Progression Monitoring Director of Postgraduate Studies School of Physics & Astronomy Cardiff University

PhD Milestones Initial Reporting Progress report Within 3 months Progress report 9, 15, 21, 27, 33 months etc. Annual Formal Progress Review 9, 21, 33 months etc. Funding ends 36 months Deadline for submission 48 months

Progress Monitoring Initial Reporting Progress Report to be completed within the first 3 months of registration for the research degree programme Progress Report the first to be completed within 6 months of the Initial Reporting (so within 9, 15, 21, 27, 33 months, etc.) Annual Formal Progress Review the first to be completed within 9 months of the student's first registration, then annually thereafter (so within 9, 21, 33 months, etc.)

Initial Reporting – 3 months The student and supervisors are required to agree a Research Plan and to complete a Development Needs Analysis (i.e. a skills audit and plan) The Initial Reporting requires confirmation that these have been undertaken, and requires the student and main supervisor each to submit an Initial Report Completion of the Initial Reporting must be endorsed by the Director of Postgraduate Studies

Progress Reports 9, 15, 21, 27, 33 months, etc. to assess a student's progress with sufficient frequency to allow for remedial action to be taken if necessary to review and updating the Research Plan and so help maintain the focus of the research, while re-evaluating the student's skills training needs Student's Self-Assessment Report Supervisor Report Progress Meeting

Annual Formal Progress Review 9, 21, 33 months, etc. The progress of every research student is formally reviewed on an annual basis up until the successful submission of the thesis Substantial piece of written work Meeting Documented outcome of the review Recommendation

Recommendation A documented outcome of the review panel the student's progress and standard of work is satisfactory and that the student is likely to complete their degree successfully and within the expected timescale the student’s progress and standard of work is satisfactory overall but that one or more unsatisfactory aspects of progress and/or performance have been identified the student's progress and/or standard of work is unsatisfactory

Unsatisfactory Progress If the student's progress and/or standard of work is unsatisfactory Then either; Student required to change registration to MPhil (the Review Panel having satisfied itself that the revised research project is appropriate for MPhil submission within a revised time-scale Or; Student placed on a Warning of Exclusion and required to provide evidence of improvement against a clear set of stipulated criteria within a time period of no less than three and no more than six months

Initial Reporting – More details Details are on the web at: http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/teachingandlearning/?page=progression You need to submit section A of the form: http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/teachingandlearning/resources/PHYSX_ProgressReport_ABD.pdf At three months, you also need to submit: A research plan: One or two pages describing the broad aims of the PhD the progress you have made so far a (rough) timeline of how you expect to get there A skills audit: Typically one page of text describing The skills you expect to need during your PhD (e.g. experiment/clean room, computation, presentations, writing) The things you have already learned since starting The things you need to learn, and how you will do this. It’s an opportunity to identify useful training courses.

Initial Reporting – Next Steps After you submit part A with the research plan and skills audit: Your supervisory team fills out part B – their assessment of your progress You meet with your supervisory team: First Supervisor Second Supervisor Mentor Following the meeting, they submit the form with parts B and D completed. The Director of Postgraduate Research Studies needs to endorse the recommendation of the supervisory team What about part C? This gives you a chance to make confidential comments regarding your supervision If you wish to complete part C, please return it directly to Louise Winter or the Director of Postgraduate Research Studies.