Information for Supervisors and Reviewers

Recruitment

Information on the recruitment of students can be found on the PGR recruitment and application page.

Supervision

The University policy for supervising postgraduate research students can be found in the Education section of the University website.

Post-docs (at the discretion of the DoPGR) can be appointed as secondary supervisors in a limited capacity if the arrangement is in the interest of the post-doc (broaden and strengthen professional record) and of the PGR student (who will benefit from an additional supervisory resource), full details can be found in the Guidance on Post-Docs as Secondary Supervisors.  The PGR student must have confirmed their agreement to having a post-doc serve on their supervisory team, and been advised that the post-doc may not be available for the duration of the PhD.  The post-doc’s PI must have confirmed their agreement to the post-doc taking on the supervisory role.

Responsibilities of supervisor

• Complete the online courses on Diversity in the Workplace and Unconcscious Bias
• Training for new PGR supervisors can be found on the OSDS webpages. You will also find further links to documentation around PGR studies on this page.
• Refresher training for supervisors is arranged by OSDS. Supervisors would be expected to review the video vignettes in the University Training Resources section on  Moodle, and complete the associated quiz which is included in that section.  This course is not regularly advertised by OSDS and as such supervisors should contact them directly to request to be enrolled on the module.
• The University requires that all supervisors complete refresher training at least once every five years, although funding councils might require this at shorter intervals.  Supervisors must review the video vignettes on Moodle, and are encouraged to complete the quiz and re-do the online diversity courses.
• PhD students are covered by PGR student policies.  Note that PGR students are not considered ‘staff’ unless also specifically employed on a staff contract and so are not usually covered by HR policies.
• All PhD students have 4 years of full-time study in which to complete their studies and submit their thesis (including a continuation year). A fifth year of “extensions” is only for exceptional circumstances and may not be granted and penalty fees will apply.  The earliest a student can submit is after paying the third year of fees upon re-registration at the start of the third year.
• PhD students have at least 2 Supervisors, a principal supervisor and a secondary supervisor, the second supervisor(s) may be a supporting/ mentor role.
• PGR Supervisors should discuss skills training with their PhD students and follow this policy: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/education/handbook/research-skills/

 

Supervision Meetings

Students are now asked to record a minimum of 10 meetings per year in MMS, this is of particular importance for those here on sponsored visas but all students should be completing this and the system will generate daily reminders if they don’t.  Please see MMS guidance for supervisors role in approving the dates submitted.

Review Committees

The University’s Progress reviews and termination of studies for postgraduate research students policy advises that each PGR student, including part time students, should undergo a formal progress review at least once in each year of registration, normally by month nine.  A thesis review committee comprises of 2 members of academic staff that conduct annual reviews of PhD students in line with University policy; if the student is jointly supervised between two academic schools, each school must be represented on the review panel.  The review meeting is expected to take place in person unless it occurs at a time point in the student’s studies when they are based overseas.

For Masters by Research students (MSc (Res) the first review should be completed by month five.

Students are to be assessed on both the quality and quantity of their work. They should not be judged based on the review panel’s own preferences in regard to topic, method or findings, so long as the work produced is of an appropriate level.

Each student’s work will be classified according to one of four categories (see Appendix A for outcome descriptions):

• Green – Satisfactory
• Yellow – Minor concerns
• Amber – Major concerns
• Red – Unsatisfactory.

Red and amber outcomes require a re-review.

 

MSc (Res) examination

MSc (Res) students are expected to submit their thesis by their expected end date of studies, normally 12 months for a full-time student or 24 months for a part-time student. Registry will contact students in advance of their expected end date with information about the submission deadline and process. Further information on submitting an MSc (Res) thesis can be found here.

Unlike other research degrees, the MSc (Res) submission and examination process is devolved to the School. The MSc (Res) examination involves assessment of the written thesis and, within the School of Medicine, a viva. The examination is conducted in accordance with the University’s Assessment of postgraduate research students policy.

Full details of the school examination process and the roles and responsibilities can be found here.

External Examiners (PhD)

External examiners will be sent an expense claim form from Registry for their expenses in relation to a viva.  This should be completed in the first instance by the External Examiner with their details and signature before submitting (along with any necessary receipts) to the Convener of the viva for their approval and signature, it should then be submitted to pgmed@ to be coded and have authorised signatory added and then submitted to Salaries for payment.