Student Responsibilities
Naturally, students have many responsibilities throughout the course of doing a research degree. Here we summarize the important responsibilities which are set out in the Regulations for Research Degrees:
- All students are required to attend regular meetings with their supervisors and to keep records of meetings (see webpage Meetings with Supervisors) which also details special arrangements for external students
- Students are expected to take responsibility for their own research activity and candidacy for a degree
- They should keep their Supervisors informed of progress/problems
- Make reasonable efforts to achieve satisfactory progress
- Attend Induction Courses as prescribed by the Department/School
- Attend training provision at The Graduate School and/or in own Department/School as prescribed by the Department/School
- Prepare periodic progress reports on their research as required by the Department/School
- Complete an Annual Progress Report
- For PhD candidates complete the necessary documentation required for transfer from MPhil to PhD
- Students have a responsibility to ensure their thesis is submitted within the prescribed time period and to the required standard format for thesis submissions
- Observe the University's policy on Intellectual Property Rights - see http://www.brad.ac.uk/hub/media/Hub/Documents/Statement-of-Principles.pdf
- Maintain high standards of academic conduct, especially avoid plagiarism or any other unfair practice
- Observe the University's policy as set out in the General Health and Safety Manual which can be accessed from the Health and Safety webpage at http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/safety/
- Act as a responsible member of the University's academic community
- External students should endeavour to attend induction and training sessions at the University, in particular the Spring Training Week organised by the Graduate School
For more detailed information, see the Regulations for Research Degrees, Section 8 which are available online, please follow the Quick Link to the right of the page.
Plagiarism
All students need to be aware from the very start of doing a research degree that plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct and as such is a breach of the University's assessment regulations as well as the Regulations for Research Degrees. Key points to note from the University policy on breach of assessment regulations are:
- The University reserves the right to use any fair and reasonable means to identify instances of academic misconduct
- It is not acceptable for a student to claim that they do not know what academic misconduct is because they have never read any of the guidance
- There are no mitigating circumstances which can excuse plagiarism
For further information please read the relevant section in the Regulations for Research Degrees which provides a link to the Breach of Assessment Regulations. Further information is available at Academic Misconduct, Academic Appeals and Student Complaints
When you submit your thesis you will be asked to sign a Thesis Submission Form which certifies the work is an original work produced by you.
If you have any difficulty understanding what constitutes plagiarism or how to improve your standard of writing then you should talk to your supervisors about this issue and try resolve any problems in the early stages of doing your research degree.
