Using the system

PGR Manager is our online postgraduate research (PGR) management system which will:

Provide a shared, web-based record system for PGR students, their supervisors, PGR Co-ordinators and the UHI Graduate School
Replace paper forms and signatures with electronic workflows and sign-off for registration change requests (suspensions, extensions etc); progress reviews; monthly UKVI monitoring and – from October 2022 – the submission and examination processes
Provide electronic records of supervision meetings
Provide electronic record of absence not covered by a suspension of studies, e.g. short-term illness or holiday
Provide online booking and records of training and development including online Training Needs Analysis
Maintain support and contact with students and supervisors in any location
Give access using existing usernames and passwords (UHI staff and research students) and enable secure access for external supervisors through the system’s online external account function
The system can be accessed from PCs, Macs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones via the internet – see ‘How to log in’.

Ultimately, the system should allow postgraduate research students and supervisors to concentrate more on making progress with their research and less on the administration of it. Please bookmark the page or add it as a favourite - hopefully it really will quickly become a favourite!

Guidance on the progress review processes - including thesis panel, panel chair feedback and the Head of Academic Partner sign-off - is provided here in detail, so all those involved have the option to see the forms, guidance and process from all roles. The onus is on the student to start the progress review process and there are functions in the system to prompt and help with forward planning. The list of student and supervisor questions are provided in this guidance for each review, with more detailed information and screen grabs seen within each ‘in detail’ section.You can also watch some brief recordings, taking you through probationary review in a test system.

Also included in in this guidance is more detail about the online monthly UKVI monitoring process - once the system has launched the paper form should not be completed.

Registration change requests (extension, suspension, mode, etc) are termed ‘Candidature Management’ in the system and the options available to you will be seen when you click the tab. As with existing processes, the onus will be on the student to start nearly all the candidature management applications, whereas the supervisor should complete the change of supervisor application. No detailed guidance is provided for these processes - you will see when you start an application that the workflows are straightforward and you will have in-built guidance and prompts as you go.

As ever, the Code of Practice for Postgraduate Research Degrees is your first port of call for guidance on the regulations, policies and procedures. And, as ever, the Graduate School is here to help - gradresearch@uhi.ac.uk

How to log in

Logging into PGR Manager

PGR Manager is housed within the university’s Virtual Research Environment (VRE) - i.e. the same space as the Ethics Monitor.

Login with your userid@uhi.ac.uk format, e.g. eo99XX@uhi.ac.uk or studentid@uhi.ac.uk.

Once you've logged in

Student

When you log in you should see the noticeboard in the centre of the screen and ‘PGR Manager’’, ‘Guidance’ and ‘My record’. The ‘Recent additions’ feed on the right-hand side will show the most recent actions relating to you and your project. You can access your project page from here by going through ‘PGR Manager’ then ‘My project’.

My record

Click My Record to see details held about you. All PGR Manager users can see this profile and the information seen is no more than that already available to staff and students in the university’s communications or email directory. Some of the information is fed automatically from the university’s student management system. You can access your project page from here by going through 'Research Degree Project'.

Research Degree Project

Click Research Degree Project to see information about your degree – this will become your main, go-to page in the system. Use the buttons on the right to review your milestones and goals, log supervision meetings, start an ethics application, etc.

The ‘Progression review’ tab enables access to progress reviews – either completed (in the system) or those in progress. This is also where you should start a new review and the type of progress review due to be completed will load automatically when you start a new review.

The amount of information users can see on this page will be strictly limited depending on their role in the system. For example, apart from the Graduate School Office and RDC/GSC committee members, only your supervisory team, the PGR Co-ordinator and Head of your Home Academic Partner will see your whole project record. The Third Party Adviser name listed on your project details will only be visible to you.

Wherever you are in the system, to get back to the home page click ‘Home’ or on the university logo in the top left hand corner.

To the left of your name on your homepage you will see ‘Tray’ and ‘Tasks’ (Tray is only visible when there is something in it). These are helpful ways of managing your own use of PGR Manager.

NOTE: Every Thursday, an automated email will be sent to you if you have any outstanding tasks in the system - we hope you take these regular reminders in the spirit of helping you to keep on top of necessary tasks so they can be completed in a timely manner.

