Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

You have an allowance for travel costs but other expenses such as accommodation, registration fees and subsistence will need to be applied for separately.

See the funding matters page for more information.

You can approach your registered faculty student admin team for a status letter, but you may want to contact the BCCS Manager in the first instance to discuss what kind of confirmation you require.

You can update the BCCS Manager with your title/summary changes so the edits can be made.

Be sure to update your PURE profile too (and if you're not using it find out how it can help your online presence).

Funding has been made available to the University for helping postgraduate researchers publish open-access material which you can apply for. 

See the Library Services research support pages for open-access publishing.

The BCCS has an excellent history of outreach and public engagement activities and you are very welcome to to work with the existing team or on a project of your own (providing funding is available).

Get in touch with the outreach team or the BCCS Manager to discuss your ideas further.

For some experimentally based research projects the BCCS would have entered into an informal arrangement with your faculty/department to share any 'additional' costs (outside what a typical registered student in your faculty would receive).

The intention would have been to confirm these costs closer to the point at which they are needed. You are encouraged to discuss the likely costs with your supervison team and then to make an application for additional funding to the BCCS.

If you already have a consumables budget in place then you can find out how to make purchases from the Funding matters webpage. 

In short: YES!

It is part of a system to ensure high quality research is being conducted by postgraduate researchers - an important concern for a research-intensive University.

You may encounter staff who treat it as an obstacle but this is a rather unfortunate and short-sighted attitude since progress monitoring is an excellent opportunity for you to get your work reviewed by independent experts and to defend that work under exam conditions (pretty good practice for the viva voce exam).

You can learn more about it from our progress monitoring page.

The first thing to do would be to discuss the issues with your supervision team or the BCCS Manager.

We can only advise you if we know there's a problem to begin with, and it can save a lot of worry to talk things over sooner rather than later.

If your issues warrant it you may be advised to apply for a suspension of studies so that you can take the time you need to recuperate or otherwise deal with what's preventing you from working as expected.

There are quite a few things that need to be done on the run-up to submitting your thesis that involve you and your supervision team to act.

You can find out more from our thesis submission and assessment page.

There is no entitlement to an extension to the 4 year funding period. Once your funding ends you are expected to submit your thesis as soon as possible but within a final year which is not funded.

However, if you feel there is a strong case to be made you can make an application for additional funding to the BCCS for consideration by the Management Group.

Postgraduate research (PGR) students are entitled to 25 days of annual leave in addition to University closure dates.

It's important to note that whilst you are a in one sense a 'student' the University's student vacation dates do not apply to you.

You are expected to continue to work on your project throughout Easter, Christmas and Summer vacation periods allowing for the closure dates and your use of annual leave.

You should arrange your annual leave with your supervision team though there is no specific practice you/they are required to follow. This flexibility is there to allow researchers and supervisors to mutually agree the best approach to managing research time and the leave entitlement, and avoid any unnecessary administrative burden.

Find out more about University key dates

The PhD supervisor-student relationship can be an intense one at times, and like any working relationship may have ups and downs.

We encourage you to talk about your experiences with the BCCS Manager or the academic leads of the BCCS in confidence.

If it comes to it and there's a valid reason for making a change to your supervision team then we can advise you further.