Online GRS2 FAQs for supervisors

List of PGR Administrators (PDF - 420KB)

You can access your GRS2 forms via the Staff Gateway. As a staff member, you can access this gateway page on-campus only.

If working off-campus you will need to be using the Staff VPN.

You will need to login using your University email and password (similar to logging into the University intranet).

Once logged into the Staff Gateway, you should see and pick the link 'GRS2'.

If you have any difficulties accessing the Staff Gateway, you should first check if you can login to other services that use the same type of login (Azure), such as the University intranet or Core Systems. If you cannot login to any of these services, your problem may be a wider issue with your University account.

If you can login to the Staff Gateway okay, but then have an issue opening your GRS2 forms, there may be an issue with your account specific to PGR supervision, such as not being correctly defined as a Supervisor or not being correctly linked to your PGRs.

In ether case, you will need to contact the IT Help Desk for further help. You can contact the IT Helpdesk by phone on 0121 414 7171 or log an online call. Please give details about exactly where you are having issues.

Supervisors will see their own PGRs unless they have been granted additional BIRMS security permissions by their School/College.  You will be able to use the search function to find a PGR by entering part or full surname or ID number. 

If you wish to check your BIRMS Security permissions you will need to contact your local BIRMS Security Manager.  If you do not know who this is, please contact your local School PGR administrator.

• List of PGR administration contacts (PDF - 206KB)

You should make every effort to contact the PGR, including email and telephone. Five and two days before the end of the month the lead supervisor will receive an email to advise that your PGR has not completed Part A of the form (your PGR will also receive reminder emails to advise that they have not completed Part A of the online GRS2 form). If at this point you and all other members of the supervisory team have still not been able to make contact with the PGR, the lead supervisor should complete the online GRS2 form ticking the “There has been no contact this month” and insert brief details of how you have attempted to contact the PGR (please note that the PGR will be able to view these comments). If this is the second month that you have not been able to make contact with the PGR, refer the case to the School PGR Lead and PGR administrator as action under the Code of Practice on Student Attendance and Reasonable Diligence Procedures needs to be considered.  

Supervision meetings for part time PGRS should take place every two months.  There is a section in  Supervisor’s Part B of the on the online GRS2 form for part time PGRs as follows “The below check box should only be ticked if the PGR is part time and is not due a supervision meeting the following month.”  If the tick box is ticked, the scheduled reminder e-mails will not be sent to you or the PGR in the next month and will resume in the following month. For example, if the tick box is ticked in February to indicate a meeting will not take place in March, the reminder e-mails will not be sent out for the March online GRS2 form but will resume in April.

Although the reminder e-mails are supressed, the online GRS2 form is still available for completion should a meeting take place.

For joint and dual PhDs, where supervision meetings are not taking place because the PGR is in attendance at the joint/dual institution, the lead supervisor should tick the “There has been no contact this month” and add an explanation entered in the “Reason for no contact”.  This would be a simple note such as “PGR is attending the University of Melbourne and will therefore be supervised by their supervisor at Melbourne”.

The emails from the online GRS2 are sent to the lead supervisor only. The online GRS2 form should only be completed by the supervisor who is meeting with the PGR and it is expected that this is normally the lead supervisor.  In instances where it is known in advance that the lead supervisor will not be conducting the monthly supervision meeting, the PGR Administrator should be advised and they can switch the co-supervisor to the lead for a period of time to facilitate the completion of the online GRS2 form.

The section at the top of the online GRS2 form “There has been on contact” should be completed by the lead supervisor and only if the PGR has not made contact with any members of the supervisor team.

You should advise your PGR to complete Part A of the online GRS2 form as normal.  You should then complete Part B and select the supervision category “PGR - supervision contact email” from the list under "There has been no supervision meeting but one of the following types of contact has taken place....".  This ensures that a full supervision record exists and the type of contact recorded.  It would not be expected that email contact is used on a regular basis unless there are compelling reasons to do so, such as the PGR being away on fieldwork.

The online GRS2 form has been developed to facilitate completion of one GRS2 form per month and the system does not currently have capacity for a further form to be completed.

If you are no longer the lead supervisor for the PGR for whom you have received an online GRS2 notification email, you should contact your School PGR administrator to ask that the supervision record is updated in BIRMS.

• List of PGR administration contacts (PDF - 206KB)

The date of the supervision meeting is entered by selecting a date from the calendar.  You can only select a date from the current month and only for the contact types of face to face or telephone/video conference. If you enter a meeting date for any other category of contact type, this will not be saved as these types of contact do not involve a supervision meeting.

Where the contact has been by email, Parts A and B of the online GRS2 form should be completed to reflect this. You should not select a date for a supervision meeting but should select “PGR – Supervision contact (email) from the list under “If there has been no supervision but one of the following types of contact has taken place”.

A leave of absence is a break in studies where the PGR is not working on their research. Therefore a GRS2 form is not required and the online GRS2 form for the duration of the LOA will not be available for completion and the “View current form” will not be enabled. Neither the PGR nor the supervisor will receive reminder emails. 

For the online GRS2 form for the current month to be active, the PGR’s registration status must be either normally registered (NR) or thesis awaited (T) and where this is not the case the “View current form” will be greyed out and you will not be able to view the form.  If the registration status is provisionally registered (AS) or expected to re-register (ER), for the online GRS2 form to be active the PGR must complete on-line registration via the online registration pages.

The online GRS2 form will not be active if the PGR is on leave of absence.

