[Academic] Message from the faculty to PGR supervisors

[Gordon Robb]

Dear all,

Please see below a message from the Science faculty for PGR supervisors 
regarding Covid-19. PGR students have been reminded to sign up for the 
Doctoral School MyPlace page if they have not already done so.

Regards

Gordon

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Dear Heads and PGR Tutors,

We are keen to get the following Faculty-level message to all PGR 
supervisors. Please consider how best to do that in your Department and 
take the necessary action.

There are a number of complex issues concerning PGRs resulting from the 
Covid lockdown. The Principal recently addressed a Doctoral Zoom call 
with over 200 PGRs and official communications are flowing from 
Associate Principals and Deputy Associate Principal, supported by a 
dedicated Doctoral School MyPlace site. Within the Faculty we want to 
try and ensure that all supervisors know where to look for the latest 
official information.

We need supervisors to be actively passing on information to their own 
students, personalising the above communications to the situations of 
specific PGRs. It is very important that supervisors who are unsure on 
the current policies consult with Heads of Department, or the relevant 
AP/DAP as appropriate, to try and eliminate mixed messaging.

Important points to be known by all supervisors:

-All students should be encouraged to sign up for the Strathclyde 
Doctoral School MyPlace site, looking to collate communications and 
advice: https://classes.myplace.strath.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=24920

-A comprehensive message regarding information from UKRI was recently 
emailed to all supervisors of current final year (finishing 
1/3/20-31/3/21) UKRI-funded studentsby Prof. Kerr and a University-wide 
announcement relating to non-UKRI PGR studentships is forthcoming.

-Regarding Friday recuperation days; PGRs can take these as well as 
staff and if Friday does not suit, they should have flexibility to take 
other time for recuperation in consultation with their supervisor. Our 
recommendation is that supervisors don’t schedule meetings with PGRs on 
Fridays (unless students request it).

-We recommend that supervisors continue to advise students to take a ‘do 
what you can, when you can’ approach, listening to the student’s 
assessment of what can realistically be achieve. The following are some 
examples of what PGRs may be able to progress; writing introductory 
sections to their theses, reviewing already collected data and preparing 
figures, drafting manuscripts, writing and planning experiments/models, 
updating their skills on relevant software/stats/referencing tools/etc., 
looking out for useful webinars (e.g. those from professional societies, 
equipment companies and NPL), etc.

We appreciate the hard work everyone is doing in supporting their PhD 
students and keeping the research going where possible.

  Regards,

  Rob & Iain

---------
Dr. Gordon Robb
Department of Physics & SUPA
University of Strathclyde
John Anderson Building
107 Rottenrow
Glasgow, G4 0NG,
Scotland, U.K.

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