Information for Students

Information for Students

 

Information for Current Students

Information for SBOHVM PGRs

staff and students social event

Here you can find some local specific information about structures, opportunities, and activities specifically relevant to School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine.

Note that most formal aspects to your programme such as registration, training, and guide to student conduct, thesis expectations, policies and forms, and completion are provided by the MVLS Graduate School.

Any additional questions, please contact the PGR Convenors  and/or the PGR Administrator. 

Postgraduate Research Convenors

Postgraduate Research Convenors are responsible for overseeing your training and progression through your research degree. They deal with problems, advise on regulations, help with applications for research training money and run the annual review process that checks your progress every year. They are always available through a joint email address, sbohvm-pgr-convenor@glasgow.ac.uk, which we generally recommend you use to make sure the message gets to the right person, and in case one of them is away. 

Kathryn Elmer is the Lead Convenor and attends most of the university meetings representing the School. 

There are also two Deputy Conveners, Davina Hill who deals especially with issues related to Garscube and research away from Glasgow, and Paul Johnson who deals with  IT  related issues concerning the University and College’s online systems – such as the PGR reporting system.  Michelle Bellingham is the Convenor for the MVM (Master of Veterinary Medicine), which is a clinical programme.  Katie Denholm is the Deputy MVM Convenor, based at Garscube.

Key Administration Support Staff

Sarah Chiodetto   

Head of Professional Services

Jennifer Crawford 

Deputy Head of Professional Services

Claire Malcolm            

Senior Research Administrator

Lorna Kennedy

Recruitment Administrator (HR, PA to Research Director

Helena Evans

Administrative Officer

Gillian Dyer                   

PGR Administrator and Garscube Support

Nathan Miller               

Administrative Assistant (Wed – Frid)

Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte

Administrative Assistant (Mon – Tues)

Pauline Thorburn         

SCENE Administrator 

Kate Griffiths                

Technical Resource Manager / Health and Safety 

Ross Phillips                 

Named Animal Care Welfare Officer (Graham Kerr Building) 

Hannele Honkanen      

Research Support Manager 

Postgraduate Student Representatives

The MVLS Graduate School has a Postgraduate Committee with student representation from each School, and the School has its own elected Postgraduate representatives. These change regularly but they have a joint email sbohvm-pgr-rep@gla.ac.uk.  The 2024-2025 Reps are Irem Denizli (based at Garscube), Corin Stansfield (based at Graham Kerr) You can contact them informally about anything you’d like support with if you’d prefer to talk to another student rather than one of the convenors. 

Postgraduate Training

We aim to provide you with the highest standard of research training. In addition to the help and guidance provided by your supervisor, you will be required to attend a number of training courses, including how to apply for credits for courses not run by the Graduate School, and other things that are eligible for credit, such as giving talks at conferences. The Learning Enhancement & Academic Development Service also offers an expanding repertoire of courses for postgraduate students.

Additionally we have some opportunities to fund to support “student-led” training courses and activities. If you have ideas for ways to develop your skills in leadership, teamwork, communication or anything else likely to enhance your career then discuss these with other students, your reps, and the PGR convenors.

Research Seminars

A valuable way of learning about other research in the School is to attend the research seminars, and you should be attending these regularly. There are two main regular types of seminars within School. On Wednesdays (usually at 1-2pm) there are seminars given by visiting speakers chosen to cover a range of research fields and last an hour. You can see the programme of external seminars here.

On Friday at 4pm the postgraduates give shorter and more informal presentations of their proposed and/or recent research – these are designed to give you practice in giving research talks and feedback on your work. You must give a short talk (approximately 10 mins plus 5 mins questions) in your first year to discuss your proposed research, and longer talks (approximately 20 mins plus 5 mins questions) in your second and third years. Giving a presentation is compulsory and is part of your annual review. This series of seminars is organised by the postgraduates themselves and the programme is available here .

After completing your thesis and in the run- up to your viva, you must also give a full length (hour-long) pre-viva talk.

 In addition, members of the School often arrange extra informal seminars given by visiting scientists or members of the School who would like to practice a talk (e.g., before giving it at a conference). Different research groups also hold informal discussion groups on particular topics or types of research methodology. All the other Schools and Schools in the University run their own seminar programmes.

