Current Research Students

Who will be my supervisors?
A team of at least two supervisors will be appointed; the main (or ‘subject’) supervisor will be appointed before your registration; the co-supervisor(s) may be appointed after registration, but within the first term of study. Monitoring and review will thus be undertaken by a supervisory team of academics with defined responsibilities. Most supervision teams will consist of two members, but additional supervisors may be appointed where necessary or helpful.

What is my supervisor’s role?

The main or principal supervisor is formally responsible for supervision of the student, with primary responsibility for the student’s academic progress. The main supervisor will be one of the named supervisors and will be the normal point of contact for the student. In the case of interdisciplinary studies, two co-supervisors may have equal responsibility. However, one individual must always be assigned as main point of contact for the student.

A co-supervisor is appointed to provide particular expertise or to support the main supervisor in other defined ways. Co-supervision allows the formal involvement of academics from University of London colleges and from outside the University. It is possible to have more than one co-supervisor where required.

In some cases a Supervisor of Record may be appointed to the supervision team. The Supervisor of Record will usually be the Director, or another member of the academic staff of the institute with appropriate seniority and experience. The Supervisor of Record has formal responsibility for students registered in the institute to ensure that students are properly supervised, that appropriate records are kept and that proper reporting is made within the institute, the School and beyond.

Where a student’s main supervisor does not have an appropriate position in the institute (e.g. if he or she is not a full-time member of the institute’s staff) the Supervisor of Record will be part of that student’s supervisory team and therefore will be one of the named supervisors for the student.

You should maintain contact with your supervisory team through regular personal supervision. It is expected that first year students should meet their main supervisor at least once a fortnight during term time. In subsequent years they should meet at least every four to six weeks. Meetings may take place either in person or via video conference.

You are required to maintain a record of each supervisor meeting by completing a Supervisory Meeting Record form on the SITS System. This is to provide a record and stimulus for regular discussion of the student’s progress and development.  Submission of these reports is a mandatory requirement for all students. Please note that for Tier 4 students these are also used for recording monthly contact points. 

With the exception of distance learning students, students should centre their academic activities on the institute, and are expected to be resident in the UK for the entire period of their research degree. Notwithstanding this requirement, the minimum time a student must be resident in the UK is for the first two years (full time) or first four years (part time). You may wish to spend part of the programme in ‘off-campus’ study in order to carry out research for your thesis on the condition that you keep in regular contact with your supervisory team. Any period spent ‘off-campus’ will count towards your overall registration period and normal fees are payable.  Students should inform research.degrees@sas.ac.uk of any planned time away from campus.

Additionally, students on a Tier 4 visa wishing to spend time ‘off-campus’ should initially contact kate.koblos@sas.ac.uk to discuss the implications of this on your visa.

If for any reason you are unable to attend the required academic activities or maintain contact with your supervisory team you should inform your supervisor and email reseach.degrees@sas.ac.uk. Prolonged absence caused by sickness must be reported to the institute, and medical evidence must be provided.

Your supervisor is responsible for guiding you through your PhD and helping you with any personal or administrative issues.  If this proves unsuitable or there is something you wish to discuss in confidence please contact your Institute Manager in the first instance. If you are uncertain who best to contact then please contact the Doctoral Centre (research.degrees@sas.ac.uk) and we will be able to advise of the appropriate contact details.

The Institute Research Degrees Committee considers twice a year (January and June) the progress being made by research students, to ensure that you are making good progress in your studies, and to identify any problems you are encountering, either collectively or individually. We take our responsibility for monitoring your progress very seriously; and as a research student you are also responsible for keeping us updated.

As well as seeking a report from your supervisor(s), as part of the monitoring process we require students to describe their own progress - to highlight any difficulties encountered, make a note of anything which has gone well, and to set out plans for next steps. 

Your progress reports are the main source of evidence for monitoring progress. The submission of these reports is a mandatory requirement, as part of your degree. For Tier 4 students, non-completion of research progress reports will be classed as a missed contact after 2 missed reports and our support of your visa  will be in jeopardy.

The form should be completed and submitted via the SITS System.

The Doctoral Centre will write to you when it is time to submit your Progress Report. This will be in May and December each academic year in time for the Research Degrees Committees which take place in June and January each year.

