Your supervisor

Your department will allocate you an academic supervisor who is there to offer you support and advice throughout your programme.

You will meet your supervisor every 10-12 weeks to discuss your academic progress and check that all is well with you and your studies. This is an important point of academic contact for all students. Your supervisor will encourage you to develop your academic and personal skills and can also act as a referee for any applications you might make in the future. They can advise what to do if things go wrong and refer you to the right people in the University for help with more personal matters.

Please refer to sections 5.3 and 6.2 for information on supervision in practice.

Meeting with your supervisor

It is primarily your responsibility to book and attend appointments with your supervisor, and it is better to arrange these in advance either by telephone or email. These meetings may take place online (via e.g. Zoom or Google Hangouts) or in person, in line with University guidance. If you are unable to attend a supervisory meeting you should make reasonable attempts to contact your supervisor and to re-arrange the meeting. Records of your meeting will be kept by your supervisor. These may be accessed by other staff, particularly your academic assessor, and, if necessary, or continuity purposes if you change supervisor. 

Procedure for changing your supervisor

Ideally, you should have the same supervisor throughout your time here but, if your supervisor is away for an extended period, you will be allocated a different supervisor.

Occasionally, the supportive relationship that we hope will develop fails to do so. You are encouraged to discuss any difficulties with your supervisor to try to resolve these. However, if you find that you cannot communicate well with your supervisor, for whatever reason, then talk to your programme leader, the Chair of the Board of Studies, or if you prefer, contact one of the other support services. Undergraduate students can change supervisor without giving a reason.