Good Practices for DRPC

The Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee can greatly assist the University in its role of monitoring the standards of research postgraduate education in the department, and in ensuring that the research postgraduate process is smooth and efficient by undertaking the following:

Admission and Registration

a) To monitor the general suitability of students seeking admission to the department insisting that, whenever possible, prospective students be interviewed and introduced to the department and prospective supervisors so that all concerned may make informed choices.

It is not usually possible to interview non-local applicants in Hong Kong although it may sometimes be possible to arrange for a member of staff to meet applicants in their home city or other convenient location; this is especially easy for applicants from the Mainland China. Students who are in Hong Kong should be given an opportunity to meet as many members of the staff of the department as possible, if they do not already know them, to ensure that they can make an informed choice about the subject area in which they will work and the character and interests of the supervisor(s) to whom they will be assigned.

b) To assist in complying with the University's expectation that a decision on a student's application shall normally be made within one month of the receipt of a formal application.

Please remain in close touch with the Faculty or the Graduate School over the progress of an application once it has been forwarded by the department.

c) To ensure that exemptions from the University's admissions requirements are sought and that students are prima facie qualified to undertake the research proposed.

Departments and Faculties can impose more stringent requirements than the University's minimum, e.g. demanding additional qualifications, academic transcripts, references or other evidence of a student's ability, but all should be aware that the imposition of such additional conditions may seriously delay the admission of a student. Students should not be permitted to register on the condition that certain formal qualifications are gained during the probationary period: students will have more than enough to do working on their research in this year and failure of students to comply with such conditions may result in their candidature lapsing thus wasting their time and money, the University's limited resources, and jeopardizing the University's reputation through poor completion rates. Exemptions from any necessary English language requirements e.g. TOEFL or IELTS, are not permitted without the specific permission of the Board of Graduate Studies.

d) To insist that, other than in exceptional cases, students seeking to read for the degree of PhD who do not already possess a Master's degree register first for the degree of MPhil.

By such insistence the department and the University both gain some protection against enrolling students who may prove to be unequal to the demands of doctoral study. A candidate whose candidature has been confirmed and who has satisfactorily completed all coursework requirements may be permitted to transfer the candidature from MPhil to PhD. There is also a better guarantee of ultimate doctoral success if it can be determined that the Masters degree of students applying for direct registration for the degree of PhD has included an element of research training and a research thesis or dissertation.

e) To consider organizing an annual induction for all new students to introduce them to the facilities available in the department and the faculty.

Such programmes can supplement the Induction Programme organized at University level by the Graduate School and are an excellent way of getting new students off to a good start in their work as well as introducing them to their fellow students and to academic staff other than their supervisors.

Supervisors

f) To ensure that supervisors are suitably qualified and sufficiently expert to supervise the research of the students assigned to them and that there is reasonable expectation of compatibility between them.

Where co-supervision is envisaged, the Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee should be satisfied that there is a reasonable expectation of the supervisors being able to work together. Assessing the likely compatibility between students and their supervisors is difficult at this early stage but is likely to be an important precondition for successful completion.

g) To ensure that the overall workload of the supervisors is such that they can provide proper supervision and that this is kept under review.

The Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee should take into account the number of supervisees under a teacher's supervision before recommending that the teacher concerned take on more supervision. This is to ensure that sufficient attention could be given to the students concerned, without overloading the teacher.

Supervision

h) To ensure that students receive immediate supervision on registration and that there is subsequent continuity of supervision especially if it is anticipated that supervisors may be absent for an extended period.

Students should not be registered if their intended supervisor is absent from Hong Kong or otherwise unable to commence supervision immediately; an inadequately guided start to a student's work will inevitably result in delayed completion and may disadvantage the student financially. Co-supervision permits another to take over responsibility in the absence of the principal supervisor without having to familiarize themselves with the student and the work. Supervisors appointed in an acting or temporary capacity may not be able to bring to a student's supervision the degree of familiarity or commitment that the student deserves.

i) To monitor the relationship between students and supervisors so that conflicts can be identified promptly and the appropriate steps taken to resolve or manage them.

Through six-monthly progress reports from the supervisors and the candidates, and through contacts with both parties, the Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee can monitor the relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee, to help detect whether informal intervention is needed before the problem affects progress.

j) To encourage supervisors, whether novice or experienced, to participate in training workshops designed to enhance their professional skills and effectiveness.

