Progress and reviews

The length of your programme has been communicated to you in programme your offer letter. 

The standard lengths of programmes are as follows:

It is expected that you will complete your PhD within the standard length of the programme. However, the university recognises that it may sometimes not be possible for PGR students to submit their thesis by the programme’s official end date. You may therefore be eligible to apply to extend your programme’s official end date (and pay fees pro-rata) or enter a period of 'submission pending' (which incurs a submission pending fee) for the sole purpose of writing up the thesis. Please refer to the Faculty Guiding Principles for the Submission Pending Period.

The mid-year review is an interim review to discuss any issues, to prepare for the Annual Review, and can in cases of poor progress be used to determine progress.

It will be held by the end of month five of each academic session.

Requirements

Details of the requirements of the review are contained within the mid-year review milestone in eProg.

• eProg

You need to complete the mid-year review form with your supervisory team by the deadline given in the system.  You will meet with both your supervisors to discuss the comments made and to discuss plans for onward progression to ensure timely completion of the thesis.

Find out more

Please note that the format and organisation of the meeting may vary between divisions and departments.  Your Doctoral Programmes Administrator will provide specific details if special arrangements are to be made for your mid-year review.

• Contact us

All full-time and part-time students are required to undergo a formal review of progress in month nine of each academic session, which for September cohorts will normally be June and for January cohorts will normally be September. This review will determine whether you progress to the next year of study.  For more details of the progression criteria see the Faculty of Humanities Framework for Progress Criteria.

This review will determine whether you may progress to the next year of study.

First-year review

The first year review evaluates a student’s academic progress over the first year and confirms whether the student has achieved an appropriate standard to continue into the second year of study. Part-time students complete the first year review by July of their second year of registration.

The first year review possesses certain characteristics which the panel should consider:

1. Completion of any prescribed taught assessment that is a formal condition of progression.  Results will be ratified by an Exam Board and passed to the Chair of the Review Panel in advance of the Review taking place. 
2. Written Work and/or Presentation by the student.
3. Any additional academic matters, as reported by your supervisors (for example, researcher development matters, conference attendance, seminar participation, general progress summary and so on).

Panel membership

The review is undertaken by a review panel.  For details on the roles and membership of this panel, please refer to the 'Policy on the Progress and Review of PGR students':

• Policy on the Progress and Review of PGR students

Written work, timeline and presentation

A written piece of work must be submitted for consideration, as a minimum, for every annual review.  The work must be submitted to your supervisory team before the review so that you can be given feedback and support to revise the work accordingly before it is submitted for consideration by the panel.

The written report will be required by a certain deadline (normally by mid-May) when it should be uploaded to the annual review form in eProg, along with Part A which must be fully completed by you. The review panel will then access your work within eProg and complete the rest of the annual review section as part of the review process.

Please refer to the guideline on how to complete the annual review form in eProg:

• eProg Student Guide

Details of specific requirements will be sent to you by your PGR Office in advance. Please note that the School will specify the contents and the maximum length of the report. These requirements may change so you should not rely on what other students tell you but should refer to the guidance provided by your administrator.

A timeline for completion of your programme should also be completed.  The purpose of the timeline is to act as a guide for completion planning so that you can readily see how far you have already progressed, but also visualise and plan for what remains to be done. 

It also provides a clear illustration to those assessing your progress what has actually been achieved, when the majority of the review might be focused mainly on a current project/piece of research.

Your responsibilities

Your responsibility in terms of the annual review is to:

• attend the annual review meeting, unless you have mitigating reasons to not be in attendance;
• submit the work required on time; to engage with the process;
• complete your sections of the annual review form before the annual review meeting in a timely manner allowing the panel enough time to consider all inputs on the form.

You should also ensure you are available following the annual review meeting to discuss the outcome with either your supervisors or the PGR director and/or divisional coordinator.

It is a requirement of registration that all students successfully progress via the annual review process each year. You will not be permitted to re-register until the PGR office has received confirmation from the review panel that your academic progress is satisfactory.

Annual review - second year onwards

All doctoral students will continue to undergo formal Annual Reviews normally each year in June or earlier until the thesis has been submitted for examination. 

Initial recommendations

The review panel will write a report on the review using the annual review form in eProg.  They will outline their judgement and give details of any further action required by you – for instance, you may be asked to re-submit a written report or undertake further work, with or without a further presentation. 

They will record one of the following initial recommendations regarding your future study:

• Continuation - The student has met the required doctoral standards and the recommendation is made for the student to continue registration on the doctoral degree.
• Resubmit - (remedial work) The student has almost met the required doctoral standards but further work must be done to continue registration.  Following the first attempt at a formal review, students will normally be given one opportunity to resubmit work for a formal review and will normally be given up to ten weeks after the first panel meeting to complete the remedial work and submit it to the panel for consideration.  The resubmission and review of the submitted work should, where possible, take place before the end of the student's current year of study.  
• Transfer - The student has not met the required doctoral standards and a recommendation is made for the student to be transferred from the doctoral degree to MPhil.
• Withdrawal - The student has not met the required standard for doctoral degrees or MPhil and the recommendation is made for the student’s registration to be terminated.

