Annual review supervisor FAQ

The annual review is a record of all HDR candidates' progress for the past year. Candidates are required to report on any period of study between their last review/confirmation of candidature and the present. Ongoing enrolment and continuation of local and international government scholarships (where applicable) and Commonwealth government compliance are dependent upon a satisfactory annual review. The review conducted solely online. Paper reviews are only available for candidates with disabilities.

Following the change to HDR procedures last year, HDR students who commenced after 1 January 2010 have their Confirmation of candidature as their first annual review, and then subsequent annual reviews on the anniversary of their commencement date.  These reviews will be conducted in quarterly batches, starting with the first Quarter review beginning 6 February. Supervisors and students will be emailed when their reviews are due.

Students who commenced prior to 1 January 2010 will continue to have their annual reviews in the third Quarter of the year.

The deadlines are very important,as each Quarterly review must be closed off to enable the next one to open.

• Supervisors have the same three week period as the student to do their review.
• Heads of Schools have two weeks to complete their sections
• Deans have three weeks to complete their sections

It is strongly recommended that all parties begin their sections as early as possible.

If you are not able to complete your sections in a timely manner, it is essential that you delegate or share the task. Scholarships, sponsorships and Commonwealth legislation covering international students all require evidence of satisfactory progress, and students with incomplete annual reviews will be at risk. Please let me know if other access is needed to the review at Head of School or Dean levels.

Only students who have to do the review would have been notified, and their supervisors. If you have been sent emails about students having to do the annual review, then you are expected to complete the review within the time specified.

By the time the review opens, all affected HDR candidates will have received several emails giving detailed information about the review, including contact details for any queries. Candidates are then sent a reminder when the review is about to open. Candidates are emailed two further reminders during the review period if they have not already accessed the system.

Please encourage your candidate to check their email regularly and remind them to complete the review by the deadline to avoid any penalties.

Candidates are required to address the following questions:

• Confirmation of the candidate's personal details and Field of Research (FOR) and Socio-Economic Objectives (SEO) codes for the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• Outline of work completed to date
• Specific achievements such as skill development, professional development such as workshops etc. (Please note that details of any publications you have contributed to should be sent to your faculty research administrator.)
• Any difficulties experienced during the period since commencing candidature or the last annual review
• Detailed plan of the full remainder of candidature with milestones to be completed each month. (NOTE: your plan can be attached to your annual review in any file format and does not need to be re-typed. A template plan is available at http://www.deakin.edu.au/current-students/assets/resources/research/example-research-plan.xlt).
• The review calculates how much of your candidature you have completed compared to the target completion times for the degree.

Please discuss the following questions with your supervision team and answer the following:

1. Have you been provided with all the facilities and resources that you need to complete your research work? Are there currently any impediments to your progress?
2. Compared to what you will require, how much of your data (or other sources) have you collected? (percentage, comment)
3. How much of your data has been analysed? (percentage, comment)
4. How much of your thesis or exegesis has been written? Please complete the table below:

1. When do you expect to submit your thesis?
2. If your target submission date is significantly beyond 36 months (PhD) of equivalent full-time candidature, or 24 months (masters) do you feel you need additional support? If so, please specify (examples could include facilities, software, data analysis, editing, writing skills etc.

(Please note that requesting such support is no guarantee that the university will be able to provide it, but it will help us if we know what you feel you need.)

If your target date is approaching or beyond your maximum completion date, you need to be aware that you will have to apply for an extension of candidature. Extensions are only granted if you can demonstrate that you are making very good progress towards completion.

