Policies & regulations

PGR related policies, procedures and the Graduate School administration duties.

PG Admissions Policies and Procedures

University Principles and Procedures on Admissions

Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students

University Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students

Charlie Waller Mental Health resources Charlie Waller Trust is a mental health support charity; online resources available to help staff support students with mental health issues

Data Protection Guidance

University Records Management Section guidance

Fees Policy

University information on fees and other costs, including; Tuition Fees, Additional Programme Costs, Matriculations Fees, Continuation Fees, Resubmission Fees
Informatics Graduate School Administration Duties A list of duties that are associated with the Informatics Graduate School.

Policy on English Language Entry Requirements 

University Policy on minimum English Language Entry Requirements
Doctoral College Sharepoint

A UoE PGR sharepoint which coordinates information, training and support for postgraduate research at the University of Edinburgh. These pages are updated regularly with information, news and opportunities for PGR students and supervisors. Also refer to the IAD webpages for PGR supervisors, including the course Fundamentals of PhD supervision 

Postgraduate Research Assessment Regulations

University Regulations for Postgraduate Assessment

Postgraduate Degree Programme Regulations 

University Regulations for Postgraduate Degree Programmes
Student Desk Allocation Policy Individual desk space for PGR students

School PGR Supervision policy

NEW (approved by Strategy Committee 29 June 2022)

 

 

Key points

Supervisor training - PhD supervisor must take the IAD PGR supervisor training course and repeat this every 5 years.  New incoming academic staff must also take extra in-house supervision training in their first year to be qualified for supervising Informatics students.  All supervisors must also complete the Data Protection, IS Essentials and Equality and Diversity Essentials (these are also a requirement of the HR PDR process). 

Conducting timely annual reviews - regardless of where a student is in their PGR journey, annual reviews must be conducted at the designated time and neither the student nor the supervisor should be actively delaying this review point. This is especially true if there has been insufficient progress.  A supervisor may not grant concessions to a student on the timing of the annual review.  There will be penalties applied to supervisors where annual reviews are not progressed and concluded as expected.  Supervisors may be prevented from taking on new PGR students where deemed necessary. 

Supervisor availability - supervisors with contracts less than 50% FTE need permission from the Head of School and Director of Graduate School to recruit a new student.  It is expected that an MoA is drafted which covers the terms under which PGR recruitment and supervision will be undertaken, which must include a commitment from the part time supervisor to undertake all administrative duties of a principal supervisor in a timely manner. 

Independence of supervisors - it is not best practice for intimate partners to jointly supervise the same student. This should be avoided. If an exception is required, it must have approval of the Director of IGS. 

School PGR Supervision ceiling policy (new PhD supervisors)

To ensure PhD students are not disadvantaged by an overloaded supervisor, the  School implemented a policy to manage the number of PhD students who could be allocated to academic staff new to PhD supervision.  This was communicated to staff via the School General Meeting on 20 Feb 2020. 

New academic staff who have not yet graduated a doctoral student, either at Edinburgh or at a previous institution, as first supervisor, will normally be permitted to be first supervisor to no more than 4 PhD students.”

Policy implemented from Sept 2020 (does not apply retrospectively).

Tier 4 Student Attendance and Engagement Policy

Policy on monitoring Tier 4 students - with effect from 1st August 2014

PGR Visiting Students Policies

School policy on Visiting Students and other School visitors