Centre for
Criminology and Sociology
RESEARCH POSTGRADUATE STUDENT HANDBOOK
20010/11
Telephone (01784) 414085
Centre for Criminology & Sociology
Royal Holloway University of London
Egham Hill, Egham
Surrey TW20 OEX
The College switchboard number is (01784) 434455, but it is usually easier to contact individual staff or the Department by the direct line numbers shown in this handbook. You may have your post sent to the above address and it will be placed in the student pigeonholes in the department.
Disclaimer
This document was published in October 2010 and was correct at that time. The centre reserves the right to modify any statement if necessary, make variations to the content or methods of delivery of programmes of study, to discontinue programmes, or merge or combine programs if such actions are reasonably considered to be necessary by the College. Every effort will be made to keep disruption to a minimum, and to give as much notice as possible.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
INITIAL REGISTRATION AND PERIOD OF REGISTRATION
USEFUL CONTACT DETAILS
COLLEGE CONTACTS
HOW TO FIND US: THE DEPARTMENT
YOUR CONTACT DETAILS – E-MAIL & POST
RESEARCH DEGREES
TIMETABLE for a PhD (full time)
RESEARCH TRAINING AND SKILLS ACQUISITION
Research Skills Programme
STYLE OF THESIS PRESENTATION
Academic writing skills
THE ANNUAL REVIEW AND UPGRADE
TEACHING EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING
TRANSFER OF STATUS
PRESENTING YOUR RESEARCH
SUBMISSION AND EXAMINATION OF THE THESIS
PREPARATION FOR THE FINAL EXAMINATION
PREPARATION FOR THE VIVA
ILLNESS AND OTHER EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE ANNUAL REVIEW, UPGRADE OR FINAL EXAMINATION
STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
COMMUNICATION AND STUDENT FEEDBACK
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURES FOR STUDENTS
APPEALS PROCEDURES FOR STUDENTS
PLAGIARISM AND OTHER ACADEMIC OFFENCES
FACILITIES
Computers
Graduate Common Rooms
Bedford Square
Communication
Libraries
Inter-Library Loan (ILL)
FUNDING
RESEARCH EXPENSES
PHOTOCOPYING
Photocopying can be arranged through the admin office. Please discuss with the administrator any requirements you have and try to refrain from using the printers attached to the computers for large print jobs.
STAFF RESEARCH INTERESTS
Centre for Criminology and Sociology: Equal Opportunities Statement
CONFERENCE/TRAINING FUNDING REQUEST FORM
FIELDWORK/INCIDENTAL EXPENDITURE REQUEST FORM
INTRODUCTION
In pursuing a research degree in Centre for Criminology and Sociology at Royal Holloway, you have joined the largest and most diverse Centre for Criminology and Sociology Department in the University of London. You are in a community of scholars ranging in expertise from Social Work to Sociology, Psychology and Criminology.
Postgraduate research students pursue independent research in academic departments, leading to the award of the degree of MPhil or PhD. Successful progress depends primarily on their own efforts, supported by those of their supervisors, but also on the research environment in the department and on the quality of their research training.
However often you see your Supervisor or communicate with other scholars, graduate research can still be a lonely business: long and repetitive days in libraries, in the field, or in front of the computer screen. It is a three-sided tussle between yourself and your ideas, your evidence, and the technology through which your arguments and conclusions turn into an extended piece of prose. We would like to think that your membership of the Centre for Criminology and Sociology at Royal Holloway makes the struggle easier. The purpose of this Handbook is to show some of the ways in which the Department can mitigate the loneliness and hardship of the long-distance researcher.
The Handbook cannot cover everything. It deals only with aspects of postgraduate study that specifically relate to social research and to the Centre for Criminology and Sociology. Please therefore read it in conjunction with the following College documents:
- The College’s Code of Practice for the Academic Welfare of Postgraduate Research Students(see
sets out the practices and procedures which underpin these efforts and outlines, amongst others, the responsibilities of student, supervisor, advisor and the student’s department(s).
As a research student of the College you should therefore ensure that you familiarize yourself with the content of the Code as well as with the:
- College’s Research Degree Regulations (see which set out the regulations governing all aspects of MPhil/ PhD study from admission to completion. A range of useful information is also available through the Graduate School website (see
3.Funding for Postgraduate Studies, a booklet about all sources of funding:
4.The package sent to all first year research students, of which further copies are available from the Graduate School Administrator
If you have difficulty obtaining or accessing any of the above, please contact the Director of Graduate Study.
INITIAL REGISTRATION AND PERIOD OF REGISTRATION
All students, other than those granted exemption from part of their studies, are initially registered for an MPhil degree on either a full-time or part-time basis. Those wishing to submit a thesis for the award of PhD will be required to successfully upgrade to a PhD within the first 20 months of full-time study or the first 40 months of part-time study.
