Attendance and engagement
Recording and monitoring student attendance is a University requirement as documented in the Policy on Recording and Monitoring Attendance.
Attendance points for postgraduate research students will be recorded monthly via the attendance and engagement forms within the University’s online progression system, eProg. It is the main supervisor’s responsibility to ensure that attendance and engagement forms are completed in a timely manner for each of their PGRs.
Supervisory meetings
Meeting frequency depends on your research, study mode, and stage in the programme, but you should meet your supervisors at least once a month to discuss progress, training needs, attendance, and next steps. Supervisors will record these meetings in eProg via the Monthly Attendance Milestone to confirm your engagement and presence at the University.
Poor attendance
Where your attendance and engagement have not been recorded for two consecutive months or where a cause for concern is recorded, the Doctoral Academy will contact you and request that you attend a meeting with the Head of PGR to discuss further.
If you fail to comply with the steps to be taken to improve attendance, the Doctoral Academy may refuse permission for you to proceed on your programme, with the consequence that you may be excluded from your programme of study.
The University expects that all students will attend every timetabled teaching or learning session or required supervisory session, unless absence has been authorised.
If you are in receipt of a stipend, you will have your stipend payments suspended if you are absent for more than 4 weeks and have not contacted your supervisor and the Doctoral Academy. In this situation, you should interrupt your studies. Where scholarship holders have been paid more than they are entitled to receive for any reason, action will be taken to recover the funds or adjust future payments.
The University is required to report all non-attending Student Visa students to UKVI. If you are a student on a visa and do not regularly attend meetings with your supervisor, we are obliged to report this to UKVI, which may result in your visa being curtailed.
It is crucial that you report any absences that you may have to your supervisor and to the Doctoral Academy, especially if the absence is longer than one week.
If you are absent due to sickness, this should be reported to your supervisor as soon as possible. For further information please refer to the Sickness Procedure for Postgraduate Research Students.
If you would like to speak to someone regarding attendance and engagement, please contact the Progression and Support team.