Tray icon

Staff

When you log in you should see the noticeboard in the centre of the screen and ‘My record’, ‘My Postgraduate Researchers’ and ‘PGR Manger’ buttons on the right hand side. The ‘Recent additions’ feed on the right hand side will show the most recent actions relating to your student(s).

My record

Click My record to see details held about you. All PGR Manager users can see this profile and is no more than the information already available to staff and students in the university’s communications or email directory. Some of the information is fed automatically from the university’s HR system. From here you can access your Postgraduate Research Students. You can also access your students by going through ‘PGR Manager’ then ‘My postgraduate research students’. Going through this route, you will also see basic dashboard (report) information*

*The amount of student information staff can see will be strictly limited depending on their role in the system. For example, apart from the Graduate School Office and relevant RDC/GSC committee members, only the supervisory team, the PGR Co-ordinator and Head of the Home Academic Partner will see the whole project record. A thesis panel chair will not have access to this record or the progress review they are involved with. There will be the student’s Third Party Adviser name listed on their view of the project page, but this will not be visible to anyone else. Similarly, the type of dashboard information available to you will be dependent on your role in the system.

Postgraduate research students

Click Postgraduate research students to see your current students. We have not been able to integrate into this system past student records, either as completed or withdrawn. We will also not be including current students who have submitted, as the exam process will be developed in phase 2, launching in October 2022. When phase 2 is launched, your examining experience will build up in this system, as and when the exam nomination process records your involvement as internal examiner or internal chair.

To get back to the ‘home page’ click on ‘Home’ or on the university logo in the top left hand corner. wherever you are in the system.

To the left of your name on your homepage you will see ‘Tray’ and ‘Tasks’ (Tray is only visible when there is something in it). These are helpful ways of managing your own use of PGR Manager.

The Tray function works like a bookmark. You can add pages to your tray to come back to at any time. You could add a form you are working on, a supervision record you want to refer back to, etc. Click on the icon to add things to your tray.

The Tasks function shows you when PGR Manager requires you to take action and by clicking on the ‘Tasks’ button you can click through to the page you need to review. Where action is required you will normally see a green circle. NOTE: Every Thursday, the system will send an email to you if you have any outstanding tasks in the system - we hope you take these regular reminders in the spirit of helping you to keep on top of necessary tasks so they can be completed in a timely manner.

If you have any questions about PGR Manager, please email gradresearch@uhi.ac.uk

Tray icon

Milestones and Goals

When developing the system, the time frames seen in the following table have been used as the basis when setting system ‘rules’ insofar as when key activities and milestones are due.

These time frames can be seen in a student’s project page - ‘Milestones and Goals’ tab - and are in line with Section 4 ‘Duration of Study’ information in the Code of Practice.

			column A	column B	column C
	Degree	Mode of Attendance	Standard Period	Regulatory Maximum Period	PGR Manager Thesis Submission Due date
First registered from 2021-22	PhD	Full-time	36 months	48 months	48 months
	PhD	Part-time	72 months	84 months	84 months

	Master’s by Research (MRes)	Full-time	12 months	24 months	12 months
	Master’s by Research (MRes)	Part-time	24 months	36 months	24 months
	Degree	Mode of Attendance	Standard Period	Regulatory Maximum Period	PGR Manager Thesis Submission Due date
First registered before 2021-22	PhD	Full-time	36 months	60 months	48 months
	PhD	Part-time	60 months	84 months	72 months

	Master’s by Research (MRes)	Full-time	12 months	36 months	24 months
	Master’s by Research (MRes)	Part-time	24 months	48 months	36 months

Intention to submit and Examiner nomination date

'Examination, intention to submit' and 'Examination, examiner nomination' - this date will be based on the Standard period time frame (column A in the above table).

As the date approaches, the student and their Director of Studies should consider whether a thesis is likely to be submitted at that point. See 'thesis submission date'.

Thesis submission date

‘Examination, submission (earliest)’ – this is the earliest thesis submission date, based on the Standard Period time frame (column A in the above table).

