Throughout the year you will have meetings with your supervisor and should be entering these in the Record of Supervisory Meetings. You should also use the PGR Portfolio of Activity to record activities such as conference presentations, posters and industry placements.
The dates of your supervisory meetings and entries in your Portfolio of Activity are uploaded to your Annual Progress Report in May and, in addition to your research, provide a basis for your progress discussions.
To ensure you have the help and guidance you need to make good progress, you should be meeting with your supervisor formally at least once a month if you are full-time, or once every two months if you are part-time. You should also meet with your whole supervisory team at least once per term.
The number of meetings entered in the Record of Supervisory Meetings is monitored and where the number falls below the minimum expected this will be noted by the Department/School/Institute Director of Postgraduate Research.
Further details are in Appendix 3 of the PGR Code of Practice.
Annual Progress Reports
The purpose of the Annual Progress Reports is to ensure that you are making progress as expected but also that you feel your supervisory arrangements and facilities are satisfactory and to give you an opportunity to highlight any difficulties you may be experiencing. It is therefore important that you raise any matters of concern to give the University an opportunity to resolve any issues you may have.
Your Annual Progress Report is the tool your School/Institute/Department uses to record your overall progress and make its recommendation for the following year. A satisfactory report enables students to be registered for the next academic year.
At the beginning of June each year, the Annual Progress Reports are released and students need to complete their section and submit it to their Primary Supervisor no later than the end of June. You can access the guides below to help you complete the report or look out for announcements about the drop in sesssions we will hold so you can complete it with on of the team on stand by if you need advice.
Failure to complete the report could lead to you being deemed withdrawn.
Supervisory meetings logged in the Record of Supervisory Meetings in the PGR Toolbox (and signed off by your supervisor) by 31 May each year will automatically feed through into the Annual Progress Report. If you do not log your meetings in time you will be able to free-type them into the report.
Your record of training and development from the Portfolio of Activity will feed through the Annual Progress Report form. You can add further training and development activities in free text boxes.
The Annual Progress Reports for 2022/23 will be released on or around 1 June 2023. All eligible students will receive an email asking them to access their report through Liverpool Life.
PGR Students on the following programmes can expect to receive an Annual Progress Report (APR):
- Doctor in Philosophy (PhD)
- Master in Philosophy (MPhil)
- Doctor of Medicine (DocMed/MD)
- Doctor of Dental Science (DDSC)
Independent progress assessment panel
As part of the Annual Progress Monitoring process, you are required to participate in a departmental Annual Review. The Annual Review is organised by your School/Institute/ Department Director of Postgraduate Research and the format will vary between areas but typically you may be required to present a seminar or submit to a mock viva examination.
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