Senate
Subject: Direct Registration
for PhD
Origin: Dr Brigette Vale
Action Required:
Senate is requested, on the recommendation of Research Committee, to approve a
proposal to enable candidates for a research degree to register directly for
the award of PhD, rather than register initially on an MPhil programme.
At its meeting on 10 June 2011, and at subsequent
meetings, Research Committee has approved in principle the proposal to permit
research students to be directly registered for a PhD programme, rather than
initial registration for MPhil, where the candidate’s intended qualification
outcome is PhD.
Under our current arrangements, unless research training
has been completed by means of an acceptable Masters qualification, research
students initially register for an MPhil
and upgrade to a PhD qualification following a successful review at the end of
year 1 ( for full time students).
The review of current arrangements and the rationale for
change was prompted by two issues.
The Planning Office raised the matter of HESA data
informing statistical reporting externally, for example
‘The latest provisional data has been
released to us by Thomson-Reuters for their world rankings, much of which has
been sourced from HESA. This has brought to light the issue of the course
aim for research students. As you will be aware it is the University’s
practice to register new research students for MPhil before progression to
PhD. Thomson-Reuters in the league table ignore any Masters students (including research masters), focussing on
undergraduate and doctorate intake and awards. As a result the 2008-09
figures are showing an intake of 25 PGR students (mostly EngD
students) when I believe this should be around 300.’
In this instance it was possible to correct
the data prior to publication, but this will not always be the case for
external users of HESA data.
The Academic Registrar has also reported that
this
issue had recently been raised at a meeting with 1994 Group Academic Registrars.
A number of these had moved to initially registering candidates for PhD and
subsequently amending registration to MPhil if appropriate. The motivation in
this case was primarily to ease the situation with reporting to UKBA.
If we were to adopt direct registration for PhD for all
intending doctoral students then the end of year 1 review process would become
an opportunity to amend registration to MPhil in cases of
unsatisfactory performance. Students
would be given the opportunity to appeal, on procedural grounds, any decision
to amend their registration to MPhil.
There would be a number of practical and technical
benefits in ensuring that the registration of the student was more consistent with
their qualification aim. It would be beneficial for the student to be
registered from the outset on a programme of study which was consistent with
the qualification aimed for. This would provide clarity for them and for their
sponsoring body.
It would also facilitate improved records management procedures
since it will become more straightforward to predict end dates for programmes.
An implementation date for the start of the 12/13
academic year is proposed, subject to the necessary IT systems development.
The necessary amendments to Regulation XXVI and to the
Code of Practice on Research Degree Programmes will be brought forward for
Senate’s consideration and approval subject to approval of this proposal.