COVID-19 Information

Goldsmiths University of London

Funding sources (eg hardship funds etc)

• Hardship Fund: https://www.gold.ac.uk/students/financial-support/student-hardship-fund/

• Please go to the Virtual Graduate School Office VLE page for further information on the Graduate School Fund: https://learn.gold.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=8678

• Please contact Gwen Barnard if you have any additional research expenses due to the circumstances arising from Covid-19 such as having to purchase additional books, et cetera

Changes to progression

• Please download the document :Covid-19 - Update for PGR Students 23rd March 2020 - MPhil/PhD submissions and examinations File

• On the VLE Page of the Graduate School: Graduate School Fund: https://learn.gold.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=8678

Changes to how to apply for Covid-19 extensions or breaks in registration

• See above

Useful links

• Student wellbeing: https://www.gold.ac.uk/students/wellbeing/

Queen Mary University of London

Funding sources (eg hardship funds etc)

http://www.arcs.qmul.ac.uk/students/finances/bursaries-grants-scholarships/financial-assistance-fund/ (however, IGGI students are funded so may not qualify)

Changes to progression (see FAQs)

Changes to how to apply for Covid-19 extensions or breaks in registration (see FAQs)

Useful links:

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/coronavirus/

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/doctoralcollege/covid-19-faqs---pgr/ (please check regularly for updates)

https://www.welfare.qmul.ac.uk/about-us/opening-times-and-contact-us/#contactus

http://www.arcs.qmul.ac.uk/research-degrees/research-degree-students/thesis-submission/

University of York

Funding sources (eg hardship funds etc):

• • Full details about funding can be found here ‘Information for Postgraduate Researchers’: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students/for-pg-researchers#h.p_cqDR1rPJf5dz

  • Urgent Financial Hardship: If you are experiencing urgent financial hardship, please speak to a Student Adviser at the Student Hub.

  • Emergency Student Support Fund: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students/for-pg-researchers#h.p_zoS5G82yLmDa

  • Stipends and sick pay: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students/for-pg-researchers#h.p_AYIuILsToxd5

  • Student support fund: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students/for-pg-researchers#h.p_J_v7XhzCpkBM

  • Worried about funding: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students/for-pg-researchers#h.p_QPHtQUJir4Fw

Changes to progression

• • Supervision and formal academic progress: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students/for-pg-researchers#h.p_4DBfaWcWePEd

  • Changes to how to apply for Covid-19 extensions or breaks in registration

  • Extensions and leave of absence: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students/for-pg-researchers#h.p_kViELjOnfMSe Also, includes information about extensions where there has been restricted access to lab work or if you have been unwell. It also describes what information (rather than evidence) is required to support an extension or leave of absence. Please see ‘Do I need to provide evidence of how I have been affected by COVID-19 pandemic to get an extension?’

  • Leave of absence for tier 4 students: https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/for-students#h.p_esi-oc4-HNTD

Useful links

• • York students need to complete a self-isolation form if they are self-isolating, even if they are currently away from campus. Please fill in the student self-isolation form and also inform your supervisor.

  • University of York Graduate School (includes links to COVID-19 information) https://www.york.ac.uk/research/graduate-school/

  • Wellbeing support 24/7: The Big White Wall. Access to a 24/7 online global community and receive support from trained professionals. https://www.york.ac.uk/students/health/help/big-white-wall/

University of Essex

Funding sources (eg hardship funds etc)

• • Hardship fund: https://www.essex.ac.uk/student/money/hardship-fund

Changes to progression

• • https://www.essex.ac.uk/student/healthcare/coronavirus-student#course

Changes to how to apply for Covid-19 extensions or breaks in registration

• • See the document 'Advice and FAQs for Postgraduate Research Students (PGR Students) and Supervisors' which can be downloaded from: https://www.essex.ac.uk/student/healthcare/coronavirus-student#course

Useful links

• • To check about eligibility for illness/sick pay, and for any further UKRI scholarship queries, please contact the PGRE Team: pgresearch@essex.ac.uk.

  • Help and support for mental and emotional health: https://www.essex.ac.uk/student/mental-and-emotional-health/mental-and-emotional-health-support

  • Advice and support from the Student Services Hub: https://www.essex.ac.uk/student/advice-and-support

Announcements from IGGI Admin about funding extensions

EPSRC Funding extensions: Survey 2. [Email of 11 June 2020]

Dear all,

Thank you for bearing with us while we have been working through the emerging information and institutional responses on the issues of the funding extensions.

