Accessibility statement

Academic progress: research students

A student in a lab coat doing research, reaching for plants in a jar.

Confirmation of PhD enrolment 

PGRs who embarked on a PhD or EngD programme prior to 1 September 2016 are initially enrolled provisionally for that qualification. It is the responsibility of the student’s Thesis Advisory Panel to recommend whether or not the student’s enrolment for the PhD or EngD should be confirmed. 

Thesis Advisory Panel

PGRs are required to attend two TAP meetings (once every six months) each year that they are enrolled. 

Resources and training

  • Staff supporting students web pages provide advice and guidance for assisting students experiencing a range of difficulties.
  • The student support and advice and health and wellbeing pages also outline various avenues of support for students experiencing difficulties, and provide a useful resource for signposting students to sources of help. 
  • Mental Health First Aid training is available to all staff. This can be booked via the Learning Management System (log in and search for Mental Health and select either the full (15 hour) or lite (3.5 hour) version of the course to see and book on to upcoming sessions).

Support to study

The Support to study policy applies to situations where there are concerns that a student is not well enough to study, including situations where a student is unaware that they are not well enough to study.

Information for students

Guidance on academic progress issues can be found in the Graduate Research School site.

Who to contact

  • PGR Administration
    Student Hub, Upper Tier, Market Square
    University of York, York, YO10 5DD

    +44 (0)1904 32 4519
    Email: pgr-administration@york.ac.uk

Interruptions to academic progress

The progress of a student on their course may be impeded for a variety of reasons, from acute personal difficulties to lack of interest.

The York Graduate Research School (YGRS) webpages have advice on how to support the following potential interruptions to academic progress: leave of absence, extensions, programme transfers and changes to mode of attendance, requests for which are considered by PGR Administration.

Raising queries about SCC PGR decisions

Any queries from supervisors about the outcomes of SCC requests should be routed through Graduate Chairs* who may then determine whether the query can be answered within the department, or if it needs to be escalated to SCC via PGR Administration.

*Where the Graduate Chair is the supervisor, the query should be raised through the individual who signed off the request in the department (eg Chair of BoS or similar).

Withdrawing from programme, and termination/assumed withdrawals

Withdrawal is the term we use where students decide to permanently leave the University prior to completion of the award for which they are registered, for either personal or academic reasons.