Full details can be found in the Research Student Handbook. In order to progress to a second year of study, students will be required, by the end of year 1 (year 2 for PT), to submit to their supervisor(s) a portfolio of work including: 

1. a substantial piece of written work based on original research (particularly in cases where students may not be undertaking primary research such as fieldwork until their second year, a literature review can count as ‘original research’ as long as it demonstrates critical engagement and independent interpretation of the existing literature) and at least equivalent to a chapter in length;
2. a brief outline of the whole thesis;
3. a preliminary bibliography;
4. evidence of research or technical skills development or research methods training course undertaken.

You will need to complete a Progression Assessment Form via the SITS System and submit this to your supervisor along with your written work.

Full details can be found in the Research student Handbook. Normally, the Upgrade takes place at some point between the end of year 1 and the end of year 2 (or years 3 to 4 for part-time students). 

In order to upgrade from MPhil to PhD, students are required to submit:

• a substantial portion of the draft thesis (usually an original chapter of at least 10,000 words) demonstrating capacity for PhD level writing and research;
• a thesis outline setting out the research question or questions to be addressed. Whilst the exact nature of the information provided will depend on discipline, it should typically cover at least the following elements (not necessarily as discrete items):
  • an introduction giving the context of the work;
  • a literature review;
  • a research question and hypothesis;
  • a section on methodology;
  • a plan including indicative chapter headings with a brief synopsis of the content of each chapter together with a timetable for their completion;
  • a bibliography;

This written material will form the basis of discussion for the examination conducted by the Upgrade panel.

You will need to complete an Upgrade Assessment Form and accompanying documentation on the SITS System.

‘Writing up' refers to the stage of the thesis (normally beyond three years' full- time work; six years' part-time) when no new evidence is being gathered and you are close to completion of writing up your research, referencing, etc. If you have completed the required minimum period of study, not exceeded the maximum period, gathered all your evidence and completed a full first draft of your thesis, then you can apply to transfer to 'writing up status'. The application requires the assent and signature of your supervisor. No student can transfer to writing up without having first upgraded.

You must have completed all experimental work or collection of materials and, in the judgement of your supervisor, be in a position to submit your thesis for examination within 12 months. This means that for the following 12 months (for both full time and part-time students) you remain eligible for supervision, although meetings are likely to be less regular during this period, and you can use the normal School facilities for a reduced fee. This fee is called ‘PhD Writing Up Fee’ and the current rate can be found on the tuition fees page. The fee is payable for a full year and a pro-rata rate is not available.

To obtain this status you should submit an application for approval by the relevant RDC Chair. The form can be found on the forms and documents page. You are advised to apply for this status in good time as retrospective applications are not permitted. Once approved the change of status will become effective at the start of the forthcoming term. Apply via SITS on the SITS System.

Full details can be found in the Research Student Handbook.

SAS requires all students undertaking a research degree to comply with the research ethics policy and, ideally, submit an assessment form some time during their first year of study.  The policy and guidance is available on the research ethics page.

The policy is there to ensure that your research complies with the University’s ethical duties, and to safeguard our researchers particularly when studying ‘sensitive’ topics.  All students are required to self-assess topics and methodology against the ethics guidelines, and to submit a form detailing this self-assessment to the Research Ethics Committee, as fully explained in the research ethics policy.

Students must also complete the Research Ethics Module available on Study Online. Research students must complete the self-assessment and submit their ethics form before undertaking primary research and before their upgrade interview.

Over the course of a doctoral programme, a research student is expected to take approximately 30 days of training. To serve as a cumulative log during your studies and to help us track your progress towards this goal, you should maintain records of any training, formal or informal, which you have undertaken during your studies. This may include but is not limited to: 

• Training courses or sessions you have attended or completed online. Please include personal development training (e.g. ‘how to write an academic cv’), as well as discipline-specific training, or language or IT training
• Other skills development. Examples include delivering a paper at a seminar, organizing an event, attending a conference.

You can upload your training events on the SITS System.