Section 2 of the College’s Research Degree Regulations (see stipulates the maximum periods of registration permissible for MPhil and PhD study.
“Section 2
Students first registered on Research Degree programmes in or after September 2006 must submit the thesis for examination within the following periods of study, otherwise their registration with the College may be terminated under the provisions of Section 10 of these regulations.
(a) For programmes of study leading to the award of MPhil, the thesis must be submitted within three years of full-time study, or five years of part-time study.
(b) For programmes of study leading to the award of PhD, the thesis must be submitted within four years of full-time study, or seven years of part-time study.”
For further details relating to the period of study, arrangements for admission, exemptions from part of the programme of study, interruptions of study, registration and enrolment, you should consult Sections 1 – 8 of the
Research Degree Regulations
( ).
Relevant forms for interruptions, change of mode of study (full-time to part-time or vice-versa), and withdrawal are available on the Graduate School website (see
USEFUL CONTACT DETAILS
Director of Centre:Professor David Denney01784-443683ABF027
Academic Staff:Professor Ravinder Barn01784-443678 ABF17A
Professor Jonathan Gabe01784-
Dr Vicki
Dr Sarah Moore01784-276482ABS07
Dr Alex Newbury01784-414966ABS06
Dr Richard Smith01784-443689ABS03
Administrator:Vanessa Law01784-414085ABF10
COLLEGE CONTACTS
Dean of the Graduate School:
Professor Robin Walker. .
The Dean may also be contacted through the Graduate School. Tel: 01784 443352.
Graduate School Administrator:
Dr Francesca Chiarelli. Tel: 01784 443352;
Graduate Training Administrator:
Ms Marina Mohideen-Moore. Tel: 01784 414699;
Liaison Librarian:
Mr Paul Johnson. Tel: 01784 443332;
HOW TO FIND US: THE DEPARTMENT
The Centre for Criminology and Sociology is located within the Arts building on the first and second floors. This can be found on the college campus map as building 16
Map of the Egham Campus
Student parking is limited and a parking permit is required. This can be obtained via Security. You will need proof of insurance and ID before a permit will be issued.
YOUR CONTACT DETAILS – E-MAIL & POST
It is essential that the Centre should be able to keep in touch with you on your College e-mail address. This is the only e-mail address that we shall use. You can access your College e-mail off campus at:
If you wish to forward mail from your College address, go to the web site of the College Computer Centre:
RESEARCH DEGREES
The end product of your labours will be an extended piece of writing, either an M.Phil. or a Ph.D. thesis. All students register for the M.Phil degree to start with many, but not all, transfer to Ph.D. by the end of their fourth term (by the end of the eighth term for part-time students). The M.Phil is, however, a valued degree in its own right and should not be seen as a failed Ph.D.
In the research for your thesis, and in writing it up, your primary contact is your Supervisor. You will also have an Adviser. Please become thoroughly familiar with the sections in the Code of Practice for the welfare of postgraduate research students, on the responsibilities of the Supervisor and Adviser – and, not least, of you, the student (Sections 4-15). You have overall responsibility for the timely and successful completion of your thesis.
You should therefore also familiarise yourself with what the Code of Practice says abut the nature of the M.Phil. and Ph.D., the minimum periods for registration, and the scope and word length of each (all in the Introduction to the Code).
Those word lengths are: M.Phil. 60,000, Ph.D. 100,000. In each case the total includes footnotes, but excludes the bibliography and any factual appendices – supporting data, tables, transcriptions, prosopographies, etc. (Such factual appendices are the only ones allowed.)
When you are starting out, that will seem an impossibly large amount to write. When you are nearing completion it will seem much too short. Many students find that they cannot say all that they want to say in the space available. The final thesis is very much the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of what your research will have uncovered. And it does not need not be your final word on the subject.
Both the College and the Funding Councils agree that a Ph.D. thesis should represent what can reasonably be expected of three or at most four years of full-time study (or the part-time equivalent). For the M.Phil. it is two or at most three years. It is therefore expected that students will normally complete their writing within three years (Ph.D.) or two years (M.Phil.).
You should keep this timetable in mind as you plan your research. In consultation with your Supervisor, you will first have decided on a broad area of interest. You will then have narrowed it down to a particular aspect of your topic or a single research question. This focus of your work must be one that can be satisfactorily addressed (1) at the right word length, (2) from the evidence available to you, (3) within the University’s normal time limits. All three have to be right.
The refinement of your topic so that it is manageable is your responsibility. Your Supervisor will offer plentiful advice about evidence and methods, whether anyone else is working on a similar theme, and so forth. But the Supervisor cannot guarantee the uniqueness or the viability of your project.
