Recording meetings with your supervisor(s) is compulsory for all postgraduate research students.  Supervisory meetings are important as they provide an opportunity to obtain feedback from your supervisors on the direction of your research and also on any written work you may have produced.  They allow problems to be identified at an early stage so that they can be rectified in a timely manner. 

Maintaining records of these meetings helps foster good professional practice for early career researchers and ensures that notes and documents are easily accessible to you and your supervisory team.  The records also provide a useful record of progress and agreed actions for both yourself and your supervisors.

Recording Meetings or ‘Formal Interactions’

The Code of Practice requires all students to maintain a record of all supervisory meetings or ‘formal interactions’ on the NU Reflect system.  ‘Formal interactions’ are described as ‘a structured meeting whereby student and supervisor(s) engage in a meaningful discussion, e.g. discuss a piece of work and agree on an action plan’.  Meetings can take place in person, or at a distance (for example via Skype, if a student is away on fieldwork). 

Instructions on how to record meetings on NU Reflect system are available on the following website: https://reflect.ncl.ac.uk

It is recommended that you initiate the meeting record, including notes of the outcomes and action points.  Your supervisors can then add to the notes of the meeting to clarify any misunderstandings or omissions before confirming the meeting record.  Alternatively, it is possible for your supervisors to initiate the recording of meetings in NU Reflect system, if that is their preferred practice.

You can view the status of meetings that have been recorded in the ‘Meetings’ tab on NU Reflect system to see if they have been confirmed by your supervisor.

If your supervisor fails to confirm your meetings, you should follow this up with them directly or with your school office in the first instance. If this does not work, please contact your Graduate School who will then contact your supervisor directly, and if necessary speak to your school office and PGR Director.

Frequency of Meetings

The Code of Practice sets out the minimum requirements for student/supervisor contact.  The University requires that research students maintain regular contact with supervisors.

As a minimum, full-time students should have:

• Regular contact with their supervisory team at least ten times a year, approximately monthly, with no more than an eight-week gap between meetings, while they are in candidature until submission of their thesis.
• Regular contact with each member of their supervisory team, on at least three occasions each year. 
• At least one meeting each year should be held with the full supervisory team to discuss the research student’s academic and personal progress, normally in advance of the research student’s annual progress review. 

When completing the Learning Agreement, the research student and supervisor/s should discuss the arrangements for the regular contact, including who is responsible for organising these.

• Part-time students and those studying their programme away from an approved campus, should have regular contact with their supervisory team and should discuss and agree the number of formal interactions with their supervisory team as part of their Learning Agreement, ensuring there is no more than a 10-week gap between meetings.

Student Visa Holders

There is an additional requirement for Student Visa Holders to record and confirm the outcomes of their regular supervisory meetings while under examination through to completion of their studies.  This is a condition of their visa sponsorship. These meeting records and outcomes may be requested by the Home Office, as part of the University’s sponsorship duties.  For further information about how meeting records are used as part of the Attendance Engagement process, please see the  Attendance Engagement page.

Students Working Off Campus

If you are working off campus for a period, to undertake fieldwork or a placement for example, you are still required to maintain contact with your supervisors and to record formal interactions in the NU Reflect system.  Prior to leaving the campus, you should agree with your supervisors how you will maintain contact, whether this will be via detailed email exchanges or Skype conversations.   All students working off campus must also complete an ‘Application for Outside Study’.  Further information about this process can be found on the Changes of Circumstances page, under 'Study outside the University'.

Confidentiality

Only you and your supervisors can see notes and uploaded files, except under exceptional circumstances such as appeals, complaints or if there is a specific legal requirement. For quality assurance purposes, School Administrators and Graduate School staff will be able to see the dates, venue and attendees of meetings for students in their respective Schools and Faculties, but not the notes or uploaded files.