The SAS Doctoral Centre is responsible for an extensive programme of free research training taught in live or recorded sessions by staff from across the School and a selection of external tutors, and is available to all our students. We offer well-established discipline-specific research training (most notably in history, law, English, modern languages and music) as well as in specialist areas (palaeography, book history, Renaissance culture, medieval manuscript studies).The programme also includes the SAS research student conference, which provides research students with the opportunity to develop and receive feedback on their research and presentation skills.   Full details of the programme are on the research training page. Please contact the Head of Research Training, Kremena Velinova (kremena.velinova@sas.ac.uk), if you have any questions or feedback about the programme.

Besides these resources within the School itself, SAS is a member of the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN), a shared skills training programme that enables research students in participating institutions to attend training sessions at other member institutions, including UCL, KCL, Birkbeck and SOAS. SAS students are encouraged to take advantage of the free training available via BPSN.

The School is also a member of the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP), which offers a free programme of arts and humanities training. This training is open to all SAS research students, although priority is given to LAHP-funded students where courses are oversubscribed.

Many other sources of training for researchers are available from other providers and agencies, often for free or comparatively cheaply (for example on online learning platforms such as Coursera and FutureLearn).

Study Online (the School’s Virtual Learning Environment) also hosts a number of tutorials aimed at developing your research knowledge and skills in relation to subjects such as research ethics and sharing your research in the digital world. The School is launching a new public research training platform (RESHAPED) this academic year with a range of cross-disciplinary and  discipline-specific online training courses and resources. You will receive further details of how to access the new platform in autumn 2023

Many of the institutes provide specialised research training in subjects and techniques specific to their discipline. . Your Institute should inform you of training available for their own students but in most cases you’ll also be able to attend training offered by other Institutes which should be listed in the cross SAS events calendar.

A multiplicity of online research training is available elsewhere:

• Vitae is a national organisation that exists to 'realise the potential of researchers' and offers lots of online advice and guidance, plus occasional face-to-face training opportunities, to researchers at all levels. There is a particular emphasis on employability and careers, which you might find helpful.
• Birkbeck offers online training and its packages on research ethics, for instance, are especially helpful.

We are happy to add to the list above. Please email research.degrees@sas.ac.uk if you come across anything you think might be useful for others.

Dr Matthew Coneys – an experienced academic writer, editor and tutor – offers one-to-one and small-group tutorials for SAS students in which students can discuss any aspects of their academic writing. Topics typically discussed including difficulties structuring an argument, difficulties with planning and editing a long piece of writing, issues with grammar and sentence structure, and questions of style and writing convention in UK academia. All group and individual sessions are free of charge, and registration and booking details will be sent to all SAS students at the start of the academic year. 

Typical problems discussed in tutorials include the following: struggling to start writing after a long period of research – being overwhelmed by one’s materials; difficulties with editing down an overlong piece of work; difficulties structuring an argument; not knowing how to write an effective introduction or conclusion; difficulties with ‘flow’ – getting from one paragraph to another; planning and organisation – leaving things too late, uncertainty about how to plan a piece of written work, not leaving enough time for drafting; questions of grammar and punctuation – apostrophes, semicolons and commas; questions of style – overuse of academic jargon, overcomplicated sentence structure, lack of clarity. The range of questions which can be discussed is as broad as students want it to be: there is no restriction on the kind of work that may be brought to a tutorial: it might be a thesis or a dissertation, or it might be a funding application, a letter or a presentation. What Dr Coneys does not do is proofread or correct students’ work, and they have no expertise in dealing with dyslexia or EFL.

We are pleased to be able to offer free language training via King's College London. This is offered to all students at institutions (such as SAS) that are members of the AHRC's London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP). Please note that you do not need to be LAHP funded to take advantage of this excellent opportunity.

Languages offered include: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish at a variety of levels of expertise.

For further information please visit: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/language-centre/collaborations/dtp

Please note the deadline for applications is Friday 29th September 2023.

In the first instance you should check with your Institute (either via your supervisor or your Institute Manager) to find out whether there is any funding support available. Funded students are able to access a limited amount of funding – please contact Rachel Shaw, Doctoral Centre Manager to discuss further.

The hardship fund will also consider requests for conference funding on an ongoing basis, particularly for self-funded students who are finding it difficult to cover the costs of conferences, training, equipment etc. Download the PDF.

A number of subject associations also offer bursaries for conference attendance so it is also worth exploring external funding sources, although these will normally require significant advance planning.

