Support and guidance

Information for doctoral students on Covid-19

We know this is a difficult time for everyone and that many of our doctoral students will be experiencing altered ways of working and will each be facing different challenges at this time. We would like to assure our doctoral students that the University has put in place a number of measures to support our doctoral students.

Maintaining positive health and wellbeing at this time of remote working is essential.

In addition to making sure that you stay in regular contact with your supervision team, please also take a moment to review the various support services which can be accessed by contacting student.hub@solent.ac.uk during this period of disruption. If you are feeling anxious about Covid-19 you can find advice and tips for looking after your wellbeing on the Solent Mind website.

Further resources are available at:

Mental Health UK website blog posts on how to look after your mental health when working remotely, as well as looking after children while working from home and other useful information.
The Headspace app, Weathering the Storm offers meditations, sleep advice and movement exercises.
NHS website, Every Mind Matters advice and tips for maintaining your mental wellbeing.

Many of you will be facing new challenges as you work with your supervision teams to review your project plans. While there is ongoing uncertainty about the length of this disruption to our normal ways of working, it is prudent to scope out how you may achieve or adapt your research goals to meet these new circumstances. This may include using remote means to conduct your research. We have gathered together here some resources around good practice in remote data collection to assist with these discussions.

Approaches to field work during a pandemic
Approaches to using Skype to collect data
Conducting telephone interviews from Forum: Qualitative Social Research and ERSC
General guidance from the British library's oral history and national life stories teams in light of Covid-19, with input from other members of the Oral History Society summarising the ethical, legal, methodological and technical issues that individuals and projects will need to consider before deciding whether or not to conduct a remote interview
UK data service guidance on online data collection

Some doctoral students are coming up on key milestones of Transfer or final submission of their thesis for Viva. Some will also be approaching the end of their maximum registration period. The University understands that these students will have concerns around completing scheduled work to meet their deadlines.

Where doctoral students have been affected by exceptional circumstances related to Covid-19, the University is working to ensure they experience no detriment arising from this. Issues may involve new demands on their time such as childcare, or returning to clinical roles, or be related to restrictions on access to facilities or resources such as laboratory work.

In these circumstances the University will provide reasonable flexibility around such deadlines and has developed an exceptional application form for doctoral students to request any necessary extensions. Doctoral students can find the ‘Temporary Covid-19 Extension Form’ (RD4C-19) in the ‘Change of Circumstances’ forms below.

Each doctoral student will be considered on a case by case basis and in discussion with supervision teams to ensure that there will be no detriment to a student’s ability to respond to these exceptional circumstances.

Doctoral students who are approaching a Viva will be given the opportunity to choose whether they wish to go ahead using online technology or to postpone until it is possible to reconvene the Viva on location and face to face.

The University has issued an interim, exceptional set of regulations and guidance to outline the conduct of online Vivas. These pertain to Vivas for final thesis examination, but the protocols and principles will also apply to online Transfer panels.

Download the supplementary regulations on exams and guidance during Covid-19

Doctoral student handbook and research degree forms

The doctoral student handbook has been compiled with guidance notes for doctoral students and supervisors to help them gain a practical knowledge of the key principles, processes and milestones relating to the research degree programme at Solent University. The doctoral student handbook explains when and how to use all the procedural forms which can be found on this page.

Doctoral student handbook and guidance notes

Forms directory

	Explanatory note	Form	Guidance note
Appointment of supervisory team	To appoint the DoS and supervisors for a new student	RD1S	#4
Instruction to offer	To offer an MPhil / PhD opportunity to a prospective student	RD1ITO	#4
Sponsor full-time bursary agreement	Completed between the sponsor and the University	RD1BF	#14
Student full-time bursary agreement	Completed between the student and the University	RD1BF-S	#14
Sponsor part-time bursary agreement	Completed between the sponsor and the University	RD1BP	#14
Student part-time bursary agreement	Completed between the student and the University	RD1BP-S	#14

