Monthly Supervision Record (MSR) FAQs for supervisors

Please see the School PGR administrator contact lst

You can access your MSR forms via the Self Service. 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 Self Service, you should see and pick the link 'Monthly Supervision Report - Supervisor'.

If you have any difficulties accessing the Self Service, you should first check if you can login to other services that use the same type of login, 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 Self Service okay, but then have an issue opening your MSR 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 either case, you will need to contact the IT Help Desk for further help. You can contact the IT Helpdesk by phone on +44 (0)121 414 7171 or log an online call. Please give details about exactly where you are having issues.

Supervisors will only see PGRs whom they supervise. You will be able to use the filter option to find your correct PGR.   

 If this list is incorrect, please contact your School PGR administrator

You should make every effort to contact the PGR, including by email and telephone. The lead supervisor will receive reminder emails five before the end of the month if the PGR has not completed Part A of the form (the PGR will also receive reminder emails to complete Part A of the online MSR form).

If, at this point, neither you nor any other member of the supervisory team has been able to make contact with the PGR, the lead supervisor should complete the online MSR form by selecting the 'No contact' option and choosing the follow-up action that best reflects the student's circumstances. Where the selected option allows comments to be entered, please note that these comments will be visible to the PGR.

If this is the second consecutive month that you have been unable to make contact with the PGR, or if you have concerns about the student's academic progress or engagement, the case should be referred to the School PGR Lead and School PGR administrator, as action under the Code of Practice on Student Academic Engagement may need to be considered.

Supervision meetings for part-time PGRs should take place every two months. In the Supervisor's Part B section of the online MSR form, supervisors are first asked whether a supervision meeting has taken place. If a meeting has not taken place, they will be asked whether another form of face-to-face contact has taken place. If no face-to-face contact has occurred, they will then be asked whether the PGR is studying part-time.

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 MSR are sent to the lead supervisor only. The online MSR 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 co-supervisor can complete the form. 

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

If you have more than one supervisory meeting with your PGR during the month, you may either:

• Complete the MSR form after the final meeting and summarise all meetings that have taken place during the month; or
• Start completing the form after the first meeting, select come back later, and return later to add details from subsequent meetings before submitting the form.

Please note that only one meeting date can be recorded in the MSR form.

If you are no longer a member of a PGR's supervisory team but the student is still appearing in your MSR forms, please contact your School PGR administrator and request that your supervisory records are updated. Once the change has been processed, the PGR will no longer appear in your list of students requiring an MSR.

If you remain a member of the supervisory team but your role has changed (for example, from lead supervisor to co-supervisor), please contact your School PGR administrator to ensure the correct supervisory role is recorded in the system.

A leave of absence is a break in studies where the PGR is not working on their research. Therefore a MSR form is not required and the online MSR form for the duration of the LOA will not be available for completion and the “View current form” will not be enabled. The student will not receive communications asking to complete the MSR and the student will show as ‘LA’ on the MSR homepage.

When completing Part B of the online MSR form, you must enter the date of the supervision meeting by selecting it from the calendar provided. Only dates within the current month can be selected. If more than one supervisory meeting has taken place during the month, additional meetings can be summarised in the comments or discussion sections of the form, but only one meeting date can be recorded.

The online MSR 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 MSR form to be active the PGR must complete online registration 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 MSR 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 MSR records should be completed online and stored electronically and accessible by the supervisors, PGR and relevant staff within the PAU”.

Therefore the online MSR 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 complete the form as appropriate on their side referencing the status of the corrections where appropriate.

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 MSR 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 MSR records should be completed online and stored electronically and accessible by the supervisors, PGR and relevant staff within the PAU”.

Therefore the online MSR 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 complete the form as appropriate on their side referencing the status of the Thesis where appropriate.

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

The online MSR 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 “in person annual 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 MSR 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 in person Viva (including the date) and the lead supervisor should confirm that a supervision meeting did not take place, confirm that ‘other form of formal face-to-face contact has taken place’, select ‘In person Viva’ and confirm the date of this meeting.

The online MSR form should continue to be completed throughout the period that the PGR is undertaking approved fieldwork away from the University.

Supervision meetings should normally take place monthly for full-time PGRs and pro rata for part-time PGRs. Where a PGR is working away from the University, they should complete Part A of the MSR form to confirm that they have been in contact with their supervisor and provide details of the work undertaken whilst away.

If a supervision meeting has taken place, you should confirm this in Part B of the form. The supervision contact may be recorded as either 'Remote video conference or telephone' or 'In person but off campus', as appropriate, and you should select 'PGR is completing fieldwork' when recording the contact.

For Student Route visa holders, any period of fieldwork away from the University must be covered by an approved Authorised Absence request before the fieldwork begins.

The online MSR form should be completed each month for the duration of the fieldwork period to ensure a complete record of supervision and maintain an appropriate audit trail through to the completion of the degree.

It is possible to enter text up to 3,500 characters.

To access your MSR forms as a PGR you will need to log in via Self Service using your student credentials 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 MSR form by navigating to the top-right corner of the page, where your name is displayed. Click the icon to the left of your name, and then select Sign Out from the menu that appears.

Some programmes are exempt from completing the monthly MSR 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 MSR form they will receive an email advising them to complete the form. However these can be ignored

If you have any queries regarding PGRs that may be exempt form completion of the online MSR form, please contact your School PGR administrator