HLS Handbook | University of Exeter

The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences was formed in September 2022, and brings together six departments: Biosciences, Psychology, Health and Care Professions, Health and Community Sciences, Clinical and Biomedical Sciences and Public Health and Sport Sciences. PGR students are based on the Streatham campus, the St Luke’s campus, and the RILD building at the RD&E Hospital site in Exeter and on the Penryn campus and Truro campus in Cornwall.

The Faculty Director of Postgraduate Research is Professor Alan Barker

The Department Director of Postgraduate Research are:

Biosciences: Dr Bonnie Fraser

Living Systems Institute: Professor Steven West

Psychology: Professor Natalie Hempel de Ibarra

Clinical and Biomedical Sciences: Professor Chris Scotton and Professor Sarah Richardson

Public Health and Sport Sciences: Dr Richard Pulsford

Health and Care Professions & Health and Community Sciences: Professor Julia Frost and Dr Jane Smith

The programmes that are offered in the Faculty encompass the MSc by Research, MPhil, PhD, PhD by Publication, Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master of Surgery (MS), and our Professional Doctorate programmes the DClinPsy, DClinPrac, DPPClinPrac, DClinRes and DForenPsy.

Research Training Support Grant for students registered from 1st August 2023

As part of its commitment to PGR student support across all disciplines, the faculty will continue to provide fully self-funded students with a dedicated fund for RTSG, as follows.

The following will NOT be eligible for faculty RTSG grants:

Students funded via grants or doctoral training programmes (DTPs) that provide RTSG and/or research costs.
Students who have already received financial support from the faculty in the form of matched funding or fee scholarships.

RTSGs will be placed in an account for the student to spend from, with authorisation provided by their supervisors.

International fee-paying DClinPsy* students are eligible for the same RTSG arrangements that applies to commissioned (HEE funded) students.

All expenditure on your RTSG must relate to activity that takes place before your funding end date or until you submit your thesis for examination, whichever is earlier. We would recommend spreading your budget across the whole of your programme so that you don't run out before the end date.

Your supervisor must authorise all expenditure, and they will also be budget holder within T1 and you will need to discuss with them how it should be allocated. Please note that you will become personally liable for any claims submitted if they had not been previously agreed.

Help and Support: We strongly recommend that you read and view the online training documents and videos for PGR students. We also recommend that you book yourself in the following training course at the earliest opportunity Finance: T1 introduction and Overview for Staff and Students

Making a Claim: The University's finance system T1 can be accessed from the following link

Access: The T1 finance system uses the University single sign on but access is not automatically set up. Check access by testing your login to T1 here. If it doesn't work, please let PGR Support know and they will arrange access for you.

RTSG Balance Enquiries: You can view your consumables budget, year transaction details and remaining balance in the T1 dashboard. Please see instructions here Student Dashboard Guide(via the online training webpages).

Purchasing Goods and Services: The T1 Web Catalogue/CloudBuy is an online web catalogue providing goods and services available through many of our suppliers. You can search for products/services, add to basket and checkout. Once this is complete the order must be allocated to the relevant budget and submitted for approval. Once approval has completed, T1 will issue the order to the supplier. Alternatively create a blank requisition where the goods/services are not listed on CloudBuy, selecting the supplier if it is known or by selecting 'unknown' will route the request to the procurement team to advise.

All IT equipment should be requested via the IT Service Desk. No claims for IT equipment purchased though other routes will be accepted - see: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/departments/it/new/equipment-purchasing/

Participant Payments:

Participant Payments: T1’s ‘Participant Payment Request Form’ is to compensate a participant involved in research or a University event for out of pocket expenses or time spent. It is not used for actual expenses such as mileage, accommodation or refreshments – this should be claimed by the participant themselves using:

T1’s ‘My Travel and Expenses’ function for UoE staff and students claims.

T1’s online ‘External Payment Request Form’ for non-staff/visitor claims.

For more information visit the Finance Services web pages. If you need any help with finance queries, please contact the Finance Helpdesk by email financehelpdesk@exeter.ac.uk. Or call on 01392 726981. Other non-finance queries should be logged with the student information helpdesk: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/students/sid/.

See the Procurement team’s Travel page for up to date information on how to get a trip authorised and booked - https://universityofexeteruk.sharepoint.com/sites/Travel

Sometimes – normally for subsistence - you may need to make purchases with your own money and then claim back your expenses. In this case you will need to complete the T1 expenses application using ‘My Travel and Expenses’ using T1. Add a new expense document using the expense template and select the correct budget, then add your lines of expenses and submit for approval to the budget holder.