‘Examination, submission’ – this is the latest thesis submission date, based on the PGR Manager Submission Due date (column C in the above table).

Section 4 “Extending registration” in the Code of Practice provides details on how your registration is managed if you don’t submit your thesis at either of the above two points. The process will differ, depending on whether you are a continuing student (first registered before 2021-22) or a new student (first registered from 2021-22).

Any suspensions or extensions already taken, or approved to be taken soon, will be factored into the end date calculation. Also see in this guidance the Project history information tab / Managing historical extensions.

Project history

In the Project history tab will be a list, showing the dates taken from the milestones and goals tab, plus a record of when a suspension or extension has been taken.

For future applications, this record will be automatically updated as and when applications are approved through the system’s online workflows.

Managing historical extensions

Where an extension has already been taken, or has already been approved and will be taken soon, and amounts to 1–12 months (of regulatory permitted time) – these will not show in the project history tab.

Where an extension has already been taken, or has already been approved and will be taken soon, and amounts to months 13-24 (of regulatory permitted time) – these will show in the Project history tab.

This is because, in line with how we have changed the process for managing extensions at the end of the standard registration period, months 1-12 will be viewed as being automatically approved and will already have been factored into the thesis submission date (column C). Please see Section 4 “Extending registration” in the Code of Practice for further details.

The Graduate School will have a record of all historical extension information in the SITS student record system and will, for the sake of completeness, manually add the ‘missing’ months 1-12 of extensions onto the student’s project page in PGR Manager. This will be seen in the ‘Notes’ section under the project details. No details will be included, only the dates - this will take a little time, so please bear with us while we work through this, but rest assured your historical details will still be available for us to refer to if necessary.

Please note:

In a small number of cases, where two or more periods of extension have amounted to more than 12 months, we have had to adjust extension dates to allow for the 12-month maximum exclusion in PGR Manager. The actual extension dates will be noted in the ‘Notes’ section under the project details, and the overall sum of extension periods will not change.

Online progress reviews & recordings

Key points to remember for all progress reviews:

The online progress review process has to be started by the student – they will receive a system reminder one month before the due date (10 weeks before for PhD probationary review).
The Code of Practice provides detailed information on the outcomes for Annual and Probationary Reviews.
When the student has submitted their review, the Director of Studies will receive an email ‘task’ from the system, asking them to complete their review – the email will contain a link to enable easy access to the report itself.
Only the Director of Studies is asked to complete the supervisor’s section; they should consult with the other supervisors beforehand so their comments can be read as a combined view of the supervisory team.
As should be the case now, on-going, open and honest communication throughout the year is key to ensuring the content and outcome of reviews are not a surprise to anyone. The online process will be the mechanism to record the progress to-date, not a way to agree what the record should be.
The review process should be a team-based, reflective and planning activity, recording past successes, future aims, existing or potential challenges, issues or concerns - worked through outside the system. The submitted content should honestly and openly record the situation and view of those involved after discussions have been had.
All supervisors will be able to see the student’s project area which will include the progress reviews, change of registration applications, due dates of reviews and other key milestones.

Note: Names included in the following examples are not real students or members of staff. Also, there is a 'Fullscreen' button at the bottom right of each video. Click this to make viewing easier.

Watch recordings!

The recordings use a PhD probationary review as the example, as this will include the thesis panel process. Although MRes students aren't required to undergo probationary review or a thesis panel, the questions and workflows are virtually identical to the annual review, which all students will submit. The three-month and six-month review process will follow a similar workflow seen in the recordings - as with all the reviews, you can see the content in the tabs within this guide.

PhD Probationary review - working through the student form

Probationary review - working through the supervisor, thesis panel chair (at 9 minute point) and Head of Academic Partner (at 14 minute point) forms

Probationary review - viewing the completed submission after GSC review plus viewing a completed suspension application

Three-month progress review

Three-month progress review: List of all questions

The following questions are provided for ease of reference, for when you and your Director of Studies start planning your review. The ‘more detail’ information in the left hand tabs will provide more detailed content on what you will see in the online system.