Hardship Fund

The University of London recognises that some students are experiencing financial hardship at unprecedented levels. A fund has been established to assist in providing discretionary financial assistance for all students regardless of programme, mode, or fee status to meet extra costs that cannot be met from other sources of support. You can apply for help from the grant at any time during the academic year. Grants are non-repayable. Grant applications are capped at £3,000. Students will usually make one application a year but in severe hardship situations a second application may be made.

An application form with further details can be found via this PDF.

Completed forms should be sent to SAS.Registry@sas.ac.uk

With the exception of distance learning students, students should centre their academic activities on the institute, and are expected to be resident in the UK for the entire period of their research degree. Notwithstanding this requirement, the minimum time a student must be resident in the UK is for the first two years (full time) or first four years (part time). You may wish to spend part of the programme in ‘off-campus’ study in order to carry out research for your thesis on the condition that you keep in regular contact with your supervisory team. Any period spent ‘off-campus’ will count towards your overall registration period and normal fees are payable.  Students should inform research.degrees@sas.ac.uk of any planned time away from campus.

Additionally, students on a Tier 4 visa wishing to spend time ‘off-campus’ should initially contact kate.koblos@sas.ac.uk to discuss the implications of this on your visa.

If for any reason you are unable to attend the required academic activities or maintain contact with your supervisory team you should inform your supervisor and email reseach.degrees@sas.ac.uk. Prolonged absence caused by sickness must be reported to the institute, and medical evidence must be provided.

The normal minimum period of full-fee registration in the School shall be three years full-time for PhD and two years full-time for MPhil, or the equivalent in part-time study. 

The normal maximum period of study for PhD, including interruptions, will be six years for full time, and nine years for part time students. A student’s period of registration may only be extended beyond the maximum years through successful application to the AQSC. In such instances the maximum period of registration may only be extended for a period of one academic year at a time to a maximum period of no more than seven years for full time and ten years for part time students. 

An Interruption of Studies request should be made when you need to interrupt your studies for personal, financial or medical reasons. No fees are paid during this period. Your registration is effectively suspended and the completion clock stops, although please note interruptions are counted towards your maximum period of study. 

Students with scholarships need to check whether any conditions are imposed by the funding body with respect to Interruption, for example, whether payments will resume on return from an Interruption and whether payments continue past the original end date of the scholarship. 

Students with visa restrictions need to seek specific advice from the Registry Office before making an Interruption of Studies request, as a change of location may affect their ability to remain in the UK.

To obtain this status you should discuss this initially with your supervisor and then submit an application to research.degrees@sas.ac.uk for review and approval. The form can be found available online via the forms and documents page. You are advised to apply for this change in good time as retrospective applications are not permitted. Once approved the change of status will become effective at the start of the forthcoming term.

Students are also entitled to apply for parental leave following the same process as above. There is a specific parental leave form which can also be found via the forms and documents page.

Funded students should check the specific conditions and policy relating to parental leave with their funding body.  For assistance or any questions relating to this please email research.degrees@sas.ac.uk.

With the exception of distance learning students, students should centre their academic activities on the institute, and are expected to be resident in the UK for the entire period of their research degree. Notwithstanding this requirement, the minimum time a student must be resident in the UK is for the first two years (full time) or first four years (part time). You may wish to spend part of the programme in ‘off-campus’ study in order to carry out research for your thesis on the condition that you keep in regular contact with your supervisory team. Any period spent ‘off-campus’ will count towards your overall registration period and normal fees are payable.  Students should inform research.degrees@sas.ac.uk of any planned time away from campus.

Additionally, students on a Tier 4 visa wishing to spend time ‘off-campus’ should initially contact kate.koblos@sas.ac.uk to discuss the implications of this on your visa.

Any queries regarding your visa should be directed to kate.koblos@sas.ac.uk

Please see the detailed information in the Research Student Handbook (p.27)  for further information and guidance on how to present your thesis.

Please note that you no longer need to submit a physical copy of your thesis and there is no requirement to print or bind your thesis unless your examiners specifically request this. If your examiners ask for this we will contact you to request this.

If you wish to print your thesis please see guidance in the Research Student Handbook which includes a list of binders.

