12.1 A candidate registered initially for MPhil with possibility of transfer to PhD who wishes to transfer to PhD should complete a transfer process within the Faculty. Practice may vary and full details of the discipline specific requirements can be found in the Faculty Handbook. Transfer comprises 3 main elements: a transfer report; an oral presentation and/or interview and an additional piece of work as indicated by the Faculty, Department or Supervisory Team.
The report should be considered by a person external to the supervisory team and that person should also be present at the interview, and the same individual may act as the independent assessor at the Transfer stage and as the Internal Examiner. However, if an assessor is to act as an Internal Examiner they should not have any involvement in the assessment and monitoring of the work subsequent to the transfer review (e.g: Annual Progress Monitoring or pastoral meetings) and prior to the oral examination.
Students should prepare a full progress report on the work undertaken during the MPhil stage for consideration by their Supervisors and Postgraduate Research Tutor. This should be done when sufficient progress has been made on the work to provide evidence of the development to PhD.
Normally the process begins at about 18 months after the approved date of registration for full-time study and pro-rata for part-time study with the process beginning between 24-26 months after the date of registration.
The progress report should be produced as a word document of 1,000 words in length and unless otherwise indicated in the Faculty Handbook, should include:
- a brief review and discussion of the work already undertaken (500 words);
and
- a statement of the intended further work, including details of the original contribution to knowledge which is likely to emerge (500 words).
12.2 Once the transfer process has been successfully completed within the Faculty, the candidate shall then apply to the Research Degree Committee for approval of transfer of registration from MPhil to PhD on form RDC-T. The form should contain a summary of the full progress report (approximately 800 words) together with a timetable outlining the PhD element, with a schedule for detailing when the work will be completed.
The supervisor’s supporting report should be between 100–150 words and summarise the candidate’s progress, giving details of any changes to the programme of research should it have altered significantly from that outlined in the original application for registration.
12.3 Before approving transfer from MPhil to PhD the Research Degree Committee shall be satisfied that the candidate has made sufficient progress and that the proposed programme provides a suitable basis for work at PhD standard which the candidate is capable of pursuing to completion.
12.4 A candidate registered for the degree of MPhil only, may apply for an exceptional transfer of registration to PhD. In such cases, the same process as indicated in Section 12.1 should be undertaken within the Faculty and on successful completion the candidate’s full progress report shall be submitted to the Research Degree Committee with the RDC-T application for transfer.
12.5 A candidate who is registered for the degree of PhD and who is unable to complete the approved programme of work may, at any time before the submission of the electronic copy of the thesis for examination, apply to the Research Degree Committee through their supervisors, for the registration to revert to that for MPhil.