PhD Handbook : Biomedical Sciences

It is expected that you attend University daily, except by mutual agreement of your supervisor(s) or Research Director. Typically, PhD Researchers work 35-40 hours per week between the hours of 9.00am - 5.00pm. Holidays must be approved by your supervisor and must not exceed a total of eight weeks, including public holidays (40 days) per year.

If you need to take some leave, you should inform your supervisor and record your leave on PhD manager. If the leave is for more than two weeks, you must notify your supervisors, who will then notify the Doctoral College in writing of the dates of absence, accompanied by a medical certificate. You should notify your supervisors at the first available opportunity of prolonged absence due to sickness.

If you require a prolonged period of leave (exceeding 28 days), then you may need to consider taking a Leave of Absence. Funded PhD Researchers should be aware that they may normally be allowed a Leave of Absence for a maximum of one year. It is important to note that your maintenance grant will be suspended during a Leave of Absence, although with medical evidence, you can avail of 13 weeks paid sick leave per annum.

You are not permitted to take up paid employment during a Leave of Absence. Please read the terms and conditions of your funding if applicable. If you decide to request a Leave of Absence, please submit your request on PhD Manager once you have spoken with your supervisor.

If you need any further information or advice regarding attendance and absence regulations, please contact your supervisor or Postgraduate Tutor.

International PhD Researcher’s Attendance

Attendance of international PhD Researchers will be monitored to ensure we meet our sponsor license obligations with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). Engagement of Student Route visa holders will be evidenced through recording an in-person meeting via PhD Manager and having the notes accepted by a supervisor for each calendar month (last day of the month), unless there is a pre-approved study away, leave of absence, annual leave or other authorised leave.

If the Researcher does not have an in-person meeting recorded and does not have a valid reason for this, i.e. the absence was not pre-approved on PhD Manager, it will be noted as an unauthorised absence. If the International PhD Researcher has two unauthorised absences within an academic year, the Compliance Team may invite you to a meeting to review continuation of sponsorship of your student visa.

Tips to avoid registering an unauthorised absence:

• Consider scheduling meetings with your supervisor in advance, perhaps at the beginning of the month, to give your supervisor sufficient time to approve the meeting notes logged on PhD Manager.
• Remind your supervisors to approve the meetings if necessary.
• If none of your supervisors are available to meet in person in any month, please contact the Postgraduate Tutor in your area to make arrangements to meet with an alternative member of staff for the purposes of monthly monitoring and to record this as usual on PhD Manager as a meeting with supervisors, but with a note of the alternative staff member you met with.