PGR welcome 2023
Course overview
Find out about the University's regulations and Our Commitment agreement. As well as how the course works including the Doctoral Development Programme.
You can access the full current student information on our programme and skills development pages.
Key dates
Where to find key dates to help you get your bearings in the first few weeks of term and as you progress through your first year:
Admission to the University is subject to the requirement that you will comply with the University's registration procedure and will duly observe the Charter, Statutes, Ordinances and Regulations of the University. The General University Regulations apply to all students in all Faculties. Your attention is drawn to the 'General University Regulations'.
Students and supervisors are expected to adhere to the Research, Partnerships and Innovation Code of Practice which is available in the Postgraduate research hub.
You should also review the University’s Our Commitment information.
Our Commitment is the University's partnership document struck between staff and students as members of the University. It sets out what we all commit to do to ensure the best learning experience. It has been written by staff and students and is collectively owned by the University and the Students’ Union.
Our commitment is best understood as a statement of collective ethos, setting out the qualities and responsibilities underpinning the education on University of Sheffield degree programmes. It has been endorsed by the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University and the President of the Students' Union, on behalf of all staff and students. You should read this information carefully to make sure that you know both the commitment that you are making as a student and the commitment you can expect from our staff.
The PhD programme
For PhD students, your registration period will normally be 3 or 3.5 years depending on who your funding body is or if you are self-funding your research. Your thesis will be around 75000 words excluding footnotes, bibliography and appendices.
You will already have some ideas about the area in which you hope to pursue research at Sheffield, but one of your first tasks will be to formulate this into a more tightly defined project, suitable for a doctorate. Your supervisors will offer you advice on how to set about doing this.
The project you devise should be broad enough to be explored at some length but sufficiently restricted to be capable of completion and submission within your registration period. This means that you should be aiming, from the outset, to submit your thesis by the end of your registration period.
More information:
Supervision
All students have a supervisory team, usually made up of a primary and a secondary supervisor.
You will already know who your primary supervisor is and are likely to have had at least some contact with them before you arrive.
You will be given information about your secondary supervisor after the PhD welcome meeting.
When you arrive you and your supervisors should agree a schedule of work. During the course of your research, you will have regular meetings with your supervisor(s) to discuss your progress with your research and development.
A record of these meetings will be kept using our supervision report form and you should decide who will be responsible for completing these forms in one of your initial supervision meetings.
More information about the roles of your supervisory team and meetings:
The Doctoral Development Programme
The Doctoral Development Programme (DDP) is a training plan for all doctoral researchers that you can tailor to your individual needs. You will begin looking at your training needs as part of your induction activities.
There is one compulsory module you will need to take as part of the DDP - this is called FCA6100 Research Ethics and Integrity and you should complete this before the confirmation review deadline.
More information:
Data Management
All research students have to complete a data management plan, which you will begin to consider as part of your induction activities.
More information:
Ethical approval
If your research involves human participants i.e. through interviewing you will need to submit an ethics application before you begin this element of your research as any data collected before ethical approval is granted cannot be used as part of your thesis.
If appropriate, you should discuss whether you need ethical approval and the process with your supervisor.
Find out more:
Reviewing your progress
In addition to your supervisory meetings, all students will have annual and bi-annual reviews each year.
Over the course of May-July in your first year (second year for part-time students) you will also undertake a Confirmation Review process to have your status as a PhD student confirmed. This is an important part of your PhD journey and you will want to bear it in mind when planning your first year's research.
More information:
Making sure to take a break
Research students usually have an allowance of 30 working days holiday per academic year (from 1st October to 30th September), excluding bank holidays and University closure days.
To be successful in your studies it's important to have a good work/life balance. This can sometimes be harder to achieve at PGR level due to the programme structure, so it's important that you make sure to take breaks. Please note this does not affect your time limit for submission.
More information:
Preparing your thesis
Submitting your thesis will feel a long time off at this point! but it's good to make sure that you are bearing in mind guidance on preparation and formatting right from the start.
More information:
Submitting your thesis and examination
If you want to look even further ahead, then you will also find lots of guidance and information about submitting your thesis and what happens next in the student hub: