A bundle of information about the procedures in the School of Physics (e.g. how to fill out an order form, who to see if the photocopier breaks) will have been given to you with this booklet. Please read it, but if you can't find the information you want ask the School Secretary. Parts of the Postgraduate Course described later on in this booklet are intended to provide both administrative and academic information about the School.
EPSRC has a useful document on its website entitled "Supervision Guidelines" containing a wealth of information about the milestones of being a research student, the expectations that your supervisor will have of you, and what you can expect from your supervisor. All supervisors have been issued with one of these as well.
The University produces a more a more formal booklet called Supervision of Postgraduate Research Students which you should also read. Amongst other things it describes the format required for your thesis, and arrangements for the viva. Students should be issued with hard copy of the booklet at the start of their research. Other useful information is available in the University TQA Handbook, see particularly section 8. The official regulations governing research students are given in the University Calendar.
Before you can be re-registered each year, you are required to complete a pro-forma report which also requires information from your supervisor. The purpose of this is to ensure that you are making satisfactory progress, and that there are no obstacles to your completion of a thesis. Please read the guidelines that come with the form and answer all the questions. Failure to provide all the information requested may result in delayed re-registration.
An additional prerequisite for re-registration at the beginning of the second year, is the completion of the Research Student Training Programme, which includes an individual physics study package, and two First-Year Reports. These are described in more detail in the Research Student Training Programme section of this handbook.
You are expected to attend and actively participate in any meetings or seminars organised within your research group, details of which can be obtained from your supervisor. You are likely to be asked to present the results of your research by giving regular short talks at these meetings. Group meetings provide a valuable informal forum for discussing your research.
School Colloquia take place on Fridays at 12:00 during term time. They are compulsory for all postgraduate students, for all three years of their course.
Full-time PhD students are expected to submit their thesis within three years. The research councils EPSRC and MRC apply strong sanctions to institutions in which students fail to submit within four years, and as a result, the University terminates PhD registrations at the end of four years. Beyond this time you will not be allowed to submit your thesis, unless there are exceptional extenuating circumstances.
Procedures for the submission of a thesis are described in the University TQA Manual. The School requires (ibid, section 7.3.1) that a hard-bound copy of the final thesis, and an electronic copy in PDF on a CD, be submitted to the School Student Services office.
Please note that using the School's colour laser printer and comb-binding facilities on the 6th floor for the purposes of thesis production will normally incur a cost-recovery charge that the student will be responsible for personally.
All PhD students in the School of Physics have mentors, whose role is to act both pastorally and academically as support for the student. The mentor is a member of staff who can make an objective assessment of the student's progress and monitor the all-important working relationship between (primary) supervisor and student.
The mentor provides an avenue for the student to discuss personal problems, should the need arise. The mentor will also be sensitive to personality issues within the School, in so far as they may impede the student's academic progress.
Detailed physics problems relating to the student's PhD are best solved in discussion with the primary supervisor or other members of the Research Group. The mentor should check the student's long-term progress and development, in a more general sense. In addition to informal contact, mentors are required to have regular formal meetings with their students according to the timetable detailed elsewhere in this handbook. An agreed record of this meeting is returned to the Chair of the School Research Committee and retained in the student's record file.
The School of Physics has a Code of Good Practice for supervision of research students which is elsewhere in this handbook. The chain of responsibility within the School of Physics to ensure that this is adhered to goes from supervisor to mentor, to Chair of Research Committee, to Head of School.
The opportunities for laboratory demonstrating and tutoring in problems-classes are determined by the needs of the School and the financial resources available. First-year students will generally do little or no demonstrating, enabling them to devote their time to their research and course work. In the second and third years, students can, with the agreement of their supervisors, undertake up to six hours of paid demonstrating per week during terms.