PhD Students

PhD Project Proposal Report

The deadline to submit your PhD Proposal report is 2 months after your start date.

The Postgraduate School of Life Sciences has introduced a new requirement for all 1st year PhD students to submit a Project Proposal Report for the entire period of study, which should outline the following:

• experimental plans
• timelines
• key questions
• expected challenges

The report should be around 1000 words in length.

The report will be reviewed by the Psychiatry Postgraduate Education Committee and assessed for the proposed project's feasibility, access to appropriate facilities and resources, and confirmation of a good supervisor/student relationship. The assessment provides a valuable framework for you and your advisory team to ensure you start on the right track and have a clear project overview.

We hope that this exercise will allow you to meet with your advisory team and allow us to confirm that all the necessary arrangements are in place and working well. The report should clearly state who your supervisor, advisor, and anyone else providing you with significant academic support is.

The report should be emailed to the Education Team at psych-education@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Psychiatry PhD student first-year report guidelines

All candidates for the PhD Degree are admitted on a one-year probationary basis. Towards the end of their first year, a formal assessment of progress is made. This takes the form of a single report document and a viva (oral examination). The submission deadline for the report is June 30th for students who started in the preceding October; for students who started in January or April, the submission deadline is 8 months later (August and December). The assessment of progress must take place within the first academic year, i.e. by the end of the 12th month. This ensures that students needing extra help can be appropriately supported, gives time for a re-assessment where appropriate, and also allows the opportunity to direct students unsuitable for PhD study towards other options, for example transferring to the MPhil. All students should have an agreed outcome of the assessment of progress by the end of the first year, unless problems have been identified during the viva and the student has been given time to address these issues before a re-assessment. The Report The student should prepare a written report of the work in progress and should include a proposal for further research. The report should include an indication of the overall aims of the study and the steps the student plans to take to achieve these aims. This takes the form of a single document of 3000 – 6000 words in length (exclusive of tables, bibliography and appendices), and a viva. The report should be divided into three parts: (a) a brief overview of the proposed PhD as a whole (including the rationale for and scope of the PhD); (b) completed work from the first year; and (c) work planned during the second, third (and fourth) years.

Students should keep in mind that in an ideal scenario, all data collection should be planned to finish by the end of the penultimate year or by the end of the first term in the final year at the latest, to allow at least 9 months for writing up. The report would ideally include a Gantt chart or other summary of the timeline of the planned work, and students should pay particular attention to demonstrating feasibility. Many students will have completed a first study or experiment and part (b) of the report may be written in the form of a manuscript to be submitted for publication so that the student is not duplicating their efforts. However, a completed first study is not a requirement of the report, and a summary of work in progress is also acceptable. Ideally, whether the first study is complete or in progress, the report should contain empirical data and show evidence of some data analysis. Where empirical data is not available, students should explain why not and instead may provide a literature review and narrative account of their first year.

Training Logbook The training logbook plays a part in the review of the probationary period and forms part of your Report submission, as a separate document which you were provided with at the start of your PhD. Please remember to log all your supervisions, lectures/seminars, workshops or any other relevant training events that you are attending in the logbook. The Viva (oral examination) The Supervisor should appoint Assessors and arrange with them the viva (oral examination) to discuss the report with the student. The viva should be used to assess the student's ability, progress, and the suitability of the project(s). The feasibility of achieving the project aims within the remaining 2 or 3 year period, the academic suitability of the project in relationship to the requirements for the PhD Degree, and the availability of expertise and resources should all be considered. The convention is that the student and Assessors meet together on a single occasion to discuss the report. The viva is usually about one hour in duration, and should give the student some experience of the PhD viva. At the same time, the viva is intended to be educational and constructive, and efforts are made by the Assessors to minimize the stress of the experience. After the viva, the Assessors make a joint recommendation on the student’s assessment of progression, including any feedback they wish to provide for the student and Supervisor. Possible outcomes are:

• Student should now be registered formally for the PhD
• Student should be asked to revise and be re-examined at a later date (please indicate how long to allow)
• Student should be advised to take the MPhil option
• Student should be asked to withdraw

In cases where progress has been unsatisfactory and the student seems unlikely to meet the requirements for the PhD after at least a further two years of full-time research (or part-time equivalent), or if (s)he has insufficient funding to complete two more years, or wishes to finish early for any other reason, the student can be registered for the qualification of the MPhil degree instead. Alternatively, where the student has made a slow start and cannot be registered at this stage, but shows promise, feedback can be given and a second attempt at the assessment of progress (new report and viva) allowed no more than two months after the first assessment. Supervisors’ responsibility Around a month before the viva is due to take place, the Supervisor should inform the Psychiatry Education Team of the date of the viva and names of Assessors. The report is intended as a fair assessment of the ability of the study and the feasibility of completing the PhD within a 3 (or 4) year period. To this end, the report should be the student’s own work and a declaration to this effect should be included in the report document. Supervisors, Advisors, and Mentors can support the student with discussion and critique, but should not alter or otherwise directly contribute to the drafting of the report. After the viva, the Supervisor will also write an account of the student’s progress in the light of the Assessors’ feedback and make his or her own recommendation on the outcome. The Degree Committee will consider the Assessors’ reports together with the Supervisor’s recommendation and, on the strength of these, recommend an outcome to the Board of Graduate Studies. The supervisor should discuss the Assessors’ recommendations and comments on the student’s assessment of progression after the viva and show the student the Assessors’ joint report.

