At the start of your degree, you will normally be registered as an Advanced Postgraduate (APG) for your first year if you are a full-time researcher or for your first two years if you are a part-time or distance learning researcher. During this period your School/Department will assess your overall suitability as a postgraduate researcher.

Towards the end of your period of registration as an Advanced Postgraduate you will be required to undertake a formal review of your status. The exact format will vary according to your discipline, but it will often involve you producing a written report on your research and presenting this to members of the School/Department academic staff. Taken with the record of your progress in developing your research and other skills, this review forms the basis of a recommendation to the Graduate Dean that you:

• be transferred to a named research degree programme (PhD, MPhil, etc.), or
• be given a short extension of your Advanced Postgraduate status to allow you additional time to demonstrate you have made sufficient progress, or
• have your registration ended on the grounds that you have not demonstrated sufficient progress

Clearly then the Advanced Postgraduate status review is an important milestone in your career as a postgraduate researcher. It is important that you make sure you are properly prepared for the review process and discuss this with your supervisor if you are unsure what to expect.

A copy of the report template is included in your Research Student Progress File - or you can download the template here.