Thesis committee guidance

Thesis Committees - useful background for students

Constitution

Thesis committees should be made up of both/all supervisors (including day to day supervisors if there are postdocs who are heavily involved), an external member and a Chair. The external member need not be external to the Institute of Genetics and Cancer but must be independent of the group. They are often chosen on the basis of complementary expertise. The Chair must be someone with experience of postgraduate training.  

It is important to consider a gender balance on thesis committees but this must not take precedence over appropriate academic expertise. It is entirely appropriate to consider co-opting additional committee members if necessary. As a minimal requirement, if a female student has a committee of which all the members are likely to be male, the student must be consulted well in advance, and if they would prefer a gender balance then this wish must be respected.

Conduct of meetings

The student will circulate all paperwork a week in advance. At the start of the meeting the chair should ensure that the student is put at ease, that introductions have been made, and that the process has been explained. The student should then give a short talk; they are expected to prepare a talk of 10-15 minutes but this is often extended if questions are asked during the talk. If a student is very nervous it is often a good idea to ask them if they mind being interrupted, or if they would prefer to keep questions to the end.

Once the questioning on the science has been completed to the satisfaction of the committee, the student should be asked about what transferable skills courses they have attended. The committee should feel able to make strong recommendations about attendance at (for example) workshops on how to give a good talk, scientific writing and so on. The student should also be asked about their plans to attend conferences and encouraged to present data, and about any science communication they have taken part in. They should also be asked about their career plans- this is obviously a key element of discussion at the second year stage, but should at least be touched on at the first year stage so that students can be advised about any relevant opportunities that might help them with their plans.

The student should then leave the room so that the supervisors can give their views on progress to the other committee members. The supervisors then leave and the student returns. The Chair should ask the student if they are happy with the supervision they are receiving and if there is anything they would like to raise, in confidence if necessary.

The Chair then drafts a report of the meeting and circulates it to all members except the student for comments and corrections. Once the report is in its final form it should be sent to all members including the student for signing and the final report should be uploaded by the student to their online annual review form.  

Further information about the online annual review process can be found on the Student Systems website.