Graduate Supervision Reporting

The Graduate Supervision Reporting (GSR) provides you and your supervisor with opportunities to record the progress you are making with your training and research.  There a four reports each year - one for each of Michaelmas, and Hillary term, and two for the longer Trinity term (one for full term, and one for the long vacation). 

Students are asked to report first then your supervisors - you will get email prompts about when the reporting window is open.  Both students and supervisors are required to supply these reports which are visible to both parties and also to the DGS and college advisor.  In some cases the DGS may also add a brief report.   

In addition to a short description of progress you will be asked to record how often you've meet with your supervisors, and to say if you have any concerns about progress.  Nothing terrible will happen to you or your supervisors if you (or they) use the concern flags.  The flags could results from a wide range of issues that could delay progress.  Research is difficult and it is quite likely that you may have to flag concerns at some point.  The descriptions of the different concern levels are: 

  • Minor concerns – Satisfactory progress is being made, but minor issues have been identified where further action may be required to keep progress on track
  • Major concerns – One or more factors are significantly affecting progress, and further action is required now to keep progress on track

  • Severe concerns – Progress is being seriously affected by one or more factors, and a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies should be held as soon as possible to discuss further action to get progress back on track

These reporting windows are a timely prompt to step back from the close up detail of experiment or code which typifies day to day working, and think about the bigger picture of your progress.  It is an invitation to reflect on what you have and haven't managed to get done over the last ~3 months.  When things haven't gone to plan its important to capture why - especially if the reasons are out of your control or present a risk to your project going forwards.  This happens to greater or lesser extent in most projects (so don't beat yourself up about it).  The critical thing for keeping progress moving is to be proactive in planning to mitigate the emerging risks.  

To that end the GSR reports can also be used to think about the next steps.  Students (and supervisors) are encouraged to make notes on what the aims will be for the next term.  This forward planning helps keep momentum in the project.  You can record your thoughts about whether it is time to close down that side quest and focus on the main story, or if there a plot twist that means the project aims need altering in an exciting way).  Looking back at aims set in the previous report can often make the next report easier to write. 

Anecdotally many students who use their GSR reports to actively reflect and plan appear to make good progress, and if things get stuck for reasons beyond their control they have a record of it.

Some things that you could include in your next report:

  • General sense of progress - celebrate the wins!
  • Attendance at scientific meetings and conferences
  • Visits to/from collaborators
  • Concerns about resources (e.g. computing or in the lab; inability to attend conferences, etc.)
  • Progress with training (or concerns about slow response to training requests)
  • Thinking about decision points on when to switch plans if some aspect of the project is getting stuck
  • If you want to you could include concerns about wellbeing  – but better to speak in confidence to DGS or the education support team
  • some aims for the next term (or longer)
  • applications for beamtime, or high performance computing, or Royce Institute resources, or similar

 

We strongly encourage you all to engage with the GSR reporting  - it is there to help and support you.