Begin forwarded message:
From: Lisa Reid <lisa.reid@stir.ac.uk>
Subject: FW: Urgent - ACTION REQUIRED: IAS - Postgraduate Researchers
Date: 5 April 2024 at 13:24:40 BST
To: SMS Centre for Grad Research <smsgradresearch@stir.ac.uk>
Cc: Ines Branco-Illodo <ines.branco-illodo@stir.ac.uk>, Knut Laaser <knut.laaser@stir.ac.uk>, Isaac Tabner <isaac.tabner@stir.ac.uk>, Steve Burt <s.l.burt@stir.ac.uk>, Melanie McLeod <m.a.mcleod@stir.ac.uk>
Dear PGR students and Supervisors.Sent on behalf of Ines Branco-Illodo, PGR Director.In case you did not receive the message via Canvas, please note as below, the university is asking for all records to be up to date by 19th April 2024.I attach the research compass user guide. Please let me know if you need any help.Kind regardsLisaFrom: IAS - Postgraduate Researchers <notifications@instructure.com>
Sent: Friday, April 5, 2024 12:08 PM
To: Lisa Reid <lisa.reid@stir.ac.uk>
Subject: Urgent - ACTION REQUIRED: IAS - Postgraduate ResearchersCAUTION: This email originated from outside University of Stirling. Do not follow links or open attachments if you doubt the authenticity of the sender or the content.
Dear PGR students,
ACTION REQUIRED
An across-University team led by the Institute for Advanced Studies is currently reviewing a wide range of administrative processes to further enhance the PGR student experience from application to graduation. This ‘PGR Student Lifecycle’ project, which aims to respond to feedback from current doctoral students and via the annual PRES survey, will shortly make a variety of recommendations for changes to improve the PGR student experience, for implementation over the next few months.
One of the key workstreams of the project has been to review how we manage student data records covering a variety of issues including leaves of absence, supervisory meetings and contact points etc. We are sending this message, and requiring action from you now because during our work we have discovered that some student records in Research Compass are incomplete.
Your student records must be completed as a matter of urgency. It is imperative that these records are fully accurate and up to date. We rely on this information to inform our reporting on PGR activities to a range of external bodies including funders such as the Research Councils and UKVI. Failure to maintain accurate and up-to-date complete records will see the University breach its license to operate and endanger the recruitment and continuation of PGR students.
We require that all PGR students (irrespective of full time/part time status, and including those currently on suspension of studies/leave of absence) and their supervisors review their Research Compass records by Friday 19th of April to ensure that by then they are fully populated and up-to-date. Faculty Deans and PGR Directors will follow up with all supervisors in the week after the 19th to confirm that records for all students have been fully updated. Where records are not complete, steps will have to be taken to either complete them urgently, or to review the ongoing registration of the individual students involved.
We are afraid that there is no leeway in this for supervisors or PGR students; it is a legal compliance issue and we have no choice other than to adhere to these regulations. We should also note that these regulations are under review by UKVI and there is every likelihood that the University will be required to further strengthen them before September 2024.
Completing records in a timely fashion on Research Compass will help everyone be compliant and also help us in our assurance of learning and successful, timely outcomes for students.
As part of our ongoing improvement work, we are considering how we might migrate from Research Compass to alternative software consistent with wider university IT systems to make record keeping tasks more efficient in future.
Please contact IAS@stir.ac.uk if you have any queries regarding this request.
Kind regards,Professor Iain Docherty
Dean, Institute for Advanced StudiesProfessor Leigh Sparks
Deputy Principal, Education and Students