With all this in mind, the Centre offers the following strategy for the normal production of a Ph.D. thesis by full-time students (an M.Phil. thesis is shorter, will have fewer chapters, and the timetable should be correspondingly condensed).
TIMETABLE for a PhD (full time)
Timing / Content / CommentYear 1 / Survey of primary evidence and secondary literature,
Theory/problems survey / On starting
On starting
Research training: skills acquisition / Attendance at compulsory College Research Development Course
Notional plan of thesis / Six months in
Introductory essay / Early draft of Chapter 1
Research chapter / Assemble material for Transfer of Status
Updated plan of thesis
Year 2 / Transfer of Status / First term of Year 2
At least two research chapters
Continuing research training
Seminar/conference paper / For outreach and c/v
Read Paper to Postgraduate Research Forum
Year 3 / Completion of research chapters
Revision of whole
Read a further conference/seminar paper
Apply for fourth year funding, if necessary / Apply for jobs/fellowships
MAJOR VARIANTS:
Database Projects
Database projects take longer to create: database in Years 1 + 2 with correspondingly higher-yield chapter writing in Year 3
Language Acquisition
If language acquisition is needed in Year 1, with consolidation in Year 2, research normally in Year 1 will take correspondingly longer.
Part-time students
Students studying part-time can expect to submit their thesis in their sixth year.
Overseas Trips
If your research requires trips these – and applications for funding them –need to be planned carefully in advance and writing up research will be correspondingly more intense in Year 2 onwards.
Students in receipt of funding from bodies such as the AHRC and ESRC must submit within four years of registration – not a day longer.
Check the regulations governing your award very carefully. See and follow links to postgraduate study and then to doctoral award holders.
RESEARCH TRAINING AND SKILLS ACQUISITION
Research Skills Programme
In 2002 the Roberts Report identified a need for skills training for all postgraduate researchers. Supported by funding from Research Councils UK and a concordat agreed by UK higher education institutions, universities across the UK are now required to provide a postgraduate skills training programme and ensure that postgraduate research students receive appropriate training. Research Skills training is therefore a mandatory part of any postgraduate research programme at Royal Holloway.
You should discuss your training needs with your supervisor(s) and adviser soon after you start your research programme and fill out the Research Student Training Log with details of courses that you should attend during the year
(see ).
Although further discussions on your training may take place during the year during your supervisory meetings, at least once a year normally at the time of the annual review you, together with your supervisor(s) and adviser, should review the training completed in the previous year and draw up a plan for the following year. The training plan is likely to include both generic research skills courses and training which is specific to the research project. You should be fully engaged with the design of your training programme, as this is an important part of your personal development planning, and should be considering what will be of benefit to you in both the short and long term. Completion of the required training is a prerequisite for the upgrade from MPhil to PhD so will also be checked at the time of you upgrade
The College and the public funding bodies such as ESRC now see acquiring skills and undergoing research training not as something to be dealt with as quickly as possible at the start of your research, but as an aspect of the M.Phil/PhD programme that continues throughout your time as a student. The entire programme is thus training for the variety of careers that may succeed it, not all of them academic. Research and skills training is compulsory for all research students and the College provides a research and skills development programme intended to ensure that students acquire the skills appropriate to their research, to assist in timely completion of their theses, and to prepare them for employment. The skills and training requirements of research students are assessed at the Annual Review (see Section 6 below).
For details of the College course contact the Graduate Training Administrator, or see:
Royal Holloway International (formerly known as the Language Centre) offers courses in English for academic purposes, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Modern Greek.
Contact the Director, Sheryl Simon. Tel: 01784 443335;
Your supervisor will help you develop your own individual programme of skills acquisition. You will be required to keep a formal log of such activity and to report on it each year in your Annual Review.
The College’ s Code Of Practice for the Academic Welfare Of Postagraduate Research Students
(
stipulates the general research skills training requirements for MPhil/PhD students. Further details are provided on the Research Skills Programme webpage (see )
- An average of 5 days of training per academic year for full-time self-funded students, with a total of 15 days across three years of study.
- An average of 5 days of training per academic year for students funded by organisations other than UK Research Councils, such as Royal Holloway itself or a Research Group, with a total of 15 days across 3 years of study.
- An average of 10 days per academic year for full-time students funded by UK Research Councils (AHRC, NERC, ESRC, EPSRC, STFC, BBSRC, MRC) with a total of 30 days across three years of study.
- The training requirements are the same for part-time students, but operate on a pro-rata basis (minimum of 2.5 days per academic year)
Full details of the types of training which are available to students and which can be used to fulfil the research skills training requirements, as well as training opportunities available at other institutions are detailed on the Research Skills Programme webpage. This page also includes a guide to web registration, details on how to book, FAQs and a Research Skills Programme Handbook (see