Assessors The report must be examined by two Assessors, neither of whom is the Supervisor (Principal or Second), Advisor or Mentor. If a student is part of a research group, at least one Assessor will be from outside this group. Before the viva, each Assessor should write an independent account on the student’s report with their recommendation so that there is written evidence of the decision that is independent of the student’s performance in the viva. Assessors should pay particular attention to the following: 1. Has the student clearly integrated their planned research within the existing literature? Is their work clearly justified and are there explicit hypotheses? 2. Is the quantity of data sufficient for the period of research undertaken? Are the data novel and/or confirmatory? Are the methods free from pitfalls? Did the student carry out the research? How much help did they receive? 3. Has an appropriate analysis been used and are the interpretations reasonable and free from confounds? 4. Writing must conform to scientific standards and scholarship and be sufficiently critical. References should be correctly cited and formatted. 5. Are the plans for future work realistic/feasible? Is the student on track to finish on time? What are the plans for publishable outcomes? 6. Scrutiny of the logbook should play a part in the review of the probationary period. The purpose of this review is educational, to encourage candidates to focus on training to develop skills suitable to their individual development and to address any particular shortcomings noted by the Assessors (e.g. writing skills). Please note that the logbook cannot be assessed formally as part of the registration examination, nor should lack of engagement with skills training be used as the sole criterion for preventing registration. Examiners should inform the Education Team if they notice that the student has not attended regular meetings with their Supervisor. After the viva, a joint report form should be completed and signed by both Assessors, including the outcome of the viva, their recommendation, and any feedback they wish to provide for the student and Supervisor. The joint report form will be sent to the Assessors in advance of the viva. The Assessors should send a signed electronic copy (Word or PDF) of their joint report directly to the Education Team psych-education@medschl.cam.ac.uk.

Possible joint Assessors’ Recommendations following a 1st year viva are:  Student should now be registered formally for the PhD  Student should be asked to revise and be re-examined at a later date (please indicate how long to allow)  Student should be advised to take the MPhil option  Student should be asked to withdraw *NOTE – assessors should not recommend longer than two months for the student to revise and resubmit the report, if necessary, unless there are exceptional circumstances. A follow up viva appointment should be arranged within this period of time. Submitting the report All reports should be sent by email to the Education Team: psych-education@medschl.cam.ac.uk and to the Primary Supervisors, along with the student's logbook. Should an extension be required, students must formally apply by completing a corresponding form and submitting it to the Education Team at least four weeks before the submission deadline. You can obtain the form from the Education Team.

Originality Attention is drawn to the University's guidance concerning plagiarism. The University states that "Plagiarism is defined as submitting as one's own work that which derives in part or in its entirety from the work of others without due acknowledgement. It is both poor scholarship and a breach of academic integrity." The University's guidance concerning plagiarism and good academic practice can be found at www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/

Any questions - please feel free to contact:

• Education Supervisor (Adisa Broadhurst ap686@medschl.cam.ac.uk)
• Director of Postgraduate Education (John Suckling js369@cam.ac.uk)
• Education Team (Autumn Stamford and Adisa Broadhurst psycheducation@medschl.cam.ac.uk)

PhD student second-year report

At the end of the second year, a concise summary of the student's progress should be submitted. The report should include a summary of work completed to date and a timeline indicating how the student intends to structure the remainder of their time regarding research and the production of their thesis.

The second-year report should be at most 1000 words. The document must be seen and approved by the student's Supervisor, who should also sign the corresponding declaration form to confirm that they have seen and approved their student's report.

The submission deadline is June 30th for those who started in the preceding October; for those who started in January or April, it is 8 months later. The report and signed form should be submitted to the Education Team (by email). They will be reviewed by the Departmental Postgraduate Education Committee.

You will also have the opportunity to present your work at our annual Postgraduate Symposium, which takes place each November.

PhDs Third-year and Fourth-year

Most students will be ready to submit their thesis.  Around two months before you plan to submit your thesis, please complete the 'Intention to Submit Form' so that we can appoint your examiners in time.  More details regarding this is available on the Degree Committee share point pages:  Submitting your thesis - Information for MPhil by Research and PhD students

The Internal Examiner will contact you about the date, time, and place for the viva (which they will arrange).  You should not be emailing your internal or external examiners directly before they contact you.  It is the responsibility of your Supervisor to approach and appoint the examiners.

Style of the dissertation –  please visit information issued by the Student Registry on the style and format of the dissertation: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/students/studentregistry/exams/submission/

At the examination, you will be told about any necessary corrections; if minor, you may be issued a set of required corrections. Once you have done these, you must have them checked by the internal examiner. Should you still need to receive a list of corrections from the internal examiner at or after the viva, you must wait until after the Degree Committee has met to consider your reports. A copy of the reports and corrections will then be sent to you by the Student Registry.  http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/students/studentregistry/exams/after/index.html

You must submit your dissertation for examination within the maximum study period.  For full-time students, this is 48 months (4 years) from the initial registration date (considering any periods of authorised intermission).  Students who do not submit by this date will be removed from the University's student register.    Students who cannot meet their submission deadline must apply to extend their registration date. Suppose you cannot submit before your final' end of registration date' (as shown on CamSIS). In that case, you must talk to your supervisor to discuss whether there are grounds for applying for an extension or whether you should be temporarily withdrawn from the university until you are ready to submit. All such applications must be made before the end of your registration date. You must inform the Education Team in the first instance if you are unlikely to submit on time to ensure that you receive the appropriate advice and guidance.