[Academic] PH450 and 550 projects

[Kevin Peter O'Donnell]

Dear all

This note is relevant to academics and post-docs who will be managing undergraduate projects in the upcoming session. In response to some hiccups last year, there will be a few formal change, approved by Teaching Committee. to the running and assessment of the projects:

1. Project preparation.  The sanity check that goes by the name of 'literature review' must now include a short risk assessment for the project. This Institute of Physics stipulation applies mainly to experimental procedures and is designed to encourage good working practice.

2. Early warning. A progress report must be signed off by the Supervisor at the mid-point of the project period to flag up any potential problems. Every year, we 'lose' a few students: just a few, but the numbers are increasing from a long run of zeros just a few years ago.

3. Student talks. Students and academics should be present for an entire session in which they play a role. Speakers deserve a fair hearing, without interruptions caused by listeners coming and going during the talks.

4. PH550 Final Report. The second yearly report of Masters students will have a new format, that of a short journal paper. We will be trialling this innovation in 2014/5. It has obvious advantages for the checking and marking of work that should show progress from that done in the first year.

5. Late submissions. There will be a fixed scale of penalties for late report submissions: 20% in first day, and then 5% per day for a week, before the mark is made zero. Again, this is a growing problem.

6. Vivas and assessment. (a) Supervisors' and Report marksheets to be submitted to viva chairmen a week before the viva; (b) second examiners to come from the same Division, but not the same group as the Supervisor; (b) wide variations in awarded marks to be moderated.  These in the interests of fairness to students and in response to external examiners' comments.

Let us hear any responses to these changes ASAP, since we will need to include the info in the project handbook before the beginning of term, i.e. pre-Referendum.


Regards,


Kevin



Kevin Peter O'Donnell
Professor of Semiconductor Spectroscopy
SUPA Physics Department
Strathclyde University
Glasgow G4 0NG
Scotland, UK.

email: k.p.odonnell at strath.ac.uk
web: http://ssd.phys.strath.ac.uk/index.php/Main_Page
tel: 0141 548 3365/3458/2309




 
The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC015263.


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