Demonstrating

Many postgraduate students help to demonstrate to undergraduate classes. Apart from the financial benefits, demonstrating provides useful teaching experience. The number of demonstrators needed will vary from year to year, but if you wish to become a demonstrator you must discuss this with your supervisor. Demonstrating restricts the amount of time for research and, for this reason, you may find that your supervisor will want to place limits on the amount of demonstrating that you carry out.

Contact the Life Sciences Support Team and attend a training course – details are here - before becoming a demonstrator.  Training and registration must be complete before any demonstrating support can be undertaken.  It may also be possible, once you are well into your project, to set an aspect of it as an undergraduate project. If you have an idea of this kind, make sure to discuss it with your supervisor.

At Garscube demonstration help is often required for classes with veterinary students. Some of this work requires you to have veterinary training whilst other classes are more general. Lissann Wolfe is the contact for this. People are also usually required for OSCE (exams) help at certain times of the year and training for these are required.

Monitoring your Progress

The MVLS Graduate School and the School takes care to monitor the progress of all postgraduate students to ensure that your work is progressing well and that you are on schedule to submit a thesis within 3.5-4 years. The requirements for each component are detailed on the Graduate School Website.  That is the primary source of relevant information and first port of call for Annual Review process.

Convenors will send an email reminder about annual reviews each year, with key information and details for non-standard start times – please consult it and save it.

An assessment is made at the initial and annual review as to whether you are suited to a PhD. Re-admission to study occurs at the beginning of October each year and is dependent on a satisfactory report of progress (See Graduate School website).

Health, Safety, Environment, Ethics and Travel

For Health and Safety Information please see here.

For permission to carry out fieldwork, meetings, or research outside the University, please see here. 

For Ethics information please see here. 

Students are expected to book their own Travel via the Travel Hub.

 

 

Student Expenses

  • Avoid  out of pocket expenses as much as possible.  All purchasing should be done through university procurement and only in very limited cases are out of pocket expenses approved. You much confirm any such expense in advance with your supervisor.

 

  • All student expenses for payment to a UK Bank Account must be submitted through MyCampus.

 

 

  • Please also familiarise yourself with the student expenses policy - Student Expenses policy (gla.ac.uk) and note that claims must be submitted within 3 months of the expense being incurred.  Claims submitted out with this period will be rejected, no exceptions.

 

 

  • When submitting expenses, please note that no expense can be incurred under the “other” category, this will be rejected.

 

  • For expenses with receipts not in GBP the expense must be converted to GBP using the exchange rate for the date of expenditure, using either https://www.xe.com/ or https://x-rates.com. Evidence of the conversion must also be provided as part of your claim, uploaded alongside your receipt in one pdf/jpeg, this can also be the transaction shown on a bank statement. The Currency Conversion should not be submitted as a separate line on your claim. Any issues with this, please contact the PGR Administrator.

 

  • When completing the claim each receipt mut be entered separately.

 

Ordering and Procurement

Ordering          

All orders are placed by the MVLS Finance Hub.  In order to place an order, you need to complete a MVLS Order Form and submit to the PGR Administrator in the first instance. You will need to provide a budget code to be charged and approval from your Supervisor.

 

Conference/Course Registration

This can also be done via the MVLS hub and you should complete a MVLS Order Form and submit to the PGR Administrator – please ensure that you provide the link for registration and all required information.  You will need to provide a budget code to be charged and approval from your Supervisor.

 

Procurement

This guidance is for individuals procuring non-framework goods and services with a total value less than £25,000. Individuals must ensure no local contracts or collaborative contracts exist prior to initiating a procurement process. Please visit http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/procurementoffice/ for further information. 

 

Value of Purchase*

Requirement

£0 to £999

1 verbal quotation

£1,000 to £2,999

1 written quotation

£3,000 to £4,999

2 written quotations

£5,000 to £24,999

3 written quotations

£25,000 +

Contact Procurement Office

 

If you have any questions on the procurement process, please post your query on the Research Admin Queries Teams Channel.