The Graduate School and the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching have instituted workshops and seminars from which both experienced and inexperienced supervisors can benefit; the former sharing their skills and insights with the latter. This is an important, but normal, process of staff development.

k) To encourage within their Department an intellectual climate that encourages both students and supervisors to engage in free and lively discourse and provide them with opportunities to discuss publicly their own research findings.

According to the Degree Procedures, candidates should be encouraged to give one or more seminars on the subject of their course of study and research. Departmental seminars organized for research students provide them with the vital stimulus to benefit their research. Apart from generating a feeling of "belonging" amongst students, their experience of presenting their work and ideas in public is invaluable and coincidentally ensures that the department as a whole is aware of all its research directions and commitments.

Facilities and Resources

l) To ensure that the resources available to the department are sufficient to meet the needs of students' research proposals and that students have adequate access to these resources and are not promised more than is available.

In some disciplines, especially those which are laboratory-based, research postgraduate students can be significant consumers of resources other than staff time. Every attempt must be made to ensure that the research undertaken by students is not only appropriate in character and scope for the degree concerned but that it is also feasible in terms of their own expertise and the resources available in the department to which they will be granted access. Students should not be promised facilities or resources that cannot be provided within a time scale appropriate to their research proposal or their scheme of research. This is especially important if access to libraries and archives or if field work is to be undertaken abroad; the department must undertake to provide the necessary support before permitting a student to register on the basis of a research proposal to which such work is crucial.

Progress and Reporting

m) The Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee should, in addition to commenting on supervisors' reports, provide such information as is necessary to the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee and the Board of Graduate Studies to ensure that these bodies are kept aware of problems with the progress of students or other difficulties.

Apart from the comments that they are required to make on supervisors' reports to the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee, the Departmental Research Postgraduate Committees are bound to refer to the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee serious problems that they have been unable to resolve themselves. The contents of probationary or progress reports to the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee must be shown to the student concerned.

n) To provide informed assessments of students being considered for academic awards or employment while in the University or subsequent to their graduation.

Your students have a right to expect you to offer such assessments, in confidence if necessary, should they or others request them.

o) To counsel those students whose lack of progress is such that the likelihood of them obtaining the degree for which they are registered is in jeopardy.

There is little to be gained from permitting students to continue with their studies in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are unlikely to complete them. Warnings of the department's intention to recommend discontinuation or other sanctions must be made in writing and should be copied to the student concerned. The Faculty Higher Degrees Committee, the Board of Graduate Studies and other appropriate parties as stated in the Degree Procedures are unlikely to endorse drastic courses of action recommended to them, such as non-confirmation of candidature or discontinuation, unless there is adequate documentation of the attempts which the department has made to support and help particular students with the problems that they face in their work.

Ethics and Safety

p) To prepare or adopt, in consultation with the department, a statement for supervisors and students that describes good practice and ethical conduct in their subject area.

Many professional and learned societies have prepared guidelines governing good, ethical practice which can be adopted by a department if they choose not to draft their own. If the department adopts such codes they should be consistent with University's regulations, guidelines and procedures e.g. those governing human and animal experimentation, as well as with University's safety policy.

q) To ensure that the department can provide information and instruction on the safe conduct of research, if this is not available elsewhere in the University, and any other special requirements that the department demands of its students.

The statement of safety policy, which all departments are required to produce, and the departmental Safety Manual should be the source of information for students on departmental safe practices and requirements. Students should be made aware of the existence of such manuals on registration and they should have easy access to them e.g. in laboratories or the departmental library. Where any doubt exists about safe practice, the advice of the University Safety Officer should be sought.

Thesis Submission and Examination

r) To nominate, in consultation with supervisors and as soon as possible once the content and title of the thesis are known, expert examiners who are likely to be free of bias and who might reasonably be expected to discharge their duties expeditiously.

The Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee is formally responsible for nominating for the consideration of the Faculty the names of internal and external examiners and providing a brief curriculum vitae of the latter. Clearly this must be done in consultation with supervisors. Much time can be saved if the list of nominated examiners is submitted for approval at the same time as a student submits his or her Notice of Intention to Submit a Thesis.