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Current Postgraduate Students

 

Role of your academic mentor

In our Department, it has been agreed that, for every student, the Academic Mentor (Note 1) will be appointed by Department Postgraduate Office, shortly after your studies commence, and will usually be chosen from the Supervisor’s primary RIG members. They should be able to bring sufficient expertise to the team in order to carry out the following:

  • act as a second point of contact for academic advice for the student (after the Supervisor).
  • be available to read your work and to discuss academic progress on a termly basis in informal meetings organised by the student.
  • normally take on the position of being one of the student’s first year report Assessors (Note 2).

The Academic Mentor is not normally expected to:

  • provide regular, formal supervision.
  • write supervision reports in PFRS.
  • be appointed the internal Examiner for the student’s PhD thesis.
  • provide pastoral support for the student or Supervisor, or mediate the relationship between them, although he or she may offer advice to either party if asked and willing to do so.

Meeting your academic mentor 

All students have the opportunity to arrange a meeting with their academic mentor during any point of their MPhil or first year of their PhD, whereby they give a presentation of their research and findings so far. This will be a compulsory element of their first/MPhil year and all students will be required to send a confirmation email to the Postgraduate Education Team following its completion. Students may prefer to arrange this meeting prior to their scheduled peer-to- peer presentation, in preparation for or following it, having taken on feedback from their peers.

Note 1: The University term this role the 'Adviser' but our Department has agreed that this could then be confused with 'Supervisor' and has therefore retained the title of 'Academic Mentor'.

Note 2: In the case where the Academic Mentor has had to take an active role in supervising their Mentee (for example, if the Supervisor has had to be absent for an extended period) or where a potential personal or professional conflict of interest is identified, a substitute first year Assessor must be appointed in place of the Academic Mentor. This will be done by the Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator, in consultation with the Supervisor.  The second Assessor will be recommended by the Supervisor in the usual way.

Click here to find out who your allocated academic mentor is.

(Please note: the list will be updated and made available a couple of weeks after Induction in MT. If you started before MT21 and would like to know who your academic mentor is please contact the Postgraduate Student Coordinator)