Each Principal Supervisor will normally be responsible for no more than 8 research students, though in many cases the subject culture and departmental support structures allow significantly larger groups.
The dominant criteria in approving the number of research students allocated to a specific Supervisor is the balance of support structures, at group and Departmental level, and internal research group balance. The Degree Committee policy on supervisor load can be found here. The Department Graduate Office monitors the number of students each supervisor is responsible for. The Degree Committee keeps an overview of student numbers.
If you are unsure if you have the capacity to accept any further students please consult with your Graduate Office.
Factors including, but not limited to, the submission and completion rates of the Supervisor’s previous students, progress reporting, research group structure, and other demands on the Supervisor’s time may be taken into consideration.
Restriction of the number of research students allocated to any Principal Supervisor is one option of several that will be adopted to manage any identified problems.
The Degree Committee will produce annual figures of the number of students assigned to each Principal Supervisor for circulation to each Department. Each Department Graduate Office will be responsible for monitoring the number of students assigned to each Supervisor and for applying this policy.
You may also read the policy pages of the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry for more information.