1. Is your supervisor going on study leave or extended leave of any sort before 31 December 2012?  If so, what arrangements have been made for your supervision while they are away?
2. If you have concerns about your progress, would you like to hold a review meeting? A meeting would aim to identify problems or concerns which you might be experiencing, and provide broad expertise to try and resolve these issues. It would usually involve you, your supervisors, an HDR coordinator, and one or more people from outside your School or research centre.
3. Are there any concerns that you want to raise confidentially? If so, you can send an email to the Executive Officer, Higher Degrees by Research, Deakin Research, Grant Michie (grant.michie@deakin.edu.au).
4. Any specific Occupational Health and Safety matters you wish to raise?
5. Average hours of paid employment per week (if any)

Examinations

It is strongly recommended that you have a clear understanding of the examination process. This includes:

• HDR workshops you should attend
• How and when examiners are selected
• What advice examiners are given when reading your thesis
• Possible outcomes
• The length of time taken to examine

ï»You can find information on Approaching Completion at our Current Students webpage (http://www.deakin.edu.au/current-students/research/index.php), as well as workshops (http://www.deakin.edu.au/research-services/events/). See here for information on examinations and advice to examiners.

The online annual review is accessed through the Deakin Research website. Click on the link which reads 'Access the annual review''. You will be asked to enter your staff user name and password. Once you have entered these details you will enter the online annual review main menu page from which you are able to navigate the review pages.

If you are a candidate’s Principal Supervisor you are required to review your candidate’s details including what your candidate has written in Section 1, and complete Section 2 (Supervisor’s Comments). If you have not already discussed the annual review with your candidate please raise the matter with them as early as possible. Supervisors are asked to provide honest comments on their candidate’s progress. Where problems have been experienced outline any action that has been taken or proposed action to be taken. Also ensure that your candidate’s plan accurately represents their progress to date and provides a detailed timeline for completion.

If you are a candidate’s Associate Supervisor you are not required to actively participate in the review unless the Principal Supervisor has asked you to complete Section 2 on their behalf. Associate Supervisors have the same level of access to the annual review system as Principal Supervisors so they are able to read comments made by the candidate and Principal Supervisor or can key comments for Section 2 if this is required. Please note that your comments may overwrite those of the Principal Supervisor, so please do not comment in the review without discussing with the principal supervisor.

To assist candidates who may be on leave, at a conference etc., during the annual review period, the topics covered in the candidate's section of the annual review (Section 1) have already been emailed to all candidates so that responses may be discussed with supervisors in advance. Please discuss the review, and your candidate's progress, with your candidate as soon as possible.

As the annual review is conducted solely online both candidates and supervisors will be able to complete their sections of the review from anywhere in the world during the review period if the above topics have been discussed ahead of time.

If you are the Principal Supervisor of an HDR candidate and are going to be away during the review period, you may wish to consider your responses to the Supervisor's section, Section 2 ahead of time.

Topics covered in this section are:

• A rating of your candidate's progress on a scale of: Satisfactory, Generally satisfactory (problems have received attention), Progress affected by problems which are receivingattention and Unsatisfactory
• Comments on candidate's progress
• Likely submission date of thesis
• Whether ethics and/or biosafety approvals are required and have been obtained

If the candidate also has an Associate Supervisor you may wish to discuss the above topics and have the Associate Supervisor key responses into the online system on your behalf if you are unable to complete comments during the annual review period. The annual review can be accessed online from anywhere in the world.

Yes, you are able to complete your comments at any time once the system is open. However, we recommend you discuss your candidate's progress fully with them prior to making your comments in the review to avoid surprises.

An automatic email will be sent to your candidate to inform them that you have entered your comments and that the system is awaiting their comments. You may wish to log-in at a later date to look at Sections 1 and 3 once your candidate has completed them.

Only candidates required to complete the annual review are given access to the system. Candidates who are not required to complete the annual review will not be listed in the system.

If your candidate has a disability they may have elected to complete the review in an alternative way, and their name will not be listed in the online system.

Navigating the annual review system, access issues, log-in or password queries:

Email: hdr-annual-review@deakin.edu.au
Phone: 03 5227 2633

Procedural questions (eg- candidate progress issues, content queries):

Email: research-hdr@deakin.edu.au
Phone: 03 5227 3492