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► Postgraduate Charter

The Postgraduate Students’ Charter aims to raise awareness of the issues that have a profound affect on postgraduate students.  ULU believe that postgraduates are under-represented, under-funded and under-resourced. The charter will give postgraduates a voice, enabling them to demand equal and fair treatment and advance their right to a high quality standard of education.    


Postgraduate Students’ Charter
1.   Supervision
 
We call for:
 
·        clear defininition of the roles and responsibilities of all types of supervisors;
·        all supervisors to undertake mandatory training and for regular quality checks and refresher courses for experienced supervisors;
·        each research student to be supported by a supervisory team, consisting of not less than one primary and one secondary supervisor, one of whom must have supervised successful PhD candidates;
·        main supervisors to take prime responsibility for no more than a maximum of six research students;
·        all research students to be guaranteed regular formal supervision sessions, lasting at least one hour per month. We support colleges/courses where there is more supervision already offered.
     
2.   Employed Postgraduate Rights
 
We endorse UCU/NUS/NPC Employed Postgraduates' Charter (2006) and call for the early implementation of its key objectives:
 
·         Fair and equal access to employment opportunities
·         Adequate study time 
·         Full induction training
·         Nationally agreed pay levels and pay for all responsibilities and work undertaken
 
3.   Academic Regulations
     
We call for institutions to ensure academic regulations for postgraduate research degree programmes are transparent and that the definitive version of the regulations are readily available to students and staff, in both hard and electronic copies, in line with the QAA code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education.
 
4.   Facilities
 
We call for institutions to ensure adequate facilities for postgraduate research projects, including IT and library access, are available and accessible during evenings and weekends including out of term time.
 
5.   Postgraduate Funding
 
We call for the student loan facility to be extended to postgraduates, on masters courses, on the same basis as for undergraduates.
 
We call for the link between research council funding for masters courses and continuation to PhD study to be weakened.
 
We call for more funding to be allocated by research councils for individual postgraduate study.
 
6.   Code of Practice for Taught Masters
 
We call for all colleges to adopt a code of practice for taught masters courses setting out the responsibilities of both the department and the student, to include for example:
       - PGT to have access to a named personal tutor;
       - PGT to be provided with a plan for regular and formal supervisory contact, including provision for the summer period when the dissertation is being written up.
 
7.   Costs
 
We call for all costs associated with a research student’s study to be made clear and consistently applied.
 
8.   Viva Examinations
 
We note that selected colleges within the University of London are piloting the attendance of an independent observer of academic standing at viva examinations as a safeguard against possible intimidation, bias or procedural irregularity. This should include provision for audio recordings of the viva to help speed up any appeals process. We call for this pilot to be extended nationally. In addition, we demand that copies of the independent reports are made available to the student on completion of the viva.
 
9.   Environment - Research Environment
 
We call for an appropriate number of research students and research active staff in the same research area to avoid problems of isolation for research students.
 
- Social Environment
 
We call for interdisciplinary postgraduate networks to be facilitated, e.g. providing webspace on university websites and physical space for meetings, to avoid problems of social isolation for research students.
 
10. Equality
 We call for all selection process and admission decisions, supervisory arrangements, training and development opportunities, feedback mechanisms and appeals and complaints to be set out clearly and applied consistently to avoid discrimination. 

If you would like to show your support for this campaign then please download our petition, sign-up to it and email or post it  back to us.
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