Supervision
The relationship between yourself and your supervisor is critical to the success of the project.
You must make sure that you arrange regular meetings with your
supervisor. The meetings may be brief once your project is under way
but your supervisor needs to know that your work is progressing. You
should inform the supervisor of your address and any changes to it, so
that he or she can contact you, if necessary. If you need to talk to
your supervisor between meetings and cannot locate him/her in their
office, leave a note, or send electronic mail, asking them to suggest
a time when they will be available. When you go to see your supervisor
you should have prepared a written list of points you wish to
discuss. Take notes during the meeting so that you do not forget the
advice you were given and the conclusions that were reached.
Most importantly, you need to maintain a good working relationship
with your supervisor, which includes in particular that you inform
them openly if you feel you lack understanding, have not made enough
progress, or are experiencing any form of problem that prevent you
from working properly on your project (you don't need to mention any
details - in particular when these are confidential).
Each student is allocated an individual supervisor who is normally a
member of the academic staff of the School to oversee the progress of
the project. The role of the supervisor is to provide intellectual
guidance and offer advice on the planning and progress of the
project - it is the role of the student to carry out the project.
A supervisor offers the following supervision, which students may or may not make use of (e.g. a student may prefer fortnightly meetings to weekly ones).
- A weekly meeting, scheduled for at least half an hour, during the whole of the project period, i.e. semester 2 and the summer period between the end of exams and the submission deadline, except when the supervisor is absent or otherwise unavailable.
- If a supervisor expects to be absent or otherwise unavailable, (s)he should inform the student well in advance. If (s)he expects to be unavailable for a significant period of time (e.g. 3 weeks or more) (s)he should consider making alternative temporary supervision arrangements.
- Some additional and/or longer meetings may be scheduled to give detailed feedback on student's work.
Feedback on students' work should be timely, within 3 working days where possible, but normally not longer than 7 days.
- A supervisor should answer all reasonable requests for advice,
in particular regarding plagiarism issues and general advice on
academic writing, and look out for possible malpractise.
- For each segment (e.g. a chapter) of either the dissertation or the progress report, the supervisor must read it carefully when first offered and provide detailed feedback. This includes some correction of the English where necessary, but does not include full proof reading. If the student's English is too poor to be routinely corrected, they should be advised on appropriate remedial action, for example a University Language Centre tutorial.
- On the second reading of each segment, the supervisor should
give general advice rather than the detailed feedback required for
the first draft. This also applies to a final draft provide by the
student shortly before submission.
- Where appropriate, a supervisor may also, at their discretion:
- Do a second round of detailed feedback on parts of the dissertation or progress report which are problematic, particularly for students with English problems. However, repeated detailed correction is not allowed as this would give the student an unfair advantage.
- Arrange additional and/or longer meetings with a student where the purpose of these meeting is clearly defined; e.g. a meeting with a research group to discuss the problem the student is working on, or a pastoral meeting to help the student with problems.
- Other responsibilities of the supervisor are:
- To ensure the project matches the student’s ability/expectations and can be completed within the available time,
- To assist the student in formulating a viable project plan,
- To direct students to source material and give guidance on computer systems,
- To give guidance in conducting research,
- To give guidance in managing the timetable and progress of the project,
- To assist the student in identifying problems and possible solutions,
- To identify any health and safety issues,
- To make the student aware when work is falling below the expected standard and give corrective advice,
- To advise students regarding ethical policies and regulations relating
to the conduct of research.
For group projects, the supervisor will ensure that group meetings are scheduled appropriately to discuss the project in general and the management of the group. In addition, where appropriate, individual meetings can be scheduled to discuss individual issues.
