Loughborough Doctoral College

Essential information

Progress reviews

You will receive regular progress monitoring as part of the supervisory process. The expectation is that you will meet with your supervisor at the very least on a monthly basis throughout the duration of your studies.
The Code of Practice provides guidance on reviews and your School administrator will be able to provide you with detail on how this is managed within your School.

Key review points are:

6 month review

Full and part-time students shall have an initial progress review after 6 months registration. The purpose of the review is to ensure engagement with the programme and that a research plan is in place and underway.

The review will be based on a written report of at least 2,000 words for full time, or 1,000 words for part-time study outlining progress with a literature review, the thesis plan and the definition of the research question(s). You must also provide evidence of completing the Information security training available on Learn.

Students complete a six month review form, provided by the School administrator. The supervisor and independent interviewer complete a six month review form based on the students report.

Part R1 review

Before a full-time student will be permitted to re-register for their second year of research, they will be required to submit evidence of their research progress to date for assessment. This evidence will normally be a report of 10,000 words or their equivalent on the research carried out, but it may also include research publications. The report should contain a plan and timetable for completion and separate details of any research or transferable skills training i.e. development record.

Before the end of their first 12 months of study, all part-time students will be required to submit a report of 5,000 words on the research to date and will be subject to a mid-point progress review. By 24 months registration they should submit evidence of their research progress to date which will be a written report of at least 10,000 words or equivalent output including plan and timetable for completion and separate details of research and transferable skills training. Subject to a satisfactory progress review students move into R2.

Part R2 review

In order to re-register for R3, full-time students should produce a further written report of at least 10,000 words, which may include journal publications or chapters of the thesis together with any appropriate supporting output within an appropriate timescale to enable re-registration before the end of R2.

Following the submission of the 10,000 report to confirm progression at 24 months registration, part-time students should produce reports of at least 5,000 words annually for the remaining years of the registration. The report at the end of year 5 may be a draft of the thesis and should include a clear plan for timely submission of the thesis.

Part R3 review

A further written report should be produced before the end of year 3 which may be a draft of their thesis. Part-time students should produce reports annually for the remaining years of the registration.

All students will receive a written report from their Supervisor(s) concerning their progress each year after their progress review.

 

Documents required for Progression Review

  • Students Full Time: 10,000 word report / Part-Time: 5,000 word report for 12 months or 10,000 word report end of 24 months
  • Students Development record/skills training record (excel) 
  • Supervisors Annual Report
  • Independent Reviewers Report