CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS
General Information
Graduate Studies
Forms
Graduate Studies Prospectus
MPLS Code of Practice on the Supervision of Graduate Students
MPLS Division Noticeboard
Noticeboard of useful information from the MPLS division, including graduate studies handbook, graduate lecture lists and graduate school.
MPLS Graduate Handbook
Chemistry Graduate Handbook
MPLS Skills Training
Statement of Provision for Graduate Research Students
University Policy on Intellectual Property
University Skills Portal
Information about skills development opportunities for research students and
research staff at Oxford.
Induction procedures
Please see here for induction details.
Research conduct
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Manual
Safety information
Chemistry Procedures
There are certain milestones that all graduate students need to
attain in the course of their postgraduate career before they may
submit a thesis for consideration for the award of the DPhil. The
following paragraphs outline the procedure adopted by the Department
of Chemistry, together with some related important information.
- You will have been admitted as a Probationer Research Student
(PRS). Towards the end of your first year your progress will be
reviewed and a recommendation will be made to the Mathematics
and Physical Sciences (MPS) Division as to whether you should
be permitted to transfer to DPhil student status. Our procedure
is as follows:
- Your supervisor submits termly reports through the Graduate Supervision System (GSS). He/she will discuss these reports with you. If the
reports do not indicate satisfactory progress, you may be
called for a formal interview with the Head of Department
or the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) of your sub-department.
- Assuming satisfactory progress with your research, towards
the end of your first year, you will be required to submit
a completed form GSO.2 (available
here; this needs the signature of your supervisor and
a college officer) and a written report on your research work
(details of the required format vary). This report should
outline your work to date and plans for future research. You
should add to the report a list of seminars and lectures you
have attended: these need not have taken place exclusively
in your own laboratory, and should not be restricted narrowly
to your own area of research. You should ensure that your
supervisor has a copy of the report. He/she will be asked
to make comments on your work, and for a recommendation as
to whether you should be permitted to proceed to DPhil status.
- You will be orally examined (usually by staff members of
your laboratory) at a time to be arranged, normally in September,
although it may be held earlier. You will be expected to be
able to demonstrate a sound background knowledge in your field
of research, to explain the work you have undertaken so far,
and outline your plans for future research.
- On the basis of your report, your supervisor’s recommendation,
and that of the assessing panel, the Head of Sub-Department
or DGS will decide whether you will be permitted to transfer
to DPhil status, and will inform you of the decision in writing.
If the recommendation is not favourable, you will be permitted one further application for transfer to D. Phil. status after a sufficient period of time, normally three months. Your
DGS will give you a clear indication of the areas in which
the panel finds your work or background knowledge to be unsatisfactory.
You must remedy these deficiencies within the allotted
period. The panel that carried out the review will have the
authority to recommend either that you should be allowed to
transfer to DPhil or MSc status, or that you would be best advised to withdraw from the course. If you do not accept the recommendation of the panel then the University’s
procedure for the removal of graduate students from the Register, as set out in the Examination Regulations will be followed.
- All doctoral students are required to apply for Confirmation
of DPhil Status within nine terms (but no sooner than six) of
their admission as a graduate student (usually PRS) of the University.
The process enables the student to have an assessment of his or
her work by one or more assessors, normally other than the supervisor(s),
and this is clearly an important indication that, if the work
on the thesis continues to develop satisfactorily, then consideration
of submission within the course of two further terms would appear
to be reasonable. Detailed procedures vary between sub-departments, but the Confirmation of DPhil Status process will
generally involve, in addition to completing a form GSO.14 (available
here; this needs the signature of your supervisor and a college
officer) producing a short report on the work carried out to date,
along with plans for completing the thesis. The specific procedures
for appeals against unfavourable outcomes at the Confirmation
of Status application stage will be set out by the individual
Directors of Graduate Studies in the sub-departments.
- In addition, at some point during their third year, DPhil students
are expected to make a short (e.g. 20 minute) presentation to
their sub-department or other forum on their research.
- You should submit your DPhil thesis by the end of your
12th term at the latest.
- Further information on the University’s procedures for
transfer and confirmation of status can be found in the MPS Division’s
Graduate Handbook (Notes for the Guidance of Graduate Students),
and in the University’s Examination Regulations, both of
which you should have been given soon after you arrived. If any
of the above is unclear, please contact your DGS (see Directors
of Graduate Study).
- Each sub-department has specific procedures for handling complaints
and appeals. In the first instance you may informally approach
(in strict confidence) either your DGS or your Head of Sub-Department
or his deputy. Formal complaints procedures are summarised in
the Division’s Graduate Handbook and given in detail in
the Examination Regulations.
- The Graduate Joint Consultative Committee and more generally the Chemists
Joint Consultative Committee (CJCC) exists as a forum through
which graduate views and feedback can be provided to the Faculty.
- All EPSRC sponsored students must attend a one-week Graduate
Training Course in either their second or third year. In addition,
for EPSRC sponsored students, it is also a requirement that they complete a total
of 6 weeks of transferable skills training during the course of
their DPhil.
Procedures for Organic Chemistry
Transfer of Status from PRS to DPhil Student
Transfer of status interviews are normally carried out by current year's Organic Chemistry Part II examiners. The students are asked to submit three copies of a bound report in the beginning of Septmeber. Transfer of Status vivas in 2012 will be held in week beginning 24 September. The students are asked not to plan holidays during that week.
The report should include a short description of the aims of your project and its context, a summary of your progress to date, and a plan of your intended future work. This section must be no more than 5 standard A4 pages long. In addition to this section, it is a requirement for transfer of status that you provide evidence that all the compounds you have prepared are properly characterised and therefore you must include in the report a complete experimental section to accompany the chemistry described therein. Finally, you should also append a list of seminars, lectures and conferences that you have attended during your probationary year.
Confirmation of DPhil Student Status
Students are asked to submit a complete GSO14 form by the end of the 9th term at the lastest.
Other requirements
At the end of their third year all DPhil students in Organic
Chemistry are expected to present their work at an annual Graduate
Symposium (see NOTICE BOARD). Each
presentation lasts approximately 20 min, with up to 5 min allowed
for questions from the audience and students generally use PowerPoint
for the purpose.
These activities, along with report writing, presentations at
group meetings, completing the requirements for transfer and confirmation
of status etc., build up a portfolio of skills that students acquire
during the course of their studies. As part of the University’s
drive to formalise and enhance the opportunities available for
graduate students to gain transferrable (or ‘broadening’)
skills, the MPS Division aims to make available a ‘skills
portal’ that will ease access to training possibilities
available locally and nationally (see Other links).
Procedures for Inorganic Chemistry
Note: although a number of students in Inorganic
Chemistry are physically based in the new Chemistry Research Laboratory
(CRL), and occasionally elsewhere, the following procedures apply
to all students registered under the ICL
Transfer of Status from PRS to DPhil Student.
Current procedures for Transfer of Status from PRS to DPhil
Student in Inorganic Chemistry may be downloaded *here*
Confirmation of DPhil Student status.
Current procedures for Confirmation of DPhil student status
in Inorganic Chemistry may be downloaded *here*
Graduate society
Catalyst is a
society for postgraduates in Chemistry at the University of Oxford
that has been formed in order to promote interactions between postgraduate
students, post-doctoral workers and members of staff, and to further
their academic and social interests.
Other links
Chemistry Departmental Colloquia
Complaints and Appeals Procedures
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