Psychiatry PhD student first-year report guidelines

A first-year report will then need to be submitted around eight months after your start date, with a viva following soon after.

Please refer to this handy guide which explains exactly how to put the report together and how you will be assessed.

PhD student second-year report

A concise summary of the student’s progress to date should be submitted at the end of the second year. 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 in terms of research and the production of their thesis.

The second-year report should be no longer than 1000 words, and the document must be seen and approved by the student’s supervisor. The supervisor should also sign the corresponding declaration form to confirm that they have seen and approved their student’s report.

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

Phd students third-year and fourth-year

In year 3 you are likely to once again present your findings at the Postgraduate Student Symposium.  Most students are then ready to submit their dissertation.  It is imperative that you keep the Department informed of your plans with regard to this. You should email the Education Team at psych-education@medschl.cam.ac.uk when you start thinking about submitting your dissertation.

The Degree Committee has kindly put all the information about how to submit your thesis and the necessary steps you need to take on this SharePoint site.

The Internal Examiner will contact you in due course about the date, time and place for the viva (which is arranged by them).  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.

The Department of Psychiatry recommends that students use the APA style of referencing however you should discuss this with your supervisor.  For more details about APA style please visit: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx

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 these are minor, you may be issued with a set of required corrections. Once you have done these you must get them checked by the internal examiner. If you do not receive a list of corrections from the internal examiner at or after the viva, you will need to 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 period of your study.  For full-time students this is 48 months (4 years) from the initial date of registration (taking into account any periods of authorised intermission).  Students who do not submit by this date will be removed from the University’s register of students.    Students who are unable to meet their submission deadline must apply to extend their registration date. If you are not able to submit before your final ‘end of registration date’ (as shown on CamSIS), you must talk to your supervisor to discuss whether there are grounds for you to apply for an extension or whether you should be temporarily withdrawn form the University, until 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.

For more details, please refer to these useful links and websites: 

We have been informed that more advice on how to set up a thesis in Word would be useful as your thesis may be too big to be one document.  This website provides some solutions to the problem:

• https://bitesizebio.com/21549/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-making-a-table-of-contents-inserting-captions-and-cross-referencing/
• https://bitesizebio.com/21534/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-creating-an-outline/
• https://bitesizebio.com/21732/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-creating-a-master-document/
• https://bitesizebio.com/21742/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-miscellaneous-bits-and-bobs/

Also, here are some articles on tips for writing a thesis which may be useful: https://bitesizebio.com/?s=using+word+to+write+your+thesis

Viva

Your viva will take place soon after your submission date, usually within 3 months.  The Postgraduate Education Committee have created a document which contains some useful tips to help you prepare for the viva – VIVA TIPS.

How to prepare for your viva tips have also been published by the Researcher Development Office – Preparing for your Viva | Researcher Development (cam.ac.uk)

You can view previous PhD Theses from the Department via the University’s Apollo Repository

Should you have any queries, please contact:

Education Team (Adisa Broadhurst and Autumn Stamford Psych-education@medschl.cam.ac.uk)
Director of Postgraduate Education (John Suckling js369@cam.ac.uk)