Throughout your degree, you will have formal reviews that will take place with your supervisory team and an independent chair. These are separate to your supervisory meetings, and the Postgraduate Research School will send an outlook calendar invite to your university email, detailing what will be required for the review to take place.
The reviews are to make sure that you are on the right track. If you’re on either a doctoral programme or master’s by research programme, your first review needs to have taken place by 6-months if you are full time, or 9 months if you’re part time.
If you are on a professional doctorate programme you will have annual reviews once you have passed the transfer stage and are in the research part of the programme.
It is important to keep track of your review and transfer deadlines and prepare for them ahead of time with help from your supervision team.
Doctoral-level PGRs will have to undertake transfer assessment either at the 12 month point if they are full time or 24-month point if they are part-time.
The transfer assessment is intended to identify the viability of the research project at doctoral level, whether the plan for completion is feasible and that PGRs have made satisfactory progress to date.
Please note that if you have suspending your studies, this will influence future review dates. If you have taken a suspension and are unsure when your next review will be, please submit a case to the Student Hub. Extensions do not influence review dates.
How do I find my next review date?
You can find your next review date on e:Vision.
Navigate to the Postgraduate Research tab, choose Manage Events under Student Actions. Choose either ‘First progress review meeting’, ‘Transfer review meeting’ or ‘Annual Review Meeting’ and click ‘Next’. The List of Events should show a Review option with a date range in brackets. The end date is the date the review/transfer should’ve been completed by.
If there are no dates in the brackets, this means you haven’t had a meeting yet, so the system hasn’t generated any dates. .
If the system shows ‘No Events’, this usually means that your last meeting hasn’t been signed off.. Please submit a case to the Student Hub so the PGR School can investigate this.
What do I need to prepare for my review/transfer?
Information regarding documentation required for reviews, including template documentation, can be found on the Virtual Graduate Centre for PGRs.
Please note that documentation for first reviews, annual reviews and transfers are slightly different. This is specified on the Virtual Graduate Centre by clicking on the relevant drop-down options. We recommend you read this page carefully.
The page also details what documentation needs to be submitted via e:Vision, and what documentation needs to be submitted by email.
Can I delay my review or transfer?
Yes, it is possible to delay a review or transfer, however there are different policies in place depending on which you would like to delay.
We understand that leave, sickness or general life happens which means that your review might not take place on time. For first formal reviews and annual reviews, any delay over one month would need to be in discussion with your supervisor and be approved by the School Postgraduate Research Lead (SPGRL) via email.
For Transfers, a request to postpone the date would need to be approved by the SPGRL.
If the request is approved, the date for maximum limit for completion of transfer would still apply. The maximum limit can be found in the Code of Practice for Research Degrees. You need to apply for a postponement of transfer by completing the following form and submitting it to the PGR School with your supervisor’s signature: Request to postpone the date for PhD transfer.
Please note that deferring your PhD transfer date does not defer your future review dates.