Postgraduate research welcome

Welcome to our school and congratulations on becoming a postgraduate research student.

You have chosen an exciting research degree programme in a school with a strong culture of interdisciplinary and collaborative research. We hope that you are stimulated and inspired by your time with us and enjoy being part of our supportive and friendly research community.

Our school

Our school is a research-intensive centre of postgraduate research with internationally recognised strengths across the discipline. As a postgraduate research (PGR) student, you will benefit from being part of a world-leading, research-intensive school, spending time on a topic of your choice while enhancing your research skills and subject-specific expertise.

During your time with us, you will have the opportunity to conduct in-depth research into science, technological and/or social science focused aspects of geography. You will join a vibrant community and will be guided throughout your degree program by at least two academic advisors who are experts in their fields of study.

Preparing to start your degree

We are looking forward to you joining us when your research degree course starts in September, although we are aware that you may be joining us remotely initially. Wherever you are when you start your PhD or MRes degree, we will make sure that you receive the support, information, and advice that you need.

Our Student Services team are available to support you.

During Welcome Week, a series of events will be taking place that will help you settle in. These will include:

a welcome message from our Head of School, Professor Matt Jones
an induction into our school
a meeting with your supervisors
IT induction
introduction to the Researcher Academy
information on welfare support
a Students' Union welcome fair and information event

Who are your advisors and what are they for?

Your advisors are all members of academic staff with significant research expertise. They will be your main point of regular contact in the school and will help you develop the academic skills you need to succeed through your research degree at Nottingham.

You will be allocated at least two advisors with the balance of responsibility between advisors varying according to your topic.

What are advisory team meetings?

Much of your work will be planned around your advisory team meetings which provide an important element of structure to your degree program. Your advisors will guide the development of your thesis topic as well as being involved in helping you to identify training needs and obtain the techniques and skills that you need to plan and undertake your research.

Regular advisory team meetings provide the key point of contact between postgraduate research students and their advisors. Advisory team meetings must occur at a minimum of 12 times per year (six for a part-time student) but in practice, most students receive more advisory team meetings than this.

Postgraduate Student Advisor

In addition to your advisors, the school's Postgraduate Student Advisor plays an important pastoral role and can offer advice and point you in the right direction if you are struggling or are experiencing health, family or personal issues, as they form a major part of the school's welfare system.

Postgraduate Training Officer

In collaboration with your advisory team, the school's Postgraduate Student Training Officer helps to identify the training needs of individual PGRs, ensure that these needs are met and determine how they are met. As these training needs will vary greatly between students, the aim is to construct a programme that is tailored to each student's specific research requirements. Guidance on useful and important training courses are provided to you in the student handbook.

Find out more

The Director of Postgraduate Research in the School of Geography is Sarah Jewitt and you can also contact the Student Services PGR Team.