1. Managing my PhD or MPhil research degree
Jeremy Brown
Faculty of Medical Sciences

2. Welcome! Learning agreements Project approvals (before Xmas)
ePortfolio (log meetings)

3. What do you think is important in managing your degree?

4. Managing my degree
Managing my supervisor(s)!

5. You and your supervisor?

6. Managing your supervisor
Be organised
Be honest (don’t try to disguise what you think to be failure)
Be honest if you have made some errors!
Discuss any difficulties
If you don’t know ask!
Show your enthusiasm
Don’t be surprised when you start to know more than your supervisor
Meet deadlines
Don’t ignore advice

7. Planning your work Long-term plans Medium-term Short-term
To complete my higher degree and………
Medium-term
By the end of the year I will have done …
Short-term
Before the next formal meeting I will …..
Immediate plan
By the end of the week I will …
Today I will ...

8. Keep a diary Time keeping and planning is very important
Don’t set up something and leave it to ‘cook’ for three days whilst doing nothing else
‘Dovetail’ your work together to optimise time

9. What shall I do first? First meeting with your supervisor(s)
Discuss the completion of an on-line process for project approval. This details:
Your proposed project with a timeline and objectives
Any requirements for ethics committee approval
The name of all supervisors
The 2 members of your progress review panel
The learning agreement

10. The learning agreement/ Intellectual Property (Geraint)
The University requires confirmation that you have received, understood, and accepted the expectations of your research degree programme by signing a formal Learning Agreement with your supervisors
Complete within one month of registration
This document defines
What you can expect of us
What we can expect of you
THIS IS A NEW AGREEMENT
to the one for the MRes, is slightly different

15. - Richy

17. You are required to maintain regular contact with your supervisors.
See your supervisors on a weekly, if not daily basis, especially if you are undertaking laboratory research.
Have at least ten structured meetings with your academic supervisor per year and at least three of these meetings will be with all members of your supervisory team. Record these meetings in ePortfolio

18. How many supervisors do I need?
You have a supervisory team
1 lead supervisor
1 or more co-supervisors

19. Formal meetings What is a ‘formal’ meeting? It is NOT:
passing your supervisor in the corridor and (s)he says ‘is everything OK?’
You politely answer ‘Yes’
You are working in the lab/office/field next to one of your supervisors
He or she asks how the work you are doing today is progressing and offers advice

20. Formal meetings - 1 Formal meetings are a vital part of your project
Frequency
Often more common at the start than at the end of your project
You can initiate meetings
make an appointment (perhaps even book a quiet room – no phone)
Invite all appropriate members of supervisory team

21. Formal meetings - 2 What happens at the meeting?
You take all your results and interesting papers and discuss these in detail
Set an Agenda: Make plans
Discuss problems
Ensure the project is more than a series of small experiments
Your thesis will ultimately tell a story

22. Formal meetings - 3 During the meeting After the meeting
You take notes
Arrange a date for the next meeting
After the meeting
You write minutes of the meeting with lists of what was agreed – you can add this to e-portfolio, and I recommend that you do so.

23. It is mandatory to record supervisory meetings
Meeting records in ePortfolio, and any associated notes and documents, are shared and easily accessible to you and your supervisor(s).
Adding notes and/or uploading minutes provide the team with a useful record of progress, a record of agreed actions for both students and supervisors
Can act as an aide-mémoire to guide future action
Helps prepare for future professional practice (recording meetings, and reviewing written reports are normal practice in most professions and organisations).

24. It is mandatory to record supervisory meetings
Meeting records in ePortfolio, and any associated notes and documents, are shared and easily accessible to you and your supervisor(s).
Adding notes and/or uploading minutes provide the team with a useful record of progress, a record of agreed actions for both students and supervisors
Can act as an aide-mémoire to guide future action
Helps prepare for future professional practice (recording meetings, and reviewing written reports are normal practice in most professions and organisations).

26. Work-life balance
Research degrees in the UK are completed more quickly than almost anywhere else in the world (but have equivalent global status)
You must work pretty hard!
Try to adopt a basic 9 to 5 day (minimum)
Be prepared to work late and during weekends
But, when out of hours you must adopt appropriate safety procedures (get out of hours access approved!)
Discuss with your safety officer/supervisor (covered in your Institute inductions)

27. Holidays The Graduate School states:
Entitled to 35 days including annual shutdown over the Christmas period/Easter & bank holidays
Discuss holidays with your supervisors
Don’t go AWOL (absent without leave)!

28. Your Lab books NUMBER THE PAGES (& make an index) ENTER THE DATE
Complete as you are working
Do not need to be spotless or even neat
Enter raw data, observations and calculations
Detail all problems and errors (be honest – we’re all human!)
DO NOT MAKE NOTES IN A SCRAP BOOK/ON BITS OF PAPER AND TRANSCRIBE INTO YOUR LAB BOOK LATER

29. Your lab books Your review panel may ask to see these
Your examiner might also ask to see them!

30. Research governance You may have read of ‘scientific fraud’
We must manage our raw data to provide evidence in the case of disputed findings
Do not erase text or cut pages from your lab book
Use pen (rather than pencil)
Remember lab books also protect us (you) if you discover anything that can be patented!