The University Regulations for the Degrees of MPhil and PhD prescribe a maximum word limit of 60,000 words for the MPhil degree and 100,000 words for the PhD degree. In both cases this length includes footnotes, but excludes the bibliography and any appendices. The appendices should only include material which examiners are not required to read in order to examine the thesis, but to which they may refer if they wish. Further details can be found in the University regulations.  

In exceptional circumstances may a student apply for permission to exceed the word limit (normally up to a maximum of 10% over the word limit).  Where a large amount of original and translated texts is included in the main text of the thesis or footnotes (more than 200 words of translated text in total), it will also be possible to seek permission to increase the word count by up to 5000 words. 

This must be made at least six months in advance of submission of the thesis and must be fully supported by the supervisor.

There is currently no definitive school guide to referencing because particular referencing styles are preferred by different academic disciplines as they work better with the kind of texts that are most commonly used in that discipline. 

The most common schemes use either an author-date system within the text, or footnotes.

Depending on which referencing style you use there are many sources of guidance available. 

Senate House library has an introductory guide to referencing and the most common styles which may be helpful.

Your supervisor and Institute will be able to provide you with further information and guidance as to the preferred style for your discipline, and we recommend discussing this with your supervisor near the beginning of your studies.

Approximately six months before you intend to submit your thesis, you should begin the process of entering for examination. You should start by discussing this with your supervisor(s) and then completing the Examination Entry forms.  

At least four months before you plan to submit your theses you will need to log in to the SITS online system and complete the examination entry form.  You will need to complete the form itself and upload two further forms at the point of entering for the exam.

Forms can be found on the forms and documents page.

• Reproduction of Thesis Form
• Description of Thesis Form

If you wish to request an extension you should discuss this with your supervisor and send an email to research.degrees@sas.ac.uk. The request will be forwarded to the Research Degrees Committee for their decision.

Your main supervisor will be responsible for nominating your examiners.  Usually one is external to the University of London, whilst the other will in most cases be internal, i.e. an individual from SAS or a member institution of the Federation of UoL. An independent Chair will also be appointed. 

Yes, if you would like to request reasonable adjustments during your viva you should inform us at the time of your exam entry.  We will liaise with your examiners to ensure that any reasonable adjustments are made.

When you are ready to submit your final thesis for examination you should log into SITS and complete the thesis submission form.  You will also need to complete and upload the following forms: (forms and documents page.)

• Word Count Form (also needs to be signed by your supervisor)
• Abstract Form

You will need to email your thesis to research.degrees@sas.ac.uk.  The file will likely be too large to send as an email attachment so you can use a file sharing option such as Google Drive or WeTransfer.  The research degrees office will check everything is correct and forward your thesis directly to your examiners.  They will be able to download an electronic copy of your thesis to prepare for your exam. 

You should submit your thesis electronically by the deadline.  If this falls during the weekend or during office closure periods then it will be checked as soon as the office reopens and we will contact you to confirm receipt. 

We recommend you send a link to your thesis rather than via email.  You could use Google docs/One Drive or a file sharing app such as WeTransfer.

In rare cases it may be necessary to delay the release of a thesis to the public by applying for an embargo. Reasons for requesting an embargo may include:‌ you plan to publish your thesis and your intended publisher prohibits the Open Access publication of your thesis (please note, this is increasingly rare and evidence may be requested); it contains commercially or politically sensitive research, or research with confidentiality obligations.

To apply for an embargo, please use the form available online here. Please carefully review the notes at the start of the form, and arrange for your supervisor to approve this before emailing the completed form to research.degrees@sas.ac.uk.

Please note that requests for an embargo are subject to approval by the School of Advanced Study. You may be asked to provide further details and supporting evidence to support your request.

Your supervisor will liaise with you and your examiners to arrange a mutually agreeable time and place for your viva examination. It normally takes place within two or three months of thesis submission although the wait can be considerably longer depending on the availability of the examiners and their other commitments.

Your viva may take place in person (normally in Senate House), online via video conference or sometimes a mixture of the two.  This will depend on the location and availability of you and your examiners and of course your preferences.