Final recommendations (following resubmission)

Once the Annual Review is complete, including any assessment of resubmitted work, the panel will make a formal recommendation which will determine your progression on the programme. The panel will make one of the following final recommendations: 

• Continuation - The student has met the required doctoral standards and the recommendation is made for the student to continue registration on the doctoral degree.
• Transfer - The student has not met the required doctoral standards and a recommendation is made for the student to be transferred from the doctoral degree to MPhil.
• Withdrawal - The student has not met the required standard for doctoral degrees or MPhil and the recommendation is made for the student’s registration to be terminated.

For further details of these outcomes, please refer to the Policy on the Progress and review of Postgraduate Research Students:

• Policy on the Progress and Review of Postgraduate Research Students

Appealing the outcome of an annual review

If you are not satisfied that the reviews were undertaken and recommendations were made in accordance with University regulations, you may submit a formal appeal.

• Academic Appeals (Regulation XIX)

We advise that you discuss this in the first instance with your supervisor, PGR director and / or graduate office.

All PGR students within the Faculty of Humanities will have their progress reviewed formally twice a year throughout their University career.  These timeframes will be adjusted accordingly for students who have had periods of interruption to their studies or to take into consideration the registration of part time students and students registering outside of the normal September period.

Minimum requirements

This section outlines the minimum requirements for progression and monitoring within the School.  The timing and number of reviews given in this section are indicative of a normal progression structure for a PGR student. 

However, if your progress is assessed as unsatisfactory by the panel, you may be required to have your progress assessed more than twice a year.  The School reserves the right to convene a panel to review the progress of a student at any time during their University career.

Following the mid year and / or annual review each year, a number of possible outcomes are available for final recommendation, dependent on the type of degree on which the student registered.

Possible outcomes

Doctoral degrees

Students initially registered on a doctoral degree:

1. Continuation - The student has met the required doctoral standards and the recommendation is made for the student to continue registration on the doctoral degree
2. Transfer - The student has not met the required doctoral standards and a recommendation is made for the student to be transferred from the doctoral degree to MPhil
3. Withdrawal - The student has not met the required standard for doctoral degrees or MPhil and the recommendation is made for the student’s registration to be terminated

MPhil degrees

Students initially registered on an MPhil degree:

1. Transfer - The student has met the required doctoral standards and a recommendation is made for the student to be transferred from MPhil to the relevant doctoral degree.
2. Continuation - The student has not met the required standard for transfer to doctoral level and the recommendation is made for the student to register for the MPhil submission pending period.
3. Withdrawal - The student has not met the required standard for the MPhil and the recommendation is made for the student’s registration to be terminated.

It is a requirement of registration that all students successfully progress via the Annual Review process each year. 

You will not be permitted to re-register until the Doctoral Academy has received confirmation from the Review Panel that your academic progress is satisfactory.

Progression milestones help you keep track of your progress. They represent each activity that you must complete to meet the programme requirements, presented with deadlines in order to help you plan your activities. They are presented in an electronic system called eProg.

What is eProg?

eProg is a University wide system that is specifically designed to help to structure and breakdown the PGR programme and monitor progress, both for supervisors and for postgraduate research students. 

It is useful to think of eProg as being split into three main functions:

1. Progression

Monitoring and recording your progression from the point of registration to the point at which you submit the Notice of Submission form.

2. Thesis submission and examination

Monitoring and recording the submission to examination process from the point at which you submit the Notice of Submission form to the point at which your final award is ratified.

Your thesis examination will be recorded in eProg.  My Examination Summary area can be found in your individual student profile and displays the status of your thesis examination stages.

3.  Researcher development training courses

You can keep a record of all training you have attended (this is also visible to your supervisors) which is useful when writing CVs or job applications.

Benefits

• It helps you to stay on track to submit your thesis on time.
• You can use eProg to track your progression and plan targets.
• You can your supervisor can view your progression history and meeting logs at any time and remotely.
• All completed milestones and forms remain in eProg and can be referred back to.
• eProg is an interactive tool for you and your supervisor and offers an online platform for you to record and track key progression milestones throughout the programme from the point of registration to examination.

Accessing eProg

You will be expected to use eProg regularly throughout your studies, and it is particularly crucial for thesis submission and recording meetings with your supervisor.

You can access eProg via My Manchester:

• eProg login

If you have completed your IT Account Activation and been given a central account, you use the username and password given to you to log into eProg.  You will have access to your eProg record whilst you are an active student.

Using eProg

Guidance to help with using eProg can be found on the Faculty of Humanities eProg Student Guide.

For guidance on how to book training courses via eProg, please see our video guide Booking onto Training Courses via eProg.

Help and support

For queries related to specific milestones on your programme, please contact the Doctoral Academy.