Managing my PhD or MPhil

research degree

Alison Tyson-Capper Faculty Postgraduate Tutor, Associate Dean

Graduate School

Faculty of Medical Sciences

• Settling in

• Learning agreements

• Project approvals (before Xmas)

• E-portfolio (log meetings)

Welcome!

What do you think is important

in managing your PhD/Mphil?

Managing my PhD, MD or

MPhil research degree

Alison Tyson-Capper

Graduate School

Faculty of Medical Sciences

Managing my supervisor(s)!

You and your supervisor?

You now …..You later on

Managing your supervisor

• Be organised

• Be honest (don’t try to disguise what you think to be failure)

• He 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

Planning your work

• Long-term plans

– To complete my higher degree and earn some money!

• 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 ...

Keep a diary

• Don’t set up something and leave it to ‘cook’

for three days whilst doing nothing else

– ‘Dovetail’ your work together to optimise time

• Don’t set up a 24 hour experiment on Friday

if you are not planning to be in over the

weekend!

– But do set up a 72 hour experiment on Friday to

complete the following Monday (if its not a bank

holiday!)

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

The learning agreement/

Intellectual Property (Laura)

• Complete within one month of registration

• This document defines

– What you can expect of us

– What we can expect of you

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

- Laura

- Richy

• 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.

How many supervisors do I need?

• You have a supervisory team

– 1 lead supervisor

– 1 or more co-supervisors

Formal meetings

• What is a ‘formal’ meeting?

– You pass your supervisor in the corridor and

(s)he says ‘is everything OK?’

– You politely answer ‘Yes’

• Nice, but NOT a formal meeting

Formal meetings

• What is a ‘formal’ meeting?

– 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

• Should happen, but NOT a formal meeting

Formal meetings - 1

• Formal meetings are the most vital part of your project

• Frequency

– Often more common at the start than at the end of your project

– In this Faculty should not be more than two months apart (or less than 10 per year)

– You can initiate meetings • make an appointment (perhaps even book a quiet

room – no phone)

• Invite all appropriate members of supervisory team

Formal meetings - 2

• What happens at the meeting?

– You take all your results and interesting

papers and discuss these in detail

• Set the Agenda: Make plans

• Discuss problems

• Ensure the project is more than a series of

small experiments

– Your thesis will ultimately tell a story

Formal meetings - 3 • During 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 – add this to e-portfolio

It is now 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).

It is now 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).

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

• Discuss with your safety officer/supervisor (covered in

your Institute inductions)

Holidays

• You are no longer an undergraduate so

don’t go away for the summer!

• 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)!

Your notebooks

• Hard back with numbered pages

• Enter the date

• Complete as you are working

– Do not need to be spotless or neat

– Enter raw data, observations and calculations

– Detail all problems and errors (be honest – we’re

all human!)

• Your review panel may ask to see these

• Your examiner might also ask to see them!

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 of 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!

Use of computers

• Backup regularly

• Backup regularly

• 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

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

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

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

Progress review

• You will be examined 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’!

Time plan summary for PhD students

6

months

12

months

18

months

24

months

30

months

36

months

Start Finish

at 8 months

3

Learning agreement

1st annual assessment

at 20 months

at 30 months

2nd annual assessment

Project Approval

1

3rd annual assessment

So much more than just these few milestones

Evidence of student

progress;

• interview

• Presentation

• Research training

portfolio- courses

attended

• conferences

• Publications

Student

report

Supervisors

report

School

progress

panel

(assessors)

DPGT’s/PGRC

(Institute nominee)

Progression

decision by PG

Dean/PgR Tutor

Annual Progress Reviews: E-portfolio 7th October 10:00 -12:00

• Supervisors • Lab members • Mentors • Guidelines (online)

1

2 3 4

5

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)

*3rd March 2016- Writing your 1st year report*

• Viva Seminars: Each student will present a

seminar on the day of their PhD viva examination,

ahead of the viva.

• Oral presentations (PowerPoint slides)

included at each annual review

• Plenty of opportunities to develop your

presentation skills

Progress review and your CV Investigating cancer-associated

splicing in HER2 in breast cancer Anna-Lena Dittrich Supervisor team: Dr Alison Tyson-Capper Dr Hannah Gautrey Dr David Browell

Institute of Cellular Medicine PhD 1st Year report

The HER2 Signalling

Network in Breast

Cancer -

Like a Spider in its

Web

Science Signalling

(under review)

Reviews by PhD students 1

2

1

2

PlosGenetics 2013

The Identification of Trans-acting Factors that Regulate the Expression of GDF5

via the Osteoarthritis Susceptibility SNP rs143383

Catherine M. Syddall, Affiliation: Musculoskeletal Research Group, Institute of Cellular

Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Research Articles

“ A most venomous thing in the making of

sciences: for whoever has fixed on his

Cause, before he has experimented, can

hardly avoid fitting his Experiment to his

own Cause….rather than the Cause to the

truth of the Experiment itself”

Thomas Sprat (1667) Historian Founder of the Royal Society

Don’t fall in love with your hypothesis

Cross institute

– supervision

Panel member

Talks (internal

& external)

Collaboration

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)

– Me through the Graduate School or directly

(alison.tyson-capper@ncl.ac.uk; telephone

x87156)

– The Dean, Prof John Kirby (through the

Graduate School)

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

Personal Safety - Smart Cards:

– Important for gaining access to facilities within

the University

– Wear it at all times on premises

– Keys for office and desk space

– Mail: delivered daily, placed in pigeon holes

– Computer/e-mails: campus log-in, University

e-mail address

– Out of hours – login and logout

Lots of support available within the Faculty and University

Our Support Wheel

You

Supervisory team

Fellow students/buddy

Progress panel PgR Tutors/Coordinators

Student groups/

reps

Secretary/

administrators

Graduate School/me/Dean

You

Safety and Security

Accommodation

Financial

problems Illness

Stress

Personal/family

problems

Disability issues

Being human!

– Student advice service

• Within the Union building

Budgeting and money management information and resources:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wellbeing/finance/advice/managing/

Information for UK students who experience financial difficulties:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wellbeing/finance/funding/ukstudent

s/hardship/

Information for International and EU students who experience

unexpected financial difficulties:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wellbeing/finance/funding/nonukstu

dents/hardship/

Resources to help you with:

The bottom line

• Don’t keep a problem to yourself!

– The university has dealt with thousands of students – it is unlikely your problem is unique!

– Don’t be afraid to talk to someone • You can talk to male and/or female staff

• We respect discretion and confidentiality

– If the Graduate School can’t help you directly, it will almost certainly be able to direct you to someone who can

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.

Enhancing your experience and CV

– 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

– Seminars

– Supervising Undergraduate BSc/MSci and MRes students

• Collaborate if appropriate/if it adds value

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

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

Good luck…….and I

look forward to

hearing about your

research