When you arrive

Your UniCard  is a vital part of your university life. You will need your Unicard to do things like access buildings and take out physical books from the library. See applying for your UniCard if you haven't yet applied.

Please bring photo ID when collecting your UniCard. 

For full details of how to collect your UniCard, please visit the main ‘When you arrive’ guidance. You will find advice specific to the campus you are based on, and advice if you are a distance learner.  

All new postgraduate researchers are required to attend induction. Inductions run twice a year in September and January on both the Streatham and Cornwall campus. Our dedicated Induction webpages provide full details of the dates, time, location and how to book onto induction. 

As you commence your studies, you will be required to undertake some mandatory training in line with University policy. This training will be online, and includes:

• Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (refresh every 2 years)
• Health and Safety (refresh every 2 years)
• Research Integrity (refresh every 2 years)
• Information Governance and Security (refresh annually)

Depending on your research area, you may also be required to attend our face-to-face health and safety training.

You should arrange to meet your supervisor as soon as possible after arriving. In this meeting you should discuss your training needs, based on the skills audit you will have completed, and you should also discuss the frequency of supervisory meetings you will have and complete the supervisor agreement form and Training Needs Analysis form (TNA).

It is important that you undertake appropriate research training to help you complete your thesis successfully and in good time. The College is fully committed to research training that is relevant, useful and which contributes to positive outcomes for its students, not least in enhancing their post-thesis employability.

Training and professional development should be tailored to the individual student and be appropriate for the path of the individual research project. We don’t consider the development of skills to be a separate process from your research practice – it should support and enhance it.

Each new student should discuss and agree their training needs at the first supervisory team meeting. It is important to identify with your supervisor any specific research training modules which you should follow, and whether any language training is necessary for your research at an early stage. If there are any training needs that cannot be met through the Researcher Development provision or within your discipline, you must notify the your College as soon as possible.

Training for PGR students is provided both within your College and through the University’s Researcher Development Programme. The Researcher Development team have listed recommended training for each year of study; this is only indicative and should be used as a guide for discussion.

All students are required to complete the Training Needs Analysis Form following their discussion with their supervisory team and upload it to MyPGR within the first 6 weeks of study and then annually thereafter. When you have completed the form, you will be given the option to 'Print or save as pdf'. Click this, and a printing dialog box will load. Change the printer name to 'Save ad pdf', then save your responses and upload them to MyPGR.

All research students work closely with their academic supervisors. This requires regular meetings between you and your supervisors to plan and discuss your research, and the writing of your thesis. You need to produce written work at regular intervals and it is in your interests to start writing as early as possible, even the roughest of drafts. Producing a successful thesis is a methodical task, not something that can be done to a high standard in a hurry. Your supervisors are there to offer advice and guidance, and to provide help and critical comment upon your writing.

The relationship between students and supervisors is of crucial importance for the successful completion of a research degree. There needs to be good communication, co-operation and agreement, and a relationship of trust. The University recognises the need for a set of ground rules that outline the nature of this relationship. This general framework can be found in the Code of Good Practice - Supervision of Postgraduate Research Students

• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4

This document provides the background rules, policies and practices to which the Faculty, supervisors, pastoral tutors and students have to adhere, and sets out both the rights and responsibilities of all parties. Research students are required to meet with their full supervision team within three weeks of their initial registration with the University. At this meeting you and your supervisors are required to complete a Supervision Agreement, reflecting on their relationship, frequency of contact, submission of written work, authorship of papers and so on.

The form should be discussed, completed and signed off at the first meeting of the full supervisory team, including your  PGR pastoral tutor and then reviewed annually and if circumstances change (e.g. change of supervisory team, change of student status). It is the responsibility of the student to ensure this form is completed and uploaded to MyPGR within the first 6 weeks of study and then annually thereafter.

Documents:

• Supervisory Agreement

Before you start university, it is important to consider the advice, information and support available to you if you experience any of the following:

• Specific learning difficulty
• Mental Health difficulty for at least a year
• Physical disability
• A long-term medical condition

In some instances it is essential that we make arrangements for elements of your support before you arrive, for example if you require specific support and equipment to be in place when you start, or if you need adjustments to your accommodation or exams. 

Exeter-based students 
If you are based at our Exeter campuses, please visit our advice and support pages and complete the prospective student form if you think you will require support. 

Penryn-based students 
If you are based at our Penryn campus, please visit the disability support webpages. 
You can contact the Accessibility Team, via the Student Helpdesk, at any point during your studies plus you can find further information on our Wellbeing Services in Cornwall on our advice and support pages. 

This is the iTrent Self Service PGR User guide. iTrent is a tool that allows PGR students to record holiday, sickness and other absence.   

To log in to the iTrent Self Service system, visit https://staff.exeter.ac.uk/. Use your Student username and password to log in.

iTrent Self Service is available on all mobile devices.

Here at University of Exeter we have a thriving research community, whether that be in your research group, discipline, college or wider within the university. This dedicated webpage lists just some of the research events taking place on campus.

We have a wide range of training courses and professional development opportunities available to postgraduate researchers across the University of Exeter to enable to build your own professional development programme. In your first year, we would recommend that you take the following training:

• Working with your supervisors
• Project Managing Your Thesis
• Conducting a literature review: searching, reading and note-taking
• Conducting a literature review: critiquing, structuring and writing

All of these courses are available as webinars. The full list of Researcher Development courses can be found on the upcoming course webpage.

For recordings and presentation slides from previous training courses, please check out PGR Training & Development Resources SharePoint site.

As a Postgraduate Researcher at the University of Exeter, if you are involved in teaching, demonstrating in a lab, or assessing students’ work, you will need to attend our LTHE course. The LTHE Programme introduces the principles of effective learning, teaching and assessment in higher education (HE). LTHE Stage 1 forms the minimum requirement for Postgraduate Researchers who teach or support students at the University. This one day course is offered in both the autumn and spring terms each year. Please see the LTHE Stage 1 website for information on dates and how to book a place. 

The University of Exeter's library has set up a pre-arrival library guide to help you prepare for your time with us and how to get the most out of the library while with us.

The Students’ Guild (Exeter) and the Students’ Union (Cornwall) are your student unions and are here to represent your voice. They organise events and trips throughout the year and can help you make friends and connect with others through their student-run societies.

Both the Students’ Guild and the Students’ Union have a friendly advice team that can support you with a range of issues, from finances and housing to concerns about your course.

Take time over the first couple of weeks to explore their websites to see how they can help you make the most of your time as a Postgraduate Researcher.

You can play an important role in shaping improvements to the quality of the student experience. All students will have opportunities to raise and discuss issues at a Department and Faculty-level, you will also be able to share good practice and praise. Please see the PGR Student Voice Partnership: Code of Good Practice  for more information.   

If you are interested in representing PGR students then you could become an Academic Representative, find out more from the Students’ Guild and the Students’ Union.  

Our Postgraduate Researchers are based across two campuses in Exeter (Streatham and St Luke’s) our Penryn Campus, Cornwall, as well as the Knowledge Spa, Cornwall and the RILD Building at the RD&E Wonford, in Exeter.  

Explore your campus.

Many UK banks do not let you open a bank account until you are in the UK and have registered on a programme of full-time study. It can take up to 2 weeks to open a bank account.

Find out how to open a bank account.