This email will recap some of the material covered in the call that Paul and I had with some of you on Tuesday. Apologies to those who have already heard all of this, but of course we need to ensure that everyone is kept informed. And apologies to all for how long this is - there is a lot to cover.

This is our current understanding of the position on the funding extensions. This is an evolving situation, and there is a possibility that things may change again, but this is our understanding at this time. The shifting nature of the information has been why it took time to communicate with you about this before; now that we have completed the first stage of the process and the deadline for the second stage is approaching, I think we have some stability for now.

Funding

Firstly, funding is being made available for students whose funding period ends between 1st March 2020 and 31st March 2021, in the first instance.

For students whose funding ends on or after 1st April 2021, we are being asked to estimate the impact of the current situation and your future extension needs if any. We know that there are institutions that are deeming this too nebulous a question to ask, and with all the unknown variables it is horribly difficult to answer, but we prefer to ask you so that our estimates are properly informed.

We hope and expect that this information will be used to source more funds from somewhere, but we have no guarantees that additional funds will be provided. We do not want to mislead you on that. The one favourable thing about this is that at least there is time for this issue to be worked through, though we recognise that early answers will be best to allay anxiety and help you manage uncertainty.

Unfortunately, students who are beyond the end of their funded period are not eligible to apply for funding via the studentship route. Neither UKRI nor the Universities are making that offer. There are sources of funding available at each institution in the form of things like hardship funds and Covid-19 specific funds. We are gathering this information and adding it to the wiki - please do add any other sources of funds that you find.

You may wonder why IGGI can’t just provide the funds. The answer is that our budgets and spending are audited. The money that we have has to be used for the purposes that was set out in the original bid. Any spending that is not deemed appropriate will be charged back to our institutions and so we do not have the freedom to reallocate funds in that way. We also would struggle to cover funded extensions for all of you, even if we did not have the auditing issue to contend with.

Time

The other part of the equation to all of this is time, of course. We know that you are concerned about the time that you have lost and are losing.

Slightly to our surprise, we have discovered that at least 2 of the IGGI Universities are not giving extra time to go with the additional funding granted to the students currently in their final year of funding. At present, we have been advised that both York and Goldsmiths are not currently intending to give extra time to students. One rationale is that students in their final unfunded year usually seek employment and this additional funding will mean that students can keep working on their PhD full time without needing to be working.

At present, we do not have information on the position at QMUL or Essex.

IGGI has no control over these matters - registration is a University level matter. However, we have challenged this position and are awaiting clarification. We do not know whether we will be able to get this policy changed, but we will inform you if we do. There are broader implications for Universities with UKRI and HESA which may mean that it is not possible to change this position. It is also possible that the position changes as a result of the Covid-19 situation continuing for longer than anyone could expect. We just do not know.

Next Steps

The next thing that we are required to do is to return the assessment of what might be needed by students whose funding ends on or after 1st April 2021. If this is you, please complete the attached form [please contact iggi-admin@yorka.ac.uk for a copy of the form] and return it to iggi-admin@york.ac.uk no later than 16:00 on Thursday 26th June (returning the form earlier will be appreciated, though, if possible). This will give us the time that we need to go through your responses properly before we submit the return to EPSRC & UKRI. The cases will be summarised and presented to the IGGI Management team.

The form asks you to give us an assessment of how much time you have lost and how much of that you realistically think you will be able to recoup by redesigning your research or scaling your plans. We will be expected to be able to say that there has been proper consideration of mitigation in all cases and the time estimated represents what cannot be managed through mitigation.

The form also asks for a narrative of the impact of the current situation. If your research has been impacted due to lack of access to resources, or difficulty getting access to systems, or not being able to recruit people, tell us. If you have not been able to work because you have been caring for others, put that in the narrative. If you have been drawn into other work as a result of this virus, that should be in there too. And probably the most widely relevant category, if your health and well-being have been affected by the current situation, definitely tell us about that.

If you have any doubts or concerns about any of this, both Paul and myself are here to help you think these things through and to advise you as best we can. Please note I am on leave as of tomorrow and will return on 22nd June. I will be available to talk through any issues when I do return. Please just get in touch.

With best wishes

Jo

Funding extensions - information for all. [Email of 1 June 2020]

Dear all,

Firstly, apologies for not sending this email sooner. There have been a lot of moving parts on this matter that have drawn a lot of focus, but I know that in the absence of information you will have been wondering about what has been going on.

