Information about the Periods of Study Review

Implementation of these changes is being supported by a Working Party reporting to the Management Group of the Doctoral College. The Working Party has meetings scheduled twice a term. Please contact your relevant representative for more information (for College academic staff this will normally be your College DPGR).

Doctoral College Forum meetings:

Exeter campuses 3rd October 2018, Cornwall campuses, 2nd October 2018. College and discipline-DPGRS, ADRs, Research and Doctoral College Business Partners and Doctoral College Senior Professional Services staff have been invited to these events. The Forum meeting will include a brief summary of the context for the changes, what has changed and why. It will share examples of good practice, and where there is flexibility to do so, will provide the opportunity to begin or continue conversations about the way the changes will be implemented locally.

The slides from the Forum meetings are shown in the documents section above.

Local communications about the changes: There will be opportunities within Colleges to hear more about the changes, and more information will be added as events are scheduled.

Supervisor Training sessions:

Why are some of the changes to Periods of Study being bought in for entrants from 2019-20 only?

• The Working Party gave careful consideration to the timing of implementation of these changes, and there are a number of reasons why the changes are being bought in this way. For example:• Changes to the maximum period of study are being introduced for entrants from 19-20 only. Some information about a programme, such as the length of a programme, are fundamental pieces of information made available to students prior to registration. It is important to consider the impact of bringing such changes in mid-way through a programme and changes made to this would normally require the consent of existing students if bought in mid-programme. Furthermore, the length of the programme will have been built into planning by the student and their supervisory team from an early stage, as such consideration of potential practical difficulties in introducing certain changes for students part-way through their programme were also taken into account.

• Changes to part-time periods of study are being introduced for entrants from 19-20 only. Implementation of systems changes: Differences between cohorts and limited resource available for systems changes means that broader availability of these changes can only be built into the systems for this cohort. Changes to status outside of those specified for current students in the ‘Statement of Procedures: Periods of Registration and Changes to Registration Status for Graduate Research Students’ are handled on an exceptional basis.

• Some changes to procedure are being introduced for all students, however. These normally constitute clarification of existing practice, such as with regard to when to use the ‘Code of Good Practice -Unsatisfactory Student Progress and Engagement’ and/or are of benefit to students, such as ensuring that part-time students have the same number of progress review contact points with their supervisory team as full-time students.

Please see these summary documents with updates for students starting 2019-20 and  updates affecting previous years ‌ and other information available on this page for more information about the changes mentioned here.

College staff with additional questions about these changes should speak to their DPGR in the first instance.