Yearly Assessment for Research Students

Research postgrads in the Department of Biological Sciences (i.e. Masters and PhD students) must complete a yearly assessment, consisting of a seminar and interview, and two progress reports. The purpose of these is simply to establish that students have a clear research plan in place and are making progress towards achieving it. The emphasis is on work accomplished over the previous year.

Progress reports

Postgrads must complete both the Higher Degree Research Office's annual progress form, and a departmental progress report, and submit them separately to the appropriate offices.

The HDR report is of the "fill in the box" type, and can be downloaded from eStudent. From you this goes to your supervisor, who fills out their own section and sends it on to the HDRU.

The Departmental progress report must be submitted to the Head of Department's office, and is completely separate from the HDRU form. In this report, you outline progress made over the year in whatever way seems appropriate to you. A complete report on your research is not necessary, but you should satisfy your committee that you've made reasonable progress, particularly over the last year. A published paper or a manuscript ready to submit is an excellent way to demonstrate this, as are conference abstracts. A timeline for your next year of research or for your degree can also be helpful. Discuss this with your supervisor(s) before you submit it, so that you're both saying the same thing to the progress committee.

Seminar

This is a conference-style talk, presented with all the other postgrad seminars over the course of several days. These talks are organised into a postgrad conference, and all students presenting a talk are expected to attend the whole conference. Seminars are normally twenty minutes long with five minutes for questions. If you do re-use a conference talk, remember to explain how it fits into your overall structure, and outline your future plans.

Interview

Interviews take place on the same day you give your seminar, normally in the afternoon. Their purpose is to clarify any questions arising from your progress report or talk, and to find out if there are any problems between you and your supervisor. You will be interviewed by a panel of academics (normally two or three) who sit in on your seminar stream.

Apart from submitting an intelligent progress report that you've discussed with your supervisor, the best thing you can do to make this run smoothly is to get yourself into the right seminar/interview stream. Seminars are normally grouped by subject, and the panel for a given set of seminars will be knowledgeable in that subject area. If, when the seminar timetable comes out, you find yourself grouped with other speakers well removed from your subject area, your interview and seminar will probably go more smoothly if you ask to be moved into a more appropriate stream. Don't be bashful about this, juggling the seminar timetables is something that generally takes a few tries (even if the first timetable out says "final", it probably isn't). Mutual incomprehension between student and panel does not make for a useful interview.

[Back to top]