 

Laptop Purchasing

If you wish to purchase a laptop, you first need to get a quote - University of Glasgow - MyGlasgow - IT - IT purchasing - PCs Laptops and Tablets

 

Once you have the quote, you need to submit a request to IT Helpdesk to have the quote approved. University of Glasgow - MyGlasgow - IT - IT Helpdesk

 

  • Request or Report something
  • IT: Hardware
  • Category – Purchasing

 

You will also need to attach a copy of the quote – this can be done in the attachments section.

Once it has been approved by IT, you need to check that the quote is on the portal, this can be done by emailing scottishgovcatsupport@hp.com.  You will then need to complete the MVLS Order Form and submit to the PGR Administrator. You will need to provide a budget code to be charged and approval from your Supervisor.

Travel Between Gilmorehill and Garscube Campuses

Travel between Campuses

Whenever possible, the bus service should be used between Campuses - here is a link to bus timetable for the Number 15 bus that travels between Garscube and Gilmorehill.  The buses run every 30 minutes.

If you need to book a taxi between Campuses,  please post your request on the Research Admin Teams Site.

PGR Web Profiles

A Web Profile on the School Website is something the PGR Convenors and Supervisors are very keen that you all have. This is an important tool for your networking and highlighting your research.  

A link to your profile will appear on your supervisors' profiles and also PGR student list within the School. 

Please note that you are not automatically added to the PGR Web Profile list due to GDPR regulations, and you need to sign up here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/webpublishing/registrationandtraining/pgprofile/

All SBOHVM website profiles are here - University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine - Our staff - Postgraduates

 More information on web profiles can be found here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/bohvm/about/studentstaff/communications/staffandstudentprofiles/#howdoiupdatemypgrstudentprofile%3F

We propose the following for adding content to your profile:

  • First three months: photo/project summary/ORCID/link to external profile/linkedin/
  • As and when relevant/desired: new details about research activity or work within your research group; a more detailed research overview (Possibly flag outcomes to add to profile during annual review)
  • As and when they occur: published journal article, successful grant bid, conference paper/presentation etc.

Because this involves only occasional use of t4, and big gaps in between use, IT plan to create task-focused training guides which contain all the steps for completing a task, from logging in to t4, to the completion and publish of the new content.

A basic profile is quite quick and easy to set up. It is created and published on the website for you after you have completed the registration process and give consent for a profile to be created.  This is an opt In process and your profile won’t appear unless you opt in using the link above. This doesn’t require you to log into t4.

The registration process does create a t4 account for you, but you only need to log-in and use t4 when you are ready to, or want to, add more information to your profile. 

Desk Space - Graham Kerr Building

There are desks within the Graham Kerr Building that students can book to use.  This is done via a Teams Channel Desk Booking - GKB | General | Microsoft Teams. 

 

    • You are expected to book your own space
    • Desk space must be booked through this Channel - you should not be using a desk that you have not booked
    • All desks are numbered, when booking a desk, please ensure that you use the desk you have booked
    • The number of students wishing to book a desk may exceed  availability
    • Please do not block book a desk every day if you won’t be using it every day 
    • Room 306 – 6 Desks; Room 308 – 9 Desks; Room 321a – 9 Desks; Room 321b – 9 Desks
    • Other desks on campus are available: Library, McCune-Smith, ARC atrium, Graham Kerr museum, Gilchrist, etc.

 

All students should have access but if you don’t please let the PGR Administrator know and you will be added.

Social Activities

The  School strives to have an active, inclusive and varied range of social activities.

On Fridays after seminar we regularly have ‘Friday Fox’ drinks (beer, wine, and non-alcoholic) and chat, usually held in the Zoology Museum immediately after Friday seminar from 5-6.30 pm. This is led and organised by PhD students.

We have fortnightly ‘coffee (and treats!) in the Zoology Museum or Garscube. This is led by staff on a rota alternating between sites. See the schedule here.

We also have other events and activities such as Black Fox (Friday Fox + live music), a community garden, ad hoc outing and events organnised by the PhD students. Please join the social mailing list and School calendar for more!

 

Overseas Students

Overseas Students

The University has an International Students Welcome Programme and the International Student Support Team can help with many issues throughout the year – please see here.