As a supervisor, you will not be able to complete your Part B report until the PGR student has completed and submitted their Part A report. Your part of the form will be 'greyed out' until this point. The exception is if there is no supervision meeting in the current month, in which case you should tick the "There has been no contact this month" box and complete the reason, then submit the form.

Once the month has ended, the form will close and then it will no longer be possible to make any changes to the form and sections will be “greyed out” to prevent this.

The online GRS2 form will become active once the PGR’s start date has been reached and the registration status is normally registered (NR).

If the registration status is provisionally registered (AS) but the PGR has arrived and started their studies, for the online GRS2 form to be active the PGR must complete online registration via the online registration pages and the start date must have been reached.

The Code of Practice for Supervision & Monitoring Progress states:

“Progress of PGRs in thesis awaited status must continue to be monitored to the completion of the degree. For PGRs in thesis awaited status supervisors should maintain monthly contact with the PGR to monitor progress of the thesis against the PGR’s deadline for submission, submission of a corrected thesis or resubmission for re-examination via completion of an online GRS2 monthly supervision record form. The lead and/or co-supervisor(s) and the PGR should confirm that the record contains a summary of the progress of writing the thesis. All GRS2 records should be completed online and stored electronically and accessible by the supervisors, PGR and relevant staff within the PAU”.

Therefore the online GRS2 form should be completed each month until the completion of studies. The PGR should complete Part A of the form to advise that they have submitted the corrected thesis and the lead supervisor should add a comment in Part B to confirm this and then select “PGR – Submission of minor corrections” or “PGR – Submission of major corrections” from the list under “If there has been no supervision but one of the following types of contact has taken place”.

This ensures a full record and audit trail until the point of completion of the degree.

The Code of Practice for Supervision & Monitoring Progress states:

“Progress of PGRs in thesis awaited status must continue to be monitored to the completion of the degree. For PGRs in thesis awaited status supervisors should maintain monthly contact with the PGR to monitor progress of the thesis against the PGR’s deadline for submission, submission of a corrected thesis or resubmission for re-examination via completion of an online GRS2 monthly supervision record form. The lead and/or co-supervisor(s) and the PGR should confirm that the record contains a summary of the progress of writing the thesis. All GRS2 records should be completed online and stored electronically and accessible by the supervisors, PGR and relevant staff within the PAU”.

Therefore the online GRS2 form should be completed each month until the completion of studies. The PGR should complete Part A of the form to advise that they have submitted the thesis for examination (including the date of submission), the lead supervisor should add a comment in Part B to confirm this and then select “PGR – Thesis submitted” from the list under “If there has been no supervision but one of the following types of contact has taken place”.

This ensures a full record and audit trail until the point of completion of the degree.

The online GRS2 form should be completed each month until the completion of studies. The PGR should complete Part A of the form to advise that they are attending a progress review meeting (including the date) and the lead supervisor should add a comment in Part B to confirm this and then select “PGR – Progress Review” from the list under “If there has been no supervision but one of the following types of contact has taken place”.

This ensures a full record and audit trail until the point of completion of the degree.

The online GRS2 form should be completed each month until the completion of studies. The PGR should complete Part A of the form to advise that they are attending a progress review meeting (including the date) and the supervisor should add a comment in Part B to confirm this and then select “PGR – Progress Review” from the list under “If there has been no supervision but one of the following types of contact has taken place”.

This ensures a full record and audit trail until the point of completion of the degree.

The online GRS2 form should be completed each month until the completion of studies. The PGR should complete Part A of the form to advise that they are attending their viva examination  (including the date) and the lead supervisor should add a comment in Part B to confirm this and then select “PGR – Viva” from the list under “If there has been no supervision but one of the following types of contact has taken place”.

This ensures a full record and audit trail until the point of completion of the degree.

Supervision meetings should take place monthly for full time PGRs, pro rata for part time PGRs.  Where the PGR is working away from the University the supervision contact may be by way of a skype meeting or by email.  The online GRS2 form should be completed each month for the duration of the period of time that the PGR is working away from the University.

Where the contact is via e-mail, he PGR should complete Part A of the form to advise that they have been in email contact with the supervisor as they are working away from the University and should include details of the work undertaken whilst away from the University. The lead supervisor should add a comment in Part B and then should select “PGR – Supervision contact e-mail” from the list under “If there has been no supervision but one of the following types of contact has taken place”

This ensures a full record and audit trail until the point of completion of the degree.

It is possible to enter text up to 4,000 characters.

To access your GRS2 forms you will need to log in via a new student gateway page.  If you do not have these details you will need to contact the IT HelpDesk.

If you are supervising any PGRs, You can access this gateway page on-campus only. If working off-campus you will need to be using the Staff VPN . You will need to login using your University email and password (similar to logging into the intranet).

You can log out of the GRS2 forms by logging out of the staff gateway page - click on your username in the top right hand side of your screen in the gateway page and then click the 'Sign Out' button that drops down.

Some programmes are exempt from completing the monthly GRS2 form.  For example where the first year of the programme is totally made up of taught modules and supervision meetings therefore do not take place, or for some Research Council funded study where different arrangements are in place as part of the funding agreement. If the PGR is exempt from completing the GRS2 form they will not receive email advising them to complete the form.

If you have any queries regarding PGRs that may be exempt form completion of the online GRS2 form, please contact your local PGR Administrator.

• List of PGR Administrators (PDF - 206KB)