9.1 A candidate shall have at least 2 and not more than 3 supervisors.
9.2 One supervisor shall be the Director of Studies (first supervisor) with responsibility to ensure that the candidate receives supervision on a regular and frequent basis with members of the supervisory team.
The Director of Studies shall normally have supervised 1 PhD and/or Professional Doctorate student to completion and completed key components of the Supervisor Training Course. Where a Director of Studies only has 1 completion, whether as Director of Studies, Second Supervisor or Third Supervisor, the supervision of that research programme must have been for more than 2 thirds of the whole programme, anything less will not be considered sufficient to meet this requirement.
However, where a member of staff has had substantial experience of supervising graduate students and where the team as a whole has supervised at least 2 research students to completion, the Chair of the appropriate Committee with the Faculty or Departmental Postgraduate Research Tutor, will assess whether the experience is sufficient to take on the role of Director of Studies. The recommendation must be approved by the Chair of the Research Degree Committee before the member of staff can be appointed.
9.3 One individual shall not normally be Director of Studies for more than 6 full-time research students (pro rata for part-time students) and a further 6 students may be supervised as Second Supervisor, but the total number should not exceed a maximum of 12 students.
The ratio may vary according to the number of full or part-time students allocated to a particular member of staff. The Postgraduate Research Tutor and Dean of Faculty or Head of Department shall assess the workload of a member of staff to ascertain the appropriate number of students to be supervised by that individual. Supervisory time should be included in the individual’s workload plan.
9.4 Staff acting in the role of Second Supervisor should not supervise more that 6 full-time students (pro rata for part-time). If this number is exceeded, a letter should be provided from the PVC Dean of Faculty, confirming that the numbers allocated to the individual had been addressed through the workload planning review.
9.5 The supervision team shall normally be research active and have substantial research experience in the relevant subject area and have had a combined experience of supervising at at least 2 research degree candidates to successful completion. In the case of a PhD, the supervisory team shall normally have supervised at least 2 PhD candidates to successful completion.
9.6 The Director of Studies should be a member of the academic staff of the University (Honorary contracts and Visiting Researchers are not accepted). The PVC Dean of Faculty must ensure that the supervisors are suitably qualified for the proposed project. The supervisory team should have substantial research experience in the relevant subject area and normally have experience of supervising at least 2 research degree candidates to successful and timely completion at the appropriate level.
9.7 In addition to the supervisors, an adviser or advisers may be proposed to contribute some specialised knowledge or a link with an external organisation.
9.8 Exceptionally where a team does not fully comply with the requirement to hold at least 2 completions, an experienced Supervisor with completions can be appointed with responsibility to act as Mentor to the supervisory team.
9.9 A candidate for a research degree or professional higher degree, excluding PhD by Published Work, shall be ineligible to act as a Supervisor for another research degree candidate.
9.10 Any proposal for change in supervision arrangements shall be made to the Research Degree Committee on form RDC-S.