DISS: Allocation of Projects and Supervisors to Students

The MSc project coordinator, with the aid of the Information Learning Technology team, will allocate each student a project and MSc supervisor on the basis of the preferences expressed by students and the supervision load of individual supervisors. There will inevitably be difficulties when more than one student wishes to do the same project. Some supervisors’ proposals are much more popular than others. Students should not necessarily expect to get their first preference for a project, or even (in rare cases) any of the preferences that they stated. This process of assigning students to supervisors and projects will be completed by a date given in the timetable.

These initial assignments of students to projects happen this early in the semester, so that the supervisors, together with the IPP tutors, can deliver to their MSc students the compulsory taught module IPP. However, there is flexibility in changing supervisors in at least two ways. First, a member of staff can, if they choose, delegate supervising duties to a member of the research staff (with the researcher’s agreement). However, the staff member remains responsible for ensuring that the supervision meets acceptable standards. Secondly, a student can also choose to change supervisors, provided they get agreement from their existing supervisor and the proposed new supervisor. If there are problems between a student and supervisor that they can’t sort out themselves, then the student can consult with their Personal Tutor.

This flexibility for changing supervisors remains, until the deadline for changes to projects and supervisors is given in the timetable. It is not possible to change supervisors after this date.