Support summary
An overview of support available to you within the school and wider University.
Supervisors
The supervisor(s) should be the primary source of advice for PGR students.
Most supervisors are very experienced and can advise on strategies for dealing with the kinds of problems that arise in the course of research. The student-supervisor relationship requires a degree of patience on both sides. Not often, but sometimes, the relationship between student and supervisor can begin to break down, and in such cases it can be helpful to seek outside advice or support.
Sometimes students may seek a change of supervisor, but this is often dependent on the availability of other members of staff who and if they have the appropriate expertise to provide the necessary specialist expertise.
Student support
If you are experiencing difficulties, such as difficulties with supervision or any other aspect of your studies, there is help and support available. Start near the beginning of the following sequence and work your way down, if required.
There can be special difficulties when, for instance, your Supervisor and Institute Director are the same person. In case of such difficulties, jump to the next level in the sequence.
- Your Principal Supervisor
- Your Assistant Supervisor(s)
- Your Institute Director
- PGR Personal Tutors (Elizabeth Polgreen and John Longley and Murray Cole). "Drop-in" hours are offered each week (via Blackboard Collaborate) . Collaborate links are sent out by IGS on a monthly basis but feel free to get in touch with IGS if you need these links:
- John Longley does not operate any specifc drop in hours and is happy for students to contact him anytime.
- Jane Hillston has a "drop-in" hour from 4pm-5pm on Tuesdays
- Murray Cole does not operate any specifc drop in hours and is happy for students to contact him anytime.
- Head of Graduate School (Nigel Topham - for issues concerning admissions and funding/scholarships)
- Deputy Head of Graduate School (Rob Van Glabbeek - for all other on course related student issues)
- Your PhD student rep - To find out who that is, click here
- Head of School (Helen Hastie)
- College Dean of PGR Students (Antony Maciocia)
Each CDT also has additional pastoral support as listed below:
- PPar CDT: Prof Murray Cole (CDT Director and PGR Personal Tutor).
- BMAI CDT: Dr Diego Oyarzun (NB: the CDT Directors Dr Ian Simpson and Dr Meriem El Karoui both have an 'open door' policy)
- Data Science CDT: Dr Milos Nikolic
- RAS CDT: Dr Michael Mistry (Director)
- NLP CDT: Dr Bjorn Ross (available 3pm-4pm on the first and third Wednesday of every month in Informatics Forum (2.26) or by prior appointment over email)
If you are ever unsure who to speak to or want to contact someone outside of the above list for advice or a chat please feel free to contact igs@inf.ed.ac.uk and one of the team will be more than happy to talk things over with you.
Other sources of advice or guidance
There are also various sources of help that are outside the usual academic "chain of command". These include:
- Student Counselling Service
- Student Immigration Service
- Advice Place (EUSA)
- EUSA PGR student rep for Informatics
- Staff-Student Liaison meetings
- Student Disability Service (also info on specific support for PGR students)
- University Health Centre or GP
- University Chaplaincy
- 'It's OK not to be OK' - EUSA video highlighting the importance of talking about mental health issues
UPDATED 08/10/2021