As you know UKRI announced in April that they would be supporting funding extensions of up to 6 months for students were affected by Covid-19. There was a delay between the announcement and the guidelines for us which set out what we actually needed to do and when, and once we received the guidelines, the institutions needed to formulate their plans in response to the guidelines. And IGGI then had to respond to the institutional plans, since we are part of 4 different institutions. This all takes time, of course,

What we have been asked to do is to report on the funding extensions required in 2 stages and this is why we have only contacted some students about the funding extensions thus far. The first group we have been asked to report for is the group whose funding ends between 1st March 2020 and 31st March 2021. This is the group who are deemed by UKRI to have the least chance to mitigate the impact caused by the pandemic. We have to report the overall figures by 9th June to give UKRI the chance to secure additional funds and to disburse funds to institutions in reasonable time. We have asked this group to submit their cases to us today so that the admin team can prepare them for a special IGGI Management team meeting of members of staff designated to make these decisions. We will then have a week to follow up on any questions that may arise and to complete the return.

We have then been asked to report on any students whose funded period ends on or after 1st April 2021; this report is due in on 30th June. As there is a lot of work going on in the background on this issue, we decided it was best to deal with the cases that fall into the initial group first, before gathering cases from the second group. We will be contacting everyone whose funding ends on or after 1st April 2021 within the next week to ask you to submit your cases for a funding extension.

The funding extensions are for up to 6 months, but the eligibility and duration need to be justified. For students whose funding ends after 31st March 2021, the important question will be can the impact of the pandemic be mitigated? That is, can you reformulate your plans, perhaps remove one of your planned experiments, and still achieve the amount and level of work required for a PhD? The message that we are seeing is that expectation (from UKRI and from institutions) is that students and supervisors will seek to mitigate the impact wherever possible and thus only seek funding extensions where this is just not possible.

So if your funding is due to end after 31st March 2021, what should you do now?

• Talk to your supervisor. Have a direct conversation about the impact that the pandemic is having on you and your work. Make sure everyone is very clear on what is going on. If your supervisor is unaware of things that are having an impact on you and your ability to do your work, it will be harder for them to provide the right support later.

• Keep notes of what is going on. A daily diary of impact might sound a bit much, but it will make it a lot easier if you need to make a case for what the impact was and for how long.

• Keep any emails or letters that might be useful. We are not telling you to go out to get evidence - right now, we know getting letters from doctors is difficult and not a helpful use of their time. However, if you already have communication about appointments or email trails trying to get support, they will be useful to support your case for the duration and significance of impact.

• Think carefully with your supervisor about what you need to do to achieve your PhD. Is there scope for mitigation? You will need to provide an answer for this question, as we will need to provide an answer for that question in due course.

Following these steps is good practice in these circumstances; this will allow you to give us and to give your institutions an accurate picture of your situation, both now and potentially in the future. Despite lockdown starting to lift, these are still early days in seeing how the impact of this pandemic plays out.

For all currently funded IGGI students: In the initial stages, we are being asked to provide aggregate information about the required funding extensions. Later in the year, we will be required to provide the details to support the aggregate information. So it is possible that your case for a funding extension might be decided now, but that we have to come back to you to seek additional information in due course, once the requirements for the later reporting are known.

Unfortunately, we are not permitted to offer additional funding to students whose funded period has ended. We have gathered together some useful links on the IGGI wiki for each of the IGGI sites, to give you some ideas of other places you can go for funding. We are also adding links and information to the page about changes to University processes like progression during this period, so it is a useful page to check.

Please note, progression and processes like this are university level processes, so while we try to ensure you have as similar an experience as possible, as every institution makes changes to respond to the pandemic, you may find you are all being asked to complete processes at very different times. Please follow what is required by your institution.

Please keep an eye on your inbox - if your funding period ends after 31st March 2021, we will be in contact again soon.

Best wishes

Jo

Q&A

Q: We would like clarification on what sort of records should be kept about the impact of lockdown/COVID-19 on our ability to conduct our PhD and our health and wellbeing.

A: Please keep your own informal records. The more detail the better. You can add your own narrative now or even later. If you haven’t made any notes yet, it’s not too late to start. If you are having difficulty writing notes at the moment, it is still useful to write the date and ‘another terrible week’ so that when you refer back and, if we need to make a case to support your extension, we can see how many weeks you were impacted. Your supervisor is there to support you and, if you are having any difficulties, they should also be noting this/ask your supervisor to keep a record.

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