31. Use of computers Backup regularly
Loss of results due to theft, disk failure, virus infection etc is not considered a viable excuse for delayed completion of your project

32. Lab book electronic data
More and more data are electronic and/or digitally captured
Make sure your lab book and data are cross-referenced
Make sure your data are backed up on University servers

33. Literature references
Read around your subject (don’t simply print copies of papers)
Not all journals are equal (impact factor)
Your examiners will test your knowledge of current “related science”
Use a reliable reference database
Training will be given (Endnote)
Useful to have an ideas book
Make notes of good ideas as you have them

34. Write up as you go Not always possible, but:
Always prepare high quality graphics output when you derive the data
this takes time when you are writing your thesis – good if you can simply cut and paste figures into your thesis
If a figure isn’t good enough for presentation have another go – don’t assume you will return to the problem later
Write up methods as you develop them
Make notes when you read good papers
don’t assume you will remember everything

35. Keeping everyone on track is complex!
A full-time PhD (regulation a) must be submitted within 4 YEARS
A full/part time PhD (regulation b) must be submitted within 5 YEARS
A part-time PhD (regulation c) must be submitted within 7 YEARS
A full-time MPHIL (regulation a) must be submitted within 2 YEARS
A part-time MPHIL (regulation b) must be submitted within 4 YEARS

36. Progress review You will be assessed by 2 reviewers
Experts in your field
Not part of your supervisory team
You will submit appropriate written work before the review (electronically)
You and your supervisor(s) will receive formal feedback after the review
It’s good to gain experience of oral examination before the ‘big one’!

37. Time plan summary for PhD students
Start Finish 6
months 12 18 24 30 36 42
months 1
Learning agreement 3
Project Approval
at 8 months
1st annual assessment
at 20 months
2nd annual assessment
at 29 months
3rd annual assessment
4th annual assessment
at 42 months
So much more than just these few milestones

38. Annual Progress Reviews: E-portfolio2 3 4
School progress panel (assessors)
Student
report
Supervisors report
Supervisors
Lab members
Mentors
Guidelines (online) 1
DPGT’s/PGRC
(Institute nominee)
Evidence of student progress;
interview
Presentation
Research training portfolio- courses attended
conferences
Publications 5
Progression decision by PG Dean/PGR Tutor

39. First review We recommend the following structure for your report:
Table of contents
A literature review
A clear statement of the aims of your project
A summary of the methods developed and results obtained to date
A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of your work to date
An outline of your future work
In order to stop students from submitting over-long mini-theses, the Graduate School suggests a maximum word limit for this report (excluding references and figures) of 7,500 words (or 3,000 for MPhil)

40. Dates for your diary:
26/2/18: Your Personal Development Plan – Preparing for the Progress Review Panel
(Mandatory for PhD/MD/MPhil)
01/03/18: Writing your First Year Report
(strongly recommended)

41. Oral presentations (PowerPoint slides) included at each annual review
Plenty of opportunities to develop your presentation skills
Viva Seminars: Each student will present a seminar on the day of their PhD viva examination, ahead of the viva.

42. Cross institute – supervision
Panel member
Talks (internal & external)
Collaboration

43. If you have a(any) problem
Seek help as soon as you can
Supervisors want your project to succeed as much as you do!
Postgraduate co-ordinators
Reviewers (progress panel)
Alison Tyson-Capper
Medical Faculty Postgraduate Tutor, Associate Dean
telephone x87156)
The Dean, John Kirby (through the Graduate School)

44. YOU want everything to go well
WE want everything to go well
….and hopefully it will!
We want to enhance your experience
We want to help you get the most out of your time here

45. Personal Safety - Smart Cards:
Important for gaining access to facilities within the University (do not give your card to anyone else!)
Wear it at all times on premises
Keys for office and desk space
Mail: delivered daily, placed in pigeon holes
Computer/ s: campus log-in, University address
Out of hours – login and logout

46. Lots of support available within the Faculty and University
Our Support Wheel
Graduate School
Secretary/
administrators
Supervisory team
You
Student groups/
reps
Fellow students/buddy
Progress panel
PgR Tutors/Coordinators

47. Being human! You Safety and Security Personal/family problems
Accommodation
You
Financial
problems
Illness
Stress
Disability issues

49. What am I doing here? Preparing a thesis!
Candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy are expected to conduct original investigations, to test ideas, whether their own or others, and to understand the relationship of their work and its themes to a wider field of knowledge. A doctoral thesis should be a piece of work which a capable, well qualified and diligent student who is properly supported and supervised can produce in 3-years of full-time study. It should exhibit substantial evidence of original scholarship and contain material worthy of publication.

50. Enhancing your experience and CV
Collaborate if appropriate/if it adds value
Research Seminars
External speakers (opportunity to meet/interact)
Present at seminars
Research Days, NEPG Conference
Conferences - promote yourself in the scientific community
Teaching/Supervision Opportunities
Demonstrating (some of you are already doing this)
Seminars
Supervising Undergraduate BSc/MSci and MRes students

51. http://ne-pg.co.uk Workshops
Keynote speakers (Matt Ridley, Anya Hurlbert)
Mitochondrial research discussion
Graduate student presentations (talks & posters)

53. Important factors for success “Make the most of your PhD/MPhil”
Think about your ‘training’ early
Make full use of the facilities and opportunities available
Proactive and Assertive
Take ownership
Aim high

54. What we want to achieve:
To encourage you to see your PhD/Mphil studies as a series of training steps rather than as a single final culminating project.
This approach puts more emphasis on the process of training (transferable skills) and on potential personal and career development along the way.
To help you maximise what you achieve during your research training and experience in FMS