What to Expect

PhD Student-Supervisor gives a full guideline of your expectations as student and supervisor
 
Supervisors expect you to:
  1. Display Initiative: Ultimately, the person who drives the process and strives to understand the research area is you. We expect you to be curious about your research and to think about how other people's work and ideas have an impact on what you are doing. In light of this, it is a requirement for you to attend all lab meetings and work in progress discussions, in addition to other seminars.
  2. Develop your skills: You should build on your existing skills and learn new ones by attending the professional skills courses and lectures provided by the Graduate School, departments within the college and by any other external providers.
  3. Keep up with your field: There will often be new work published on your topic, and you will need to stay up to date with the literature in your field.4.
  4. Provide regular reports: You should be diligent about keeping a laboratory notebook and regularly entering all your data into electronic forms for back up and archiving. Your supervisor will want to be kept informed on how you're doing.
  5. Be aware of safety at all times: Follow safety procedures, especially if you are working in a laboratory. For a list of mandatory safety courses for all new PhD students, visit our Health and Safety page.
  6. Understand your funding: If you are receiving funding from a private organisation or a funding body, there may be specific requirements you need to fulfil to maintain your funding. Make sure you know if you need to report your progress, carry out a certain level of public engagement or fulfil another requirement.
  7. Process your expenses claims in a timely manner: It is important that you familiarise yourself with Imperial’s Expenses Policy. After you have incurred an expense, your claim should be submitted as soon as possible to your department. Unless otherwise stated by your department, all claims should be submitted within 3 months but not later than 6 months. If your claim is submitted beyond 6 months, it is likely to be rejected and you will not be reimbursed.   
  8. Be self-critical: Take a detached view of your own work and results and use these skills to be sceptical of results in the wider literature around your subject. For further advice, visit our Self-reflection page.
  9. Collaborate with others: You will be expected to work with colleagues (especially less experienced ones) in the laboratory to learn through discussion and demonstrations.
  10. Share your findings: Take the opportunity to share the findings of your research externally and with the wider College community. 
In return, as a student you can expect your supervisor to:
  1. Be supportive of you both intellectually and personally;
  2.  Set up a viable project and ensure that you have a clear idea of aims and objectives and an initial work-plan;
  3. Provide an adequate work space for you;
  4. Be available (or provide an identified substitute) to talk about research problems at relatively short notice although, at certain times of the year, you may need to give a few days notice;
  5. Help and guide you extensively in your first year; help you in your second year; and be a sounding board in your third year. The help is tapered as you develop confidence in your own abilities and research skills, to enable you to learn to work more on your own and to make more of your own decisions;
  6. Help develop your skills in technical writing, oral presentations, problem definition, statistical data analysis and critical literature reviews. Alternatively, they will identify someone who will be able to help you improve in these areas (you could start with the courses offered by the Graduate School).
  7. Enable you to attend at least one international conference to present a paper;
  8. Provide adequate resources, funds and/or facilities, for your research project;
  9. Read your thesis thoroughly and make constructive comments on both style and intellectual content. 

Together, students and supervisors are expected to:

Stick strictly to the College time-frame which allows a maximum of 4 years between registration and submission of the PhD thesis.

Back to the postgraduate research student handbook