Physics at Lancaster University

Postgraduate research students will be appraised at regular intervals throughout their time at Lancaster. The aim of the process is to help students and their supervisors to identify strengths and weaknesses, and it is in everyone's best interests to complete these forms honestly so that a true judgement can be made on progress to a successful thesis in the remaining time available.

At specific points after registration for a research degree, a new appraisal form will become available and students will be notified by email (see table below).

The form becomes available one month before the due date and 'expires' one month after the due date. This gives a two month period for each appraisal to be completed by the student and their supervisor(s). Please complete the form as soon as possible to give your supervisors time to read and comment on it. If you have any technical problems with the online forms please contact the ISS Service Desk.

Supervisors complete a different but complementary form. After the student has completed their form, one of their supervisors should add a comment to confirm that the student's appraisal has been reviewed. Departmental post-graduate administrators and directors of post-graduate supervision and ultimately the university Post Graduate Studies Office can oversee this process.

Experience shows that regular progress checks often detect potential problems before they become too difficult to tackle. Students are asked to record and comment on many different aspects of their study including their research question, research training, regularity of supervision meetings and so on. All fields prefixed by a bullet symbol () must be answered before the form can be submitted. A form can be saved as draft without all fields being completed.

There are detailed instructions provided on the appraisal web site, so please ensure that you read these carefully prior to starting your appraisal.