Academic Advisor

Imm – Each student will be allocated an academic advisor whose responsibilities will include pastoral care in addition to mentoring and monitoring the student’s academic and personal development progress during the programme, using the Advisor forms found on page 37 of this handbook .  It is your responsibility to ensure that these forms are completed using the FormSquared app and submitted prior to the meetings. Should you not be able to access FormSquared, please print the forms and complete manually before your meeting. These forms provide a framework both for pastoral issues and academic progress. All forms are treated with complete confidentiality. Students should meet/contact their advisors at regular intervals (2 months) to discuss any problems. The progress of the research project will also be discussed at these meetings (as well as progress on the programme more generally) but the supervision of the project is the responsibility of the project supervisor.

OR

Med Sci/Oncology – If you have any queries or concerns at any time during your period of study in Manchester, there is a range of people you can approach. Your MRes Programme Administrator will be your first port of call for general issues. Alternatively, you may wish to contact the Programme Directors for specific aspects to do with the course. Your supervisor or the Academic Advisors are the best people to contact about issues relating to your project, career plans or for pastoral support. If you wish to raise a confidential matter at School level, you should approach the MRes Graduate Manager. Contact details for all these staff members are written below.

OR

Sci Com – The research project supervisor will normally take on the primary one-to-one support role from the pastoral advisor at the beginning of Semester 2. The research project supervisor will also serve as the student’s academic advisor during the mentored project. Research project supervisors and mentored project academic advisors will meet regularly with students to discuss the progress of the research project and the mentored project, but are also available for pastoral support on the same basis as other staff. All students will need to organise three formal meetings with supervisors to monitor progress and discuss support requirements, and are welcome to arrange additional meetings as appropriate.

OR

RP – You will be allocated an Academic Advisor for the duration of the MRes course. Your advisor will be an academic member of staff and can provide advice about any aspects of the course and/or pastoral support, together with advice about future career directions. You will meet with the Academic Advisors in the first week of the course, and then will have three one-to-one meetings scheduled throughout the year. Progress forms to be completed at these meetings can be found in the Logbook. Additional meetings can be held by mutual agreement if required.

OR

TL – Each student is assigned an Academic Advisor and can seek advice or support from other members of staff including the Programme Directors. The support mechanisms available to students both within the programme, the Faculty and the University will be outlined in the programme handbook and discussed during the induction seminar delivered by the Programme Directors at the start of each academic year. Support is managed through regular scheduled meetings between each student and their Academic Advisor. A record of all meetings is kept on file.

For academic issues the students are asked to first contact their Academic Advisor for support. The Programme Directors are also available to assist and advise should there be any matter that cannot be dealt with by the Academic Advisor.

For administrative issues the students are asked to initially approach the Programme Administrator and in the case of further difficulty their academic advisor or Programme Directors.

The student’s Academic Advisor and the Programme Directors supply pastoral support and through their delivery of the Programme will routinely meet the students at both a formal and an informal level during the academic year. The students are also told during induction that the Programme Directors run an ‘open door policy’ so are available, other teaching and work responsibilities permitting, to discuss academic or pastoral problems. Given other work commitments, however, students are advised to check availability via email to avoid disappointment.

The Programme recognises the ever-changing demands placed on students and therefore remains responsive to feedback both from students and staff. The proposed system provides a robust, flexible and sympathetic support framework.

For non-programme matters the University provides an extensive range of student support services. The Student Services Centre is the single point of contact and can help with questions relating to finance, immigration, student cards, exams or graduation. The Centre operates a drop-in service and can also be contacted by telephone or email. There are specialist advisers that can help with careers, volunteering, managing money, international programmes, and support and well-being. The University’s Language Centre runs pre-sessional English courses, exam preparation courses, and registered international students are can take advantage of in-sessional language support, including the academic writing tutorial service and programme-specific English language courses and workshops.