources and research discussion.

• Login to Blackboard

Research Exchange Seminars

The Research Exchange Seminars provide an informal forum for short presentations from staff and research students on various topics but usually focusing on their experiences of undertaking research. For more information please visit the Research Events page.

It is useful to list the duties, which you may reasonably expect your supervisor to perform:

• Reasonable access to her/his time: regular formal meetings at least three times per year and twice per term in the early stages; telephone contact; comments on written work; directive reading; help with research matters (i.e. over access, ethics, methodology, etc.); advice on administrative and personal matters. However, you cannot reasonably expect your supervisor to provide specialist counselling although s/he should be aware of any difficulties faced by you.
• Formal meetings should not be interrupted by the telephone or other commitments. Your supervisor should give you a full, uninterrupted tutorial as s/he would to a timetabled class.
• Initially your tutor should give you supervision and direction but the balance should gradually shift to you 'taking control' under her/his guidance. There should be help and advice concerning the organisation and realisation of the research.
• All written submissions, from outlines and notes to completed sections, should be returned within a reasonable time with comments. As a rule of thumb you should have work returned within one month of submission.
• You should have a regular and accurate assessment of your progress.
• Where possible and appropriate your supervisor should keep you in touch with other work, conferences, etc. related to your research.
• You should be given guidance on readings and relevant articles (including those written by your supervisor).
• Your supervisor should encourage you to participate in conferences, seminars and publishing.
• Eventually your supervisor will make recommendations about the examination panel. You should be consulted on this and should be given full information on the procedures and people involved. You should be given adequate preparation for your viva.

• Work within the parameters of the guidance offered but work conscientiously and independently. While it is important to keep your supervisor informed and to show work to her/him as it develops you should be self directed: it is your thesis and not hers/his.
• Your supervisor has the right to expect you to turn up to formal supervisory meetings well prepared and with a clear agenda for the meeting. If there is written work to be discussed you should ensure it is submitted well in advance of the meeting.
• You should inform your supervisor of all changes or intended changes in direction or emphasis. If you are going through a difficult time with the project for whatever reason tell your supervisor. There's no need to feel guilty or a failure because you are going through periods of depression, lacking enthusiasm, feel isolated or cannot pick up the momentum all researchers, however experienced, go through this.
• It is your responsibility, as well as that of your supervisor, to initiate contact.

Edge Hill requests that your supervisors submit an annual report providing information on the progress made by research students. Supervisors are asked to comment on whether the student has been in regular contact with the supervisor, whether a formal report on the year's work has been submitted by the student, whether acceptable progress has been made during the year, and whether the supervisor is confident that an acceptable thesis can be produced within the appropriate timescale.

The supervisors are also invited to make any other relevant comments on the progress of their students. Research Students are also asked to complete and return a similar pro-forma on their progress.

These progress reports in respect the year’s work are submitted to the summer meeting of the Research Degrees Committee.  Students and supervisors are issues with the appropriate paperwork automatically and this must be returned to the Graduate School Administration Office by a designated date.

Full time students wishing to transfer from MPhil to PhD must apply to do so no later than 18 months after the date of their initial registration. Part time students should do so no later than 36 months after their date of registration (taking account, in both cases, of any periods of intercalation).

The recommendation to transfer may be prompted by RDC as a result of the annual appraisal exercise or may be initiated by the student and supervisors. The process involves both student and supervisor.

The student should complete an Advice Sheet for Transfer and attach to it a paper of no more than 6,000 words addressing the following:

• progress to date in the areas of literature review, methodological development and data collection
• the original contribution to knowledge that will be made by their research
• the written work which has been undertaken to date, its form, and whether it has been seen and commented on by their supervisors
• the timetable by which the thesis will be submitted in a timeous manner
• a detailed plan of the final thesis structure (e.g. chapter and subheadings etc)

Once completed, the form should be sent with all required signatures to the Graduate School Administration Office (JD 5). Documentation will not be accepted unless fully signed.

The Graduate School Administration Office will convene a panel (a Transfer Review Panel) consisting of three research active members of academic or academic-related staff, no more than one of whom shall be drawn from the student’s supervisory team. At least one of the members of the panel will be drawn from the staff of an institution other than Edge Hill. The panel will be provided with a copy of the student’s research proposal and will meet with the student to receive a presentation on the proposal and to conduct a viva. Following the viva, the Panel will make one of the following recommendations to RDC. That:

• the student’s registration should be transferred to PhD with immediate effect;
• the student’s registration should not be transferred to PhD, and the student should be permitted to make one further application to transfer their registration to PhD within, in the case of a full-time student, a period of 9 months from the date of their being notified of the decision or, in the case of a part-time student, a period of 12 months from the date of their being notified of the decision. In the case of this decision being reached by the panel, the student will be provided in writing with the reasons for it.
• (only in the event that this is the student’s second application to transfer their registration to PhD) registration for MPhil should be confirmed.

Should transfer to PhD be approved by the Research Degrees Committee, Edge Hill will issue a letter notifying transfer directly to the student. In addition, however, the research student will be notified (by email) as soon as is practicable by the Graduate School Administration Office of the decision of RDC.

The degrees of MPhil and PhD are awarded on the examination of a thesis containing the results of the student's research. For both PhD and MPhil an oral examination will be held. Supervisors should give notice to the Director of the Graduate School at least three months in advance of an expected submission date so that arrangements can be made for the appointment of examiners.

‘A Notification of Intention to Submit a Thesis’ form should be completed and submitted to the Research Degrees Committee to enable an exam team to be assembled.

Self-funding Students

Self-funding students will be invoiced automatically on an annual basis for the MPhil/PhD supervision fee. This fee includes all registration and validation charges, and is set on an annual basis.

Continuation Fees

Research students who have not submitted their theses by the end of their minimum period of registration (see above) must register as part-time students during the time until they do submit. They will have an initial period during which their fees will be waived. For full-time students this period is 6 months and for part-time students, 12 months.

There are a number of channels open to allow research students to express their views. In general it is best to record satisfaction or dissatisfaction at the earliest possible moment to the person delivering the supervision or support service.

However, if this would present difficulties, there are institutional procedures and student representative procedures which can be followed. The Graduate School Administration Team can advise of the chanels available.

Alternatively, views can be expressed through the student representatives on the institutional Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee. (There is one representative of the research students on Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee also a nominee from the Students’ Union. Advice is available from Julie Proud in the Graduate School Administration Office for those wishing to stand for election to the first of these positions.)

A third route through which concerns can be raised is through the Students' Union.

In the case of concern about some aspect of service provision in Edge Hill, this should be taken up with the relevant Service. Some services provide help desks as the main point of contact; some services, suggestion boxes. The Academic Quality Unit can provide support and advice, and the Information Desk in the Student Information Centre can also be used.