How to be My Student
I am grateful to Mary Orban for providing a translation of this page into Slovenian.
Here are some guidelines on being supervised by me for either
a PhD, MPhil, MSc or UG project. They include some obligations
for me and some for you; I will do my bit if you do yours.
- My diary tends to fill up a month in advance. So arrange
meetings well in advance; I am not usually able to meet with you
at short notice. The best way to contact me is with a short
email. If you drop by my office or try to phone me, you are
likely to find that either I am not in or I am busy with someone
else. The time I take to reply to emails is roughly an
exponential function of their length. So several succinct and
focussed emails are more successful than a long rambling one.
- I will appoint at least one second supervisor. The role of
the second supervisor is to provide you with help with tactical
problems, whereas I will maintain a more strategic overview of
your progress.
- Sometimes second supervisors are ex-members of the group who
are no longer members of the School, for instance, because your
project follows on from their own. In this case I will appoint a
local second supervisor as well. Non-local second supervisors
will not always be able to attend meetings, but should be kept in
touch, eg via email. They will help with things such as: getting
their old software working/adapted, reading your drafts,
recommending papers to read, etc.
- Your supervisors will meet with you for 30 mins at regular
intervals. For PhD and MPhil students this is usually every 4
weeks; for MSc and UG students every 2 weeks. Meetings will be
more frequent initially and when closer supervision seems
desirable. They will also be less frequent if circumstances
dictate, eg you are going on holiday. You may also have informal
meetings with your second supervisor(s) between the regular
meetings, eg if you need urgent advice or help with a technical
problem.
- If a meeting has to be postponed then please arrange another
meeting as soon as possible, eg via email.
- The student should ensure that all his/her supervisors are
aware of the time/date of the next supervision meeting,
especially those that were unable to attend the last meeting.
- Sometimes students ask to postpone supervision meetings
because they have not done as much work as they anticipated. This
is when I most want to meet them! The purpose is to find
out why they are behind schedule and to try to put
things right before they get too serious.
- If your work is relevant to my
research group , then you are very welcome to join it. For instance, you can
add yourself to our email list
to get reminders about our weekly DReaM Talks and
DReaM Lunch, which you are welcome to attend. To learn more, read The Ropes.
- You might also be asked to present your work to the research
group in either an informal or formal presentation.
- Whenever possible please supply written material for
discussion at least one day before the meeting. For instance,
this might be a short progress report, a technical note or a
draft dissertation chapter. Longer material, eg draft
dissertation chapters, should be supplied several days in
advance. Material should be supplied to all your
supervisors.
- After a supervision meeting, email a summary of the main
points, especially any actions, to all your supervisors. I will
respond agreeing this is a correct record or noting any omissions
or errors.
- Second or subsequent drafts should always have changebars and
be accompanied by the annotated copies of the previous
draft. This will enable your supervisors to focus their attention
on the corrections and additions, thus making the most effective
use of their supervisory time.
- Be sure to address all comments made on a draft before
submitting the next version for comment. "Addressing" a comment
can include explaining why you decided not to implement the
change suggested.
- Run all written material through a spelling checker and
grammar corrector before submitting it for comments. [Word
provides both. The ispell program is available on DICE.]
Grammar correction is especially useful for non-native English
speakers. This will prevent readers being distracted by minor
errors and enable them to focus their attention on the major
issues. Write your name and the date on your submissions.
- If they get material in good time your supervisors will
attempt to read it before the next supervision meeting.
- Normally your second supervisors will read the first drafts
of your dissertation in the order that you write it and I will
read the second draft in page order. This avoids unnecessary
duplication of effort and ensures that one person reads the whole
dissertation fresh in page order. This helps pick up structural
problems, eg missing or misordered sections.
- The University provides courses on
transferable skills, such as presentations, library use,
paper writing, etc. The School provides a course on
Informatics research methodologies. The UK funding councils
also provide courses on
transferable skills. You are strongly encouraged to take
these courses. Most students who have taken them report a
valuable experience.
- Students doing research degrees should become familiar with
the relevent
University regulations. They should also become familiar with the UK
research Integrity
Office Code
of Practice for Research.
- In principle, students retain any intellectual property
rights arising from their projects. In practice, since project
proposers, supervisors and students doing previous and subsequent
related projects may also have overlapping rights, the IPR
situation is a mess. This mess can prevent effective exploitation
of the research by any of the parties. You are,
therefore, strongly advised to pool your IPR rights with the
other parties involved to facilitate joint exploitation and a
share of any benefits that is proportional to your
contribution. Such pooling is an automatic contractual
consequence for University employees. The University's Edinburgh
Research & Innovation (ERI) has provided a form to enable students to
pool their IPR. You are strongly advised to complete this
form and give it to your supervisor in the early stages of your
project.
- Don't try to hide problems from your supervisors. They are
there to help you. They cannot do this if they are not aware of
the problem. They will not be judgemental but will attempt to
find solutions to any problems that are preventing good progress.
a.bundy@ed.ac.uk