List of all student questions in the review

Have you had a local induction with your Academic Partner?
Have you met your Director of Studies?
Have you agreed a schedule of supervisory meetings?
Have you discussed your training needs with your Director of Studies?
Have you defined your broad area of research?
Have you begun a literature review?
(for MRes student on credit-bearing module programme) Have you been given information about your taught modules?
(optional) Comments
Have you identified any challenges so far?

List of all supervisor questions in the review

Provide a summary of progress to date
Do you have any concerns that you wish to record at this stage?

Three-month progress review: Student's section in detail

The following material is divided into sections, click on the headings below to expand the content.

Starting the review

Full-time PhD researcher, Ms Anni Daniels, starts the review.

Confirm project details

If changes are requested, a message is sent to the Graduate School Office. This will not hold up the process and the review can continue.

Edit application

Guidance seen in the grey blocks under the questions will be visible by clicking the red ‘I’ button.

Comments

The comments box does not need to be competed for this review, though it can be used for comments/thoughts at this early stage, if required.

Challenges

If the ‘Yes’ button is clicked a dialogue box appears, asking the student to note the challenges.

Submit

Submitting the review will send it to the Director of Studies.

A view of the project page after submission. Note the ‘Status’ info. Also note that, when completing the review, Anni added a casual note and this now appears in the Tasks box.

Three-month progress review: Supervisor's section in detail

The following material is divided into sections, click on the headings below to expand the content.

Supervisor opening screen

Full-time PhD researcher, Ms Anni Daniels, has submitted her section of the review. Note that, when completing the review, Anni added a casual note and this now appears in the Tasks box

The right-hand side of the screen will contain status information, showing where the report is in the workflow and the options available for the task in hand, i.e.:

There will be the option for the Director of Studies to delegate the task (not showing in the image) and this should be used in exceptional circumstances. Only the other members of the supervisory team can be delegated to undertake this task and their names will come up automatically for selection. The task will be moved to the selected colleague, and they will receive a system-generated email with link. Wherever possible, delegation should be tasked to a supervisor who is a UHI staff member, although it’s recognised this may not always be possible and an external supervisor may need to be selected.

Progress: in this context, means ‘Progress with the task’.

Return to research student: see the tab ‘guidance screen’

Application: this section will build up as the report is completed, showing the student, supervisor and Head of AP submissions.

The student's submission

The ‘versions’ entry on the right will record any changes made to the submission, e.g. if the Director of Studies asks the student slightly amend a part of their section, the versions of the different reviews would be saved here, with the latest version being listed first.

Guidance

Seen after ‘Progress’ is clicked from the opening screen. In this context, Progress means to continue the task.

Completing the review

Guidance seen in the grey blocks under the questions will be visible by clicking the red ‘I’ button.

The student selected ‘No’ to some of the questions – these have been fed automatically to the Director of Studies report, so they can comment.

Depending on the subject/discipline, some of the No’s may be entirely reasonable. For example, at this early stage a training needs analysis, or literatire review may not be the right time for the project and/or student. In which case, this can just be noted here. Alternatively, if the student had been asked to start a literature review earlier, this could be an action for this report. A schedule of meetings should be one of the first things agreed, so not havnig done this yet will be a helpful prompt for both parties to ensure this is done asap.

Submit

Submitting the review will send it to the Head of the Acdemic Partner (or agreed senior signatory).

A view of the project page after submission.

Note the ‘Status' info. Also note the inclusion of a casual ‘welcome’ message by the Director of Studies, seen in the Tasks box. Using these casual comment boxes is entirely optional, but have been included here to demonstrate the difference between the casual and formal comments – the latter forming part of the Director of Studies feedback within their section of the review.

Six-month progress review: List of all questions

List of all student questions in the review

Summary of progress to date
Have you identified any challenges since your last review?
Do you wish to make any comment about your supervisory arrangements?
Please summarise your key goals for the next six months
Please record any initial thoughts about defining your research question(s)
Upload thesis plan, timetable & supporting info
Have you considered, or undertaken, a Training Needs Analysis?
Have you considered your application for ethical approval?

List of all supervisor questions in the review

Provide a summary of progress to date
Do you have any concerns that you wish to record at this stage?