New Supervisors
A helpful guide for new supervisors
As a new supervisor to the School of Informatics you may have many questions on where to find various things. Please see the below slides which are from a 'new faculty induction' which was held on the 5th December 2022.
- Introduce yourself to the "PhD selector" for your institute (Selectors listed here) and let them know your research interests, and also whether you have independent sources of funding (start-up funds, and/or research grants which can support research students).
- Check whether your research could align with one of our CDT programmes, which are Biomed AI, NLP, and RAS. If you think you are a "fit" for any CDT, contact the Director to discuss being added as an eligible Supervisor for that CDT. This might help fund a PhD student for you.
- Complete the first stage of supervisor training, which is the online Learn course "Fundamentals of PhD supervision". This is general research supervision training, required by the University. You should log-in to Learn using your University username and password, select the "course" tab, and then follow "Course Catalogue" in the right-hand corner (just search the Catalogue with "PhD supervision").
- If you already are in correspondence with a prospective PhD student, encourage them to make their formal application at least 5-6 months in advance of their preferred start date. The programmes (different for each Institute/CDT), and links to apply, are here.
- Ask your PhD selector whether you can sit-in on some "applicant interview panels" as soon as possible, to get experience of how these are run, and what questions are asked.
- Ask senior figures in your research group (or in cognate areas) whether you can be added as an Assistant supervisor for an incoming PhD student, so that you can get experience of the Annual Review process for our research students.
- You will have received login details for the University's Student System "Euclid", accessible via MyEd login (the Research and Teaching tab). Please log-in and familiarise yourself, maybe search for a student you know within your Institute as practice. This site is used for Student Admin for postgraduate students as well as undergraduates. This is where you will document Annual reviews and where you will make "T4 engagements" for any students with visas.
It is likely you will be interested in hiring new students after you arrive to Edinburgh. Our process of recruitment has a number of steps and formalities you should keep in mind:
- Supervisors cannot recruit students independently (even with independent funds), but must liaise with the "PhD selector" for their Institute or CDT (Doctoral Training Programme). The Selectors provide oversight of the assessment of the applicants, and help rank applicants when they are being considered for School/University funding. Selectors also are responsible for completing and submitting the Offer form to the IGS to start the recruitment of a specific student.
- If you plan to recruit a student to a research grant (or external funding) over the upcoming year, please email |GS to make them aware of the nature of the funding and the research plans. In some cases it will be necessary to liaise with the (grant) Portfolio Manager, and sometimes the Business Development Exec, before an offer of admission can be made. This takes significant time, and even more for "Student Route" students from abroad.
- If you are hoping to recruit students next academic year, it is worth checking the name of the Selector of your institute here to inform them of this, and to let them know about any independent funding you may have to support students (start-up funding, or an external research grant).
- IGS has some School/University funding available for PhD students, but it is very limited, and given the strength of our applicant pool, is hotly contested. Applications from UK-eligible students (UK residents, including EU nationals with settled status) have a better chance, as they are eligible for EPSRC DTA awards that the School holds.
- Are you in discussions with an applicant you would like to recruit? If so, please encourage them to formally apply at least 5-6 months in advance of the desired start date.
- Students cannot start at arbitrary times of year:
- CDT students must have the 1st September start date
- Students on Institute programmes can be made an offer for 1st October, 1st January, or 1st May.
There is extra information about Recruitment issues at the "Recruitment & Admissions" section of the IGS webpages, and these pages are very detailed, with very helpful information. In particular, the "Guidance" subpage which provides specific details of the specific steps to be carried out for both UK-eligible students, and International students.
The code of practice for supervisors and research students provides guidance for postgraduate research supervisors and students on roles and responsibilities and the student-supervisor relationship. Includes information on annual progression reviews, thesis preparation and assessment, and absences and concessions
The Edinburgh PhDs are close to the UK model where the relationship with a Lead supervisor(s) is crucial to the scientific process. In some ways it could be thought of as an "apprenticeship", except that the PhD student has agency in the development of the research enterprise.
- Many of our PhD programmes (including all Institute programmes) are "straight to research", without any Quals, and without any intermediate period to choose a supervisor. In these cases, the Lead supervisor is somewhat committed to supervision of the incoming student (perhaps in a stronger way than in a US PhD). Please be careful during the selection process, and only recruit applicants if you are confident of their aptitude for research.
- Be clear about goal-setting and "expectations" with your PhD students. The University has an "Expectations Questionnaire" which we ask faculty to use for discussion in the 1st meeting with a PhD student - both student and supervisor fill this independently, then compare, as the basis of a discussion.
- The University has an "Annual Review" process where students have their progress reviewed by a panel on an Annual basis (by 12 months, by 24 months, ...). These Reviews are mandatory, and the panel meetings should be scheduled well in advance of the deadline - it is the responsibility of the lead supervisor). Please be alert to emails coming from the IGS or the Student Administration system ("Euclid") about upcoming Reviews.
- The Lead supervisor also holds the formal "Pastoral" role for their own PhD students, and should be alert to the mood and health of their students. We also have a set of 3 "Postgraduate Research tutors" (PGR tutors, listed under Support Network here) who make themselves available for drop-in chat on a regular basis: you are welcome to suggest the student book an appointment with one of the 3 PGR tutors.
- If you are worried about a student's Mental Health or general wellbeing, there are many options to refer them to. If you consider it to be a problem needing urgent attention, please feel free to alert the IGS, or the Deputy Director of the IGS, or in exceptionally urgent cases, Neil Heatley (Head of Student Support).
- Many of our PhD and research students are from outside UK and EU, and may hold a "Tier 4" or "Student Route" visa. This requires the recording of "engagement points" each month, documented by the supervisor on Euclid. There are details about the process here.
All our faculty members are required to maintain eligibility for PhD supervision by completing training every 5 years. There are two main components to our training:
- The "Fundamentals of PhD supervision" course on Learn. This course has significant content about the roles and responsibilities of a PhD supervisor at Edinburgh, plus some information about our formal processes. Also some content about reflecting on supervisor style.
- The "in house" training sessions run by the Deputy Director of the IGS, together with the Dean of Postgraduate studies. These focus on how things work within Informatics, some "case studies" to highlight our channels for resolving problems, and details of the processes round Annual Reviews. The date for the 2022/23 delivery will be (afternoon) Thursday, 9th February 2023.
New faculty are required to complete both of these to become eligible for PhD supervision at Edinburgh.
An overview of Informatics support teams and what they do.
Some basic information about Informatics for new staff members.
The Informatics Graduate School (IGS) is a collection of academic faculty and administration staff who manage the admission of PhD students and oversee the progress, training and support for those students once they are on-program. The main office of the IGS is Informatics Forum 3.42, with Lindsey Fox managing this team. The team can be contacted by email to igs@inf.ed.ac.uk