A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

182 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
Monitoring
All universities have robust procedures for reviewing research student progress. The
minimum requirements are for a major review at least once each year and this may be
organised at departmental, faculty or graduate school level. The review process will
require the student to prepare a written submission. Often it will involve disciplinary
specialists outside the formal supervisory arrangements and the student may make a
presentation or be given an oral examination. Where students register for the M.Phil.
degree and wish to be transferred to the Ph.D., this will normally occur during the first
12 to 18 months of registration.
MOVING TOWARDS THE END OF THE RELATIONSHIP
Submission and preparation for the viva
Examination of a research degree involves scrutiny of the submitted dissertation by
experts in the field who also conduct a viva voce examination of the candidate. The
purpose of this is to confirm the authorship of the dissertation and also to provide an
opportunity for examiners to explore issues that may not have been fully or satisfactorily
discussed in the dissertation. This second aspect can be particularly stressful for students
as it is very likely that they have not experienced such a prolonged and intense scrutiny
of their ideas and arguments before. Supervisors have a key role to play in preparing
students for this examination by providing opportunities for them to present and defend
their ideas. Many institutions now appoint independent chairs for viva examinations to
ensure that students are treated fairly and that all questions posed are relevant and
appropriate. The University of Birmingham has been doing this for a number of years.
They reassure students that: ‘the chair is not an examiner. He or she ensures that the viva
is run properly and fairly, taking notes and helping where necessary to clarify
misunderstandings’ (University of Birmingham, 2006). For further information on the
examination of doctoral degrees, see Tinkler and Jackson (2004).
Career development
For many supervisors, a measure of success of the doctoral training will be that the
student is capable of applying independently for grant funding. However, it has to be
recognised that although the ‘education sector’ is the largest employer of Ph.D.s
immediately after graduation, over 50 per cent of Ph.D. graduates take employment
outside the HE sector (Metcalfe and Gray, 2005). Accordingly, Codes of Practice quite
often say something about supervisors supporting students in finding a job. Interestingly,
over ten years ago, PPARC (1996) in its good practice guide on supervision stated that
supervisors should ‘advise and help students secure a job at the end of it all, remembering