Welcome to the University Website for Postgraduate Research Students
The Postgraduate Research Student Experience Team aims to contribute to the delivery of a stimulating research environment and to this end manages and supports most aspects of your academic studies.
For information about funding opportunities for postgraduate research students, registering for your degree and changes to your registration status, as well as guidance on preparing your thesis for submission and the examination process, please use the links to the left.
COVID-19 Impact Log for PGR Students
We remain committed to supporting you through your research and studies by minimising and mitigating the impact of COVID-19 as much as we can. To help you, your supervisor and the University with minimising and mitigating impacts we introduced the ‘COVID-19 Impact Log’.
This log allows you to document any significant COVID-related impact on the progress of your research project, together with the mitigating plans that were or will be implemented. The form should be regularly reviewed jointly by you and your supervisor(s). This may involve a redesign of the project or a reduction in planned activity. In discussing the form with your supervisor you should bear in mind that a key goal has to be completing the PhD within reasonable time.
Whilst almost all measures have been removed now, we will keep this on the website and encourage you to use it to document any effects or outcomes as it may inform any changes you may wish to make later in your studies or be useful in a viva to support the defence of your thesis.
If you do complete this log, you can submit it with your thesis and it will be included in the paperwork sent to the examiners. Please note, it will not change the standards by which the PhD is awarded but will give a starting point for discussion about how the pandemic impacted on or changed your research.
You can access the form here COVID 19 PGR Log
Further details for completing the form below;
Thesis Submission and Viva
If you are ready to submit your thesis, you should send it via email it to PGRS and as long as we have had the Intention to Submit Form it will be forwarded on to your examiners.
Candidates and Internal Examiners can now utilise campus facilities for vivas where possible. If you are attending remotely you will need to complete the declaration form Annex 3 found within the Remote Viva policy (Appendix 9 of the PGR Code of Practice) which you can return to PGRS. The form can be found by accessing the CoP link below.
Theses are being sent out electronically by the PGR Student Experience Team, you may find that an examiner will request a hard copy be posted to them, if this happens, please could you refer them to PGRS@liverpool.ac.uk. The thesis should only be sent by the PGR Student Experience Team.
Graduation July 2022
The deadline for the receipt of paperwork for the July Graduation is 28th June 2022. By this date we need to have received all the exam reports and you need to have deposited your final thesis in the library, please.
Please refer to the Graduation web pages for further information. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/graduation/
Submission Deadline Extension
As you may have noted, the University has extended almost every PGR registration with a start date before 18 March 2020, by adding 6 months to your thesis submission deadline. Please note that this extension was designed to mitigate for the effects of the pandemic. It is felt this is enough time to adapt to new practices and any further extra time will be subject to the conditions laid out in the PGR Code of Practice, Appendix 6.
Therefore, if you intend to make a request either for a suspension but more importantly, for a further extension, please read Appendix 6 before doing so. It is vitally important in order to avoid disappointment, noting the reasons for approval of an extension before putting the request in. Citing the pandemic alone will not guarantee a rquest will be approved.
International Students with T4 Visa and Suspending Studies
If you have a T4 visa and are still in the UK and find you need to request a suspension of studies, its vitally important that you contact the International Advice and Guidance Team (IAG@liverpool.ac.uk) beforehand to ascertain the potential implications for your visa. We are still required to report the suspension of studies to the UKVI.
Who to Contact for Advice
There may be many other questions related to your registration, you can email any of the PGR administrators, dedicated link officers or the PGR Team with them and you should get an answer quite quickly. Contact email addresses are all available in the left hand navigation of this page.
Annual Progress Reports
Finally! Annual Progress Reports will released at the start of June, please complete the report as best as you are able when you receive it. Non completion could cause delays to ongoing registration. The APR data is static once released, we can however, refresh the report if you spot any anomalies at your stage. If you send us an email, for example, if you think the submission deadline in the APR is incorrect, we can check it and correct where necessary. It will also be vital that you check the contact details we have for you now please and correct those if not up to date.
We are aware the meeting record may be slightly unusual because of indivdual situations, however, we hope that you are still keeping in contact with your supervisors and you can record email contact or remote meetings as part of your meeting record. As the university is officially working normally, there is an expectation that contact will be continued and recorded as normal unless you have suspended your studies.
Below this are the links to the Code of Practice, the degree Ordinances and the forms page as well as to the new 2021/22 PGR Handbook.
Thank you and stay safe.
A-Z of Forms
All the forms related to the research degree
PGR Code of Practice and Ordinances
The PGR Code of Practice and its Appendices
The Ordinances for research degrees
- PhD 57 A-D,
- MPhil 56A-D,
- Doc Med 58A & B
- DDSc 60