Any claims submitted after 90 days after travel/activity will be declined for payment unless there are exceptional circumstances for the delay. You cannot claim expenses for purchases of equipment – these purchases must be made via T1.  For further details please see the expenses policy and see the expenses crib sheet here for help with using T1 to make your claim.

Please note that your supervisor will need to authorise your claim in T1 before it can be paid. Once authorised, claim payments are issued weekly on a Wednesday and take 2 working days to arrive by BACS in UK banks and will take around 2-10 days by Western Union for non-UK banks.

You must have your bank account details already set up in your student record in MyExeter before starting a T1 expense claim.

If using a non-UK bank, students must also complete a 'Foreign Payment Request Form' available here.  Once completed, the form should be emailed to AccountsPayableEnquiries@exeter.ac.uk, stating 'Foreign Bank Details for Student [name] + [student ID]'.

In some circumstances, for instance, if you are going on fieldwork for a few weeks or more, it is possible to receive funding in advance of your trip. If you would like to request an advance please see the Cash Advance section here (http://www.exeter.ac.uk/finance/training/keytopics/studentandpgt1training/#a3) for details of how to apply for an advance and how to use T1 to record your expenditure on your return. If you have not used all of the money you had advanced for your trip, you will need to return the funds.  If you have used more than you had advanced, when you reconcile your advance, the extra funds due to you will be paid to your bank account.

We would advise you to keep close attention to your expenditure to ensure that you do not overspend.

Amounts listed below are for the duration of the relevant programme (not per annum):

Discipline	PhD/DClinPsy*/DClinRes	MbyRes
Biosciences	£3,000	£2,000
Clinical & Biomedical Sciences	£3,000	£2,000
Sport & Health Sciences	£3,000	£2,000
Public Health	£3,000	£2,000
Health & Community Care	£3,000	£2,000
Health & Care Professions	£3,000	£2,000
Psychology	£3,000	£2,000
Professional Doctorates	£600	n/a

Duration

The RTSG will roll forward year-on-year and must be related to goods/services received by the time the student submits their thesis or their completion deadline, if applicable, whichever is sooner. If a student who commences a MbyRes programme and then subsequently upgrades to a PhD programme they will receive the difference in the RTSG, up to the level of the RTSG for the PhD programme they transition onto.

The RTSG amounts for students registered prior to 1st August 2023 are as follows;

i. MPhil/PhD Biological Sciences (for students registered prior to August 2023)

For self-funded students:
PhD: £3,000
MbyRes: £1,000

There is additional RTSG funding for Biosciences students who are paying full international fees at the rate of the difference between the standard international fee and the Biosciences international fee. The duration will be equal to the number of years the student, or their external sponsor, is paying full international fees.

ii. MPhil/PhD Complex Living Systems (for students registered prior to August 2023)

tbc

iii. MPhil/PhD Psychology (for students registered prior to August 2023)

For self-funded students:
PhD: £1,800
MbyRes: £600

iv. MPhil/PhD Sport & Health Sciences (for students registered prior to August 2023)

For self-funded students:
PhD: £2,250
MbyRes: £750

v. MPhil/PhD Medical Studies (for students registered prior to August 2023)

Research fieldwork and conference expenses
To help with costs related to your research, primarily conference, fieldwork and research trip expenses, each PGR student, irrespective of how they are funded and their mode of attendance, may apply for a one-off amount of £250 (Research Students’ Allowance – RSA). Please contact
HLS-Exeter-PGRsupport@exeter.ac.uk or cornwall-pgr@exeter.ac.uk for more information

vi. MPhil/PhD Medical Imaging (for students registered prior to August 2023)

Research fieldwork and conference expenses
To help with costs related to your research, primarily conference, fieldwork and research trip expenses, each PGR student, irrespective of how they are funded and their mode of attendance, may apply for a one-off amount of £250 (Research Students’ Allowance – RSA). Please contact
HLS-Exeter-PGRsupport@exeter.ac.uk or cornwall-pgr@exeter.ac.uk for more information

Faculty of Health and Life Sciences specific PGR handbook information

Faculty information

Upgrade to PhD

Other discipline and programme specific requirements

Research seminars and events

Student support and facilities

Funding and finance