Student Annual Progress Report
Introduction
Each PGR student is to be reviewed at least once per year, in accordance with the Progress Review Policy. The forms are completed in MMS (https://mms.st-andrews.ac.uk/mms/)
There three key forms in the review process;
- a report from the Supervisor
- a self-assessment from the Student
- a report compiled by the Review Team
The student and supervisor reports will be read by the Review Team and will inform the Reviewers' report. The Reviewer report will make a recommendation based on the progress of the research degree, which will be one of four categories of possible outcomes: green, yellow, amber or red. Depending on the outcome subsequent reviews may be held at different frequencies.
This Student self-assessment is a crucial part of your annual progress review and must be submitted alongside any other material requested by your School (e.g. draft introduction, or sample chapter). It will be used by your reviewers to inform your progress review interview, and will be seen by your supervisor.
To complete the form, you will need:
- a brief description of your project,
- how often you have met with your supervisor and what form this takes,
- wither or not you have discussed and/or carried out any ethical or risk assessments,
- information on academic work not related to your research,
- a detailed completion plan,
- information on any issues associated with your project,
- information on any additional support you think would help your project,
- a description of how your progress to date has been, including an assessment of wither or not you expect to complete on time.
Creating and submitting a new form
The Postgraduate administration forms are completed in MMS (you can access MMS either from the links on the ‘Current Students’ tab or via the links on the ‘My Courses’ tab in MySaint. Each current student studying a research degree will have access to a ‘RESEARCH’ module in MMS. This module will be related to the subject of your degree and will have the subject code as a prefix (for example, the RESEARCH module associated with Biology is entitled ‘BIOL-RESEARCH’).
Figure 1: Link to Postgraduate Administration tool and Reviewer Report overview
Each RESEARCH module will have a ‘Postgraduate Administration’ tool. This tool is used to handle a number of postgraduate related administration forms, such as annual progress reports, examining committee nominations and leave of Absence/Extension requests. To access the tool, click the ‘Postgraduate Administration’ tool link, an example of which is given in Figure 1.
Annual Progress Reports are handled on the ‘Progress Reports’ tab in the Postgraduate Administration tool. Any existing self-assessment forms, any submitted supervisor reports and any submitted reviewers’ reports will appear in the corresponding sections of the page (see Figure 1 for an example). To create a new self-assessment form, click the ‘Create new’ link in the ‘Your self-assessment forms’ section. This will create, and direct you to, a new student annual progress review.
An example if the student annual progress review is given in Figure 2. The review comprises 8 questions, all of which need completed before the form can be submitted. At any time, you can save the form using the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the form to be completed at a later time. When you save the review, if a question has been answered then a green border will appear around the question (see Figure 2). If the question has no answer then the red border will remain.
Once you have completed the review, you can submit the form to your school by clicking the ‘Submit Review’ button at the bottom of the form.
Note: You must answer all 8 questions before the review can be submitted.
Figure 2: Example Student Progress Review
Help and Assistance
If you wish to raise concerns that you do not feel comfortable with your supervisor seeing, you should share them with the Director of Postgraduate Studies (DoPG) in the first instance. You should also, however, feel free to approach the Registry Student Support Officer or the Pro Dean Research Postgraduate.
For technical help and assistance please email IT Service Desk: itservicedesk@st-andrews.ac.uk.