Welcome to the Doctoral School
Whether you're working towards a PhD, Professional Doctorate or PhD by Publication, the Doctoral School can help you through every aspect of your doctoral degree from admission and enrolment, to professional development, social and academic events, through your project approval and annual monitoring to the submission of your thesis and your viva voce examination.
The Doctoral School is where you will find the help you’ll need to become a confident, skilled NTU researcher – and it is the first port of call for doctoral candidates and supervisors for advice, guidance and support in navigating the doctoral journey.
Meet the team
Information for doctoral candidates
Governance
- University Regulations for Research Degrees can be found in the NTU Quality Handbook Section 11
- The University Research Degrees Committee Terms of Reference (ToRs) and membership can be located in Section 1 of the NTU Quality Handbook .
- The NTU Research Degrees Complaints and Appeals regulations and procedure can be found in the NTU Quality Handbook Section 17F.
- Code of Practice for Research Degrees at Nottingham Trent University can be found within the Nottingham Trent University’s Research Office governance and integrity pages.
- NTU Postgraduate Research Environment Statement sets out what the doctoral candidate can expect of the postgraduate research environment at Nottingham Trent University.
The PGR Dashboard
NTU Doctoral candidate and supervisory teams can view, manage, and monitor progress with the dedicated PGR dashboard.
This online tool allows various tasks and requests to be carried out, including:
- Annual monitoring of the progress of studies;
- PhD project approval applications
- Extension, suspension and withdrawal applications;
- Supervisory Team changes;
- Change of study mode applications
The PGR dashboard provides greater transparency of the doctoral candidate journey, allowing status checks of requests in real time. It also enables increased awareness of key deadlines and easier monitoring of various tasks during doctoral studies at NTU.
An NTU username and password are required to log in to the system.
Read our user guides to find out further information. If more help is required with the system, or to report a problem, please submit a request to pgrdashboardsupport@ntu.ac.uk
Supervision and support for current doctoral candidates and supervisors
The current course handbooks for Professional Doctorate candidates can be found in the relevant Learning Room in NOW.
Throughout research degree programmes, doctoral candidates are supported by a dedicated supervisory team.
This usually consists of a Director of Studies (the person with the greatest expertise of the project) and a second supervisor. If collaboration is taking place with a company or institution there may also be a third supervisor.
Projects can be inter-disciplinary and draw on knowledge from two or more Academic Schools. Doctoral candidates are encouraged to discuss any issues with the Postgraduate Research Tutor (PGRT) or Professional Doctorate Course Leader and with the Doctoral Candidate Representative.
The NTU Doctoral School Administration Team are the first point of contact during time spent at NTU on a research degree programme and are here to assist doctoral candidates throughout the period of study.
Current Research Degree policies and forms
- Postgraduate Policy for Pregnancy and Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave
- Postgraduate Policy for Sick Leave
- PGR Doctoral candidate Pregnancy Planning Form
- Risk Assessment for Pregnant PGRs
- Procedure for Investigating Alleged Research Misconduct
- Research Ethics Policy
- PGR Phased Return Policy
- PGR Code of Behaviour
- PGR Fitness to Study Policy
Please note that the NTU Doctoral School interview records form is not included in the list of online forms.
Collaborative partnerships
- Guidance on the Joint, Double and Dual Doctoral awards can be located in Supplement 11 of the NTU Quality Handbook.
NTU Doctorate Education, Training and Development Programme
All PhD candidates at NTU are expected to participate in a rolling programme of professional development activities – our NTU Doctoral Education, Training and Development (DETD) programme. Some of these activities are face-to-face workshops and seminars, but most of the programme is currently delivered online to make it possible for part-time, full-time, at a distance and on campus PGR to make the most of the events on offer.
The DETD is a relatively new programme which is in a piloting phase in 2021-2022. The programme has three 'streams' for new PGR working on their proposals, for PGR who are in the 'middle' of the doctorate, and for PGR approaching submission and examination. There are workshops and webinars tailored for these particular monitoring points of stages of the doctorate, and there are also many events that are open to all PGR regardless of where they are in their own journey. It is our hope that the events on offer will enable and empower doctoral candidates to create their own individualised, bespoke package of activities to support them throughout the key stages of each doctoral programme from project approval to preparing for the submission of the thesis and viva examination.
Some activities within the DETD are essential for candidates to engage with due to their research topic and may be expected by the relevant funding body or by NTU supervisors, but other activities may simply be of interest and aid in mapping out future careers. Since interests naturally change as individuals develop as researchers, this programme enables doctoral candidates to be inquisitive about professional development.
The wide range of workshops and activities accessible within the Researcher Development Programme (RDP) have been mapped to the Vitae Researcher Development Framework.
Current Research Degree guidance and forms for thesis and Viva Voce Examination
Additional Research Degree documentation
Contact the Doctoral School
Email doctoralschool@ntu.ac.uk or chat with the Doctoral School Administration Manager online if you have any questions about doctoral study at NTU.