Research degrees at Edge Hill are organised and run centrally. The Graduate School is the mechanism by which the University does that.
Who are we?
The Graduate School is a centrally coordinated network of staff working in the service of the University as a whole on research degree matters. That means that most staff are not solely engaged in Graduate School work but have other responsibilities in faculties and departments.
There is, however, also a smaller number of staff with specific dedicated research degree roles that is responsible for the central coordination of the wider Graduate School work.
Postgraduate Researcher (PGR)
Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) registration is in the Graduate School, not the department or faculty in which PGRs are located during their studies. PGRs will be housed in a department or faculty in order to provide them with convenient access to academic staff working in their discipline, and therefore to a relevant subject-specific research culture. In the case of GTAs, the host department or faculty will provide relevant teaching opportunities. The Graduate School, however, is the University’s means for organising and running all elements of research degrees.
The Graduate School is responsible for ensuring PGRs receive appropriate supervision, and for making any changes to supervision as necessary. It is also responsible for ensuring the best possible postgraduate researcher experience and making any alterations to facilitate that. It also oversees training for both PGRs and supervisors, and in doing so ensures the sharing of good practice in accordance with relevant regulations, policies, procedures and guidance.
What we do
In managing research degrees, the Graduate School:
Is responsible for the research degree regulations and all procedural and regulatory documentation in relation to research degrees
Makes decisions regarding extensions, interruptions of study, composition of supervisory teams and examination teams, project registration and progression examination, PGR progress, changes to mode of study, changes of programme.
Manages all administration in relation to the postgraduate researcher experience
Organises all researcher development programme activity for PGRs across all years of registration, along with the central PGR induction
Provides an annual induction for all new supervisors
Is responsible for coordinating the planning, and delivery, of research degree supervisor development
Reviews any, and all, PGR feedback across each academic year from several channels including the Research Degree Representatives
Administers the Graduate School Bursary awards
Provides support and guidance for the University’s PGRcommunity.
Graduate School committees
The Graduate School Board of Studies (GSBoS), which awards research degrees
Research Degrees Sub-committee. Your research degree representatives sit on RDSC.
Application routes
Edge Hill University offers three routes to a research degree: MRes, PhD, and professional doctorate. All applicants registered on these courses are referred to as postgraduate researchers (PGRs) or research degree students.
If you are interested in transferring to Edge Hill University, you can chat with a member of our Graduate School admissions team to explore your options.
Tuition is available for students to develop and enhance their academic writing for the purposes of research. This includes tutorials on developing skills in planning, structuring, the signposting of arguments and matters of clarity. Small group academic writing workshops are run to develop criticality and structure in academic writing for research students.
For those students who are close to completion and are interested in publishing their work, advice is available on writing for publication. If a student is returning to study, after a long break, refreshers in academic writing for the purposes of research are on offer.
These sessions and one-to-ones are run by Dr Craig Collinson. For more information please email: [email protected].
For students undertaking research study leading to the awards of Masters by Research (MRes) and Master or Doctor of Philosophy (MPhil or PhD, respectively). These should be considered in conjunction with the University’s Academic Regulations (and their appendices) of which they are a part
All members of the Edge Hill community – staff and student alike – have a duty and responsibility to act ethically in all aspects of research and to ensure that any research that may require ethical approval be submitted for scrutiny to their Faculty Research Ethics Committee (or Departmental REC in FAS), and approval secured, before any research is conducted.
