PGR supervisory team
When entering the Department, you will be assigned a supervisory team. This is normally made up of your primary supervisor and a secondary supervisor, with the additional support from your personal tutor, the Director of Graduate Studies, the Postgraduate Student Experience Manager and the PG Programmes and Events Assistant.
You may have decided to come to Sheffield specifically to work with a particular member of staff whose research interests are close to your own, in which case you are likely to have been in contact with your intended supervisor before your arrival. Other factors may, however, have brought you to Sheffield (perhaps because there is a significant archive in this region or because you have been attracted by one of the Department’s on-going research projects). In this case, you may have had only limited contact with your intended supervisor and both of you may want to devote some time to getting to know one another. If you are new to Sheffield, it's unlikely that you will have had much, or any, contact with your assigned second supervisor and you should make contact with them early in your first weeks here.
Your relationship with your supervisors is vital to the successful outcome of your work. From the Department’s point of view, the supervisors are given a great deal of autonomy to advise the student. However, successful supervision depends not only upon the supervisors but also you as the student.
The role of your primary and secondary supervisors
Your primary supervisor will be the academic lead and will take the central role in helping you to devise a research project, guiding you towards the materials you will need to consult, offering advice over the handling or interpretation of the sources and providing considered, constructive criticism on draft chapters of your thesis as well as any seminar papers or articles you may write during your time as a research student.
Your secondary supervisor’s prime role is to offer an independent perspective on your research, providing direct supervision if your primary supervisor is absent, but otherwise playing a more loosely-defined supportive role. Your secondary supervisor will have expertise in the general field in which you are working, but is unlikely to be an expert on your specialist area. They may, however, be in a position to offer a different perspective on some aspects of your work, perhaps by offering an alternative methodological viewpoint, or a useful comparative perspective.
PhD students - when you submit your work for your confirmation review, both supervisors will assess the work you submit and your primary supervisor will also be present at the formal Confirmation Review interview
Supervision related to the Doctoral Development Programme (DDP)
With regard to the DDP, your supervisors will advise you as to the knowledge and skills training required. Your primary supervisor has overall responsibility for your doctoral development but both your primary and secondary supervisors are involved in overseeing your progress on the Doctoral Development Programme through processes such as the annual review.
Additional department-specific responsibilities:
Primary supervisors
To ensure that record of all supervisory meetings is submitted promptly using the supervision report form.
To draw to the attention of the Postgraduate Committee any serious problems concerning their student.
To keep the Postgraduate Committee informed as to the progress of the student, drawing attention to any problems or possible delays in submission.
To ensure that the Department is informed of any change in subject topic, and that the annual IHR submission is correct.
To ensure that the supervisory team is fully aware of the work the student has completed over the course of the previous year.
To advise the student in preparation for confirmation review, and ensure that the student provides the confirmation review panel with a substantial piece of written work, a written description of their research project and a detailed timetable for its completion.
Other members of the supervisory team
To provide general advice for the student when requested, complementing the closer-focused guidance provided by the primary supervisor
To provide additional guidance to students preparing to submit for confirmation review
To read drafts of written work as required
To act as a referee for the student whenever necessary
To act as primary supervisor to the student whenever the normal primary supervisor is on study leave or special leave, or is indisposed