You should not contact your examiners directly prior to or after the oral examination.  Contact with the examiners is through your supervisor(s) and the Doctoral Centre. It is possible that your examiners may contact you directly after the examination to discuss any corrections, in which case you should of course respond.  If you happen to meet one of your examiners incidentally at a conference for example this is not an issue but you should refrain from using the opportunity to discuss your exam or ask for feedback on any part of your work that forms part of your PhD.

After the viva, the examiners will complete a joint report and will make a recommendation. Their decision will normally be communicated to you by the Doctoral Centre within four weeks of the viva taking place.  You will have the opportunity to read the joint report provided by the examiners. 

If you have been asked to submit amendments you will be given a deadline by which to complete them and be given instructions on who to send them to once they are completed.

We do not have a strict percentage as to how much of your thesis can be published, but the key guidance from our regulations is as follows:

The thesis must be an integrated whole and present a coherent argument; A series of papers, whether published or otherwise, is not acceptable for submission as a thesis. Research work already published, or submitted for publication, at the time of submission of the thesis, either by the candidate alone or jointly with others, may be included in the thesis. The published papers themselves may not be included in the body of the thesis, but may be adapted to form an integral part of the thesis and thereby make a relevant contribution to the main theme of the thesis.

This means that it is no issue to include research already published (as long as this research has not been used for a previous qualification) in your thesis, but the important thing is to ensure that your thesis is not just a collection of previously published papers/chapters (unless studying for the PhD by Publication) and that it functions as an integrated whole, which will likely require some adaptation of previously published work. You may also want to make sure the publisher of your work is happy for research you publish with them be included in your thesis, particularly as it is a requirement for all PhD theses to be made available in our open access repository, SAS Space. Most publishers are aware of this, and it is unlikely to be an issue. It is also good practice to reference your previously published work, for example by using a footnote to explain.

You should contact your supervisor and research.degrees@sas.ac.uk to request an extension.  This would have to be approved by the relevant Research Degrees Committee and your examiners.

Once your amendments have been approved, the Doctoral Centre will confirm this and send you instructions on what to do next.  You will be asked to send the final copy of the thesis to the Doctoral Centre and to upload the thesis to SAS Space.

Following receipt of your final thesis to the Doctoral Centre and the upload to SAS Space you will receive an email confirming your final outcome from the Doctoral Centre. The email will state the official date of conferral of the degree.

You should submit your final e-thesis to the Doctoral Centre via research.degrees@sas.ac.uk and upload it to SAS Space (full details will be sent to you).

The Diploma Office will be sent details of your award and you should receive your certificate within approximately 6 months of the outcome.

Graduation ceremonies take place in February each year and you will be invited to the appropriate ceremony by the Events Office with full details on how to book tickets.

If you pass your examination, you can use the title Doctor as soon as you have received the email confirming your final award.

For one year after the official completion date of your degree, you can claim the status of ‘alumnus fellow’ of the institute from which you have graduated.  This allows you to retain your SAS email address and have access to the library, shared study spaces and careers.

All students can access an initial 6 hours of counselling funded by the School, this is a confidential service which is provided on site at Senate House. Please contact the Disability & Student Wellbeing Adviser in the first instance.

Our Disability & Student Wellbeing Adviser provides a safe, confidential and non-judgmental space in which students can discuss any issues that may be affecting your ability to study. This encompasses: any personal or emotional challenges you may be experiencing; mental health such as anxiety or depression or disability such as dyslexia or a long-term health condition.

To arrange an appointment or for advice please contact the Disability & Student Wellbeing Adviser, Katie Wood at student.wellbeing@sas.ac.uk.

Please note that our Disability & Student Wellbeing Adviser does not offer emergency support.

If you are feeling distressed and need urgent support:

• Contact your GP surgery to request an emergency appointment
• If your GP surgery isn't open, call the free NHS out-of-hours medical line on 111 and they will help you access the right services
• You can call the Samaritans on 116 123 to talk to someone at any time, day or night
• Nightline are available overnight and can help students across London, call them on +44 (0) 207 631 0101

If you are in immediate danger of hurting yourself or others:

• Go directly to the Accident & Emergency (A&E) department of your local hospital to get help
• University College Hospital is the nearest A&E department to the SAS buildings
• Call 999 to request an ambulance if you are unable to reach the hospital yourself

Further information and advice can be found on the health and wellbeing page.