Stage	Explanatory note	Form	Guidance note	Full-time	Part-time
Doctoral student supervision record	To record student-supervisor meetings	RD2SSM	#2 and #7	Min. 9 x per year	Min. 7 x per year
Annual monitoring forms	Independent review of student experience	RD2AMIR	#7	Annually (May deadline)	Annually (May deadline)
Annual monitoring forms	Progress review; evaluation of academic progress	RD2AMPR	#7	Annually (May deadline)	Annually (May deadline)
Annual monitoring forms	Doctoral review panel; annual monitoring outcome	RD2AMPRC	#7	Annually (June deadline)	Annually (June deadline)
Training and development application	Apply for the £500 doctoral training and development allowance	RD3TD	#6	Annually (1 August - 31 July)	Annually (1 August - 31 July)
Transfer	To transfer registration from MPhil to PhD	RD2T	#8	12-18 months from start date	24-36 months from start date
Application for writing up status	To apply for a reduction in fees while writing up the thesis for submission	RD2WU	#9 and #6	24-36 months from start date	60-84 months from start date

Circumstance	Explanatory note	Form	Guidance note
Change to supervisory team	To change the composition of a supervisory team	RD4S	#5
Change of registration mode	To apply to change registration mode (adjust to part-time or full-time)	RD4MS	#5
Application for suspension	To request a suspension from studies	RD4SU	#5
Withdrawal	To withdraw registration of a student at Solent	RD4WD	#5
Extension	To request an extension to the maximum registration period	RD4E	#5
Temporary Covid-19 extension form	To request an extension to a research degree milestone	RD4C-19	n/a

	Explanatory note	Form	Guidance note	Full-time	Part-time
Examination arrangements	Completed by the DoS / supervisory team to nominate examiners for the Viva	RD5E	#10	30-42 months from start date	66-90 months from start date
Thesis submission	Completed by the student to accompany the thesis at the point of submission	RD5DEC	#10	36-48 months from start date	72-96 months from start date
Preliminary examiner report (MPhil)	Completed by each examiner supplying an independent provisional preliminary recommendation	RD5M	#10	Minimum 1 week prior to Viva	Minimum 1 week prior to Viva
Preliminary examiner report	Completed by each examiner supplying an independent provisional preliminary recommendation	RD5P	#10	Minimum 1 week prior to Viva	Minimum 1 week prior to Viva
Examiners' decision	Decision of examiners following Viva for MPhil / PhD	RD5DEX	#10	On date of Viva	On date of Viva
Examiners' decision (PhD by Prior Publication)	Decision of examiners following Viva for PhD by prior publication only	RD5DEX-P	#10	On date of Viva	On date of Viva
Examiners' decision (re-examination)	Decision of examiners following amends and re-Viva for MPhil / PhD	RD5R-DEX	#10	On date of re-Viva	On date of re-Viva
Independent Chair report	Completed by the Independent Chair	RD5I	#10	On date of Viva	On date of Viva
Re-examination amendment log	Completed by student to accompany re-submission of thesis for further examination	RD5RAL	#10	By resubmission deadline	By resubmission deadline

Policies and regulations

The University has policies and guidance in place to ensure the environment and experience of research students is supportive for their research and learning.

Strategy

The environment for postgraduate research degrees is underpinned by the Research and Knowledge Exchange Sub-Strategy

Research and Knowledge Exchange Sub-Strategy 2025

Regulations

The University reviews and updates its regulations annually. The current regulations are published at the beginning of each academic year and can be read here. Students are advised to always consult the regulations for the year in which they are currently registered.
Regulations for Postgraduate Research Students

Postgraduate researchers must consider their responsibilities for their research data in relation to the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation.

Solent's ethics policy

Intellectual property

The Intellectual Property Office

For Solent University intellectual property rights policy please contact research.innovation@solent.ac.uk

University research committees

The University Academic Board retains responsibility for the effectiveness of the arrangements for safeguarding the academic standards of awards and enhancing the quality of postgraduate research provision. It delegates responsibility for overseeing the University’s research degree provision to the Research Degrees Committee (RDC) and for the University’s research strategy to the Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee (RKEC)

RDC Terms of Reference