Attendance Engagement

This process also allows the University to meet its obligation to the Home Office to ensure students who hold a Student Visa are complying with the terms of their visa.

The University reviews the attendance of all Postgraduate Research Students (PGR) to ensure they are engaging with their studies on an ongoing basis.  This is particularly important for international students who hold a Student Visa as the University must be able to confirm to the Home Office that these students are attending regularly and engaging with their studies.  Since PGR students do not have lectures or tutorials, the supervisory meeting records held in NU Reflect system provides the means of confirming a student’s continued attendance/engagement and it is therefore important that students and their supervisor(s) keep these up to date. 

Who is reviewed?

The meeting records of all PGR students are reviewed up to the point of submission.  Students who hold a Student visa must continue to meet with their supervisor(s) and record their meetings up to the point of completion which includes the examination period.

How is attendance reviewed?

The attendance engagement process is undertaken by your Graduate School, who run monthly reports on meeting records held in NU Reflect system to identify students where there has been no no recent engagement/confirmed supervisory meeting.

There are four different emails that can be sent to a student depending on their last confirmed meeting record and whether or not they have received and responded to previous notifications

• Level 1 –An informal automated reminder sent through the NU Reflect system if there has been no recorded and confirmed meetings within 8 weeks. This email provides guidance on meeting records and signposts the student to the Graduate School for help, if they are encountering any difficulties.

• Level 2 – A monthly  report is generated to identify any students who do not have a recorded and confirmed meeting within a 10 weeks period, or who have not had the  expected number of meetings at a given time of year.  A Level 2 email is sent as a reminder of attendance engagement requirements and signposting to help, if they are encountering difficulties.

• Level 3 – If no meetings have been recorded by the time of the next monthly report, a Level 3 email may be sent to the student, which is sent on behalf of the Dean of Postgraduate Studies. The email reminds students of attendance engagement requirements and provides guidance on potential visa implications for Student Visa holders. Students are asked to make contact their Graduate School within 7 days to discuss their situation.

• Level 4 – If there is still no meeting record recorded after the Level 3 email, the student would normally be invited to a meeting with the Graduate School/PG Dean/Visa Service to discuss their situation.

The ultimate sanction of continued non engagement could be curtailment of the student’s visa

Supervisor responsibilities

Supervisors are only copied into Level 4 emails.  Where a student has entered a meeting within the monitored period, but it has not yet been confirmed by the supervisor, the Level 2, 3 or4 email is amended to highlight that it is the supervisor rather than the student who needs to confirm the meeting.  Meetings that have not been confirmed by the supervisor are shown as ‘No – Status not recorded’ in the ‘Confirmed’ column in the Meetings tab.  Students should contact their supervisor to request that they confirm the meeting as soon as possible.

Arrangements during holiday leave

PGR students are entitled to a maximum of seven weeks (35 working days) holiday leave (including all times when the University is officially closed e.g., Christmas and bank holidays). Students must complete a Student Notice of Absence form in advance of any leave of a week or more following agreement with their supervisor and send it to the designated email address for the School, copying in their supervisor.  Supervisory meetings should be resumed and recorded as soon as the student returns from leave

Arrangements when working off campus

If you are intending to work off campus for a period of 4 weeks or more, you should arrange to maintain contact with your supervisor, most commonly via Zoom or Teams, and update NU Reflect accordingly.  PGR students intending to conduct work off campus must complete an ‘Outside Study Form’ which must be approved by their supervisor in advance and submitted to the relevant Graduate School. This applies to any period of time of a month or more working off campus.

Pending submission, extended submission, and under examination students

You are expected to record supervisory meetings in NUReflect up until submission of your thesis, including any Pending Submission and Extended Submission periods of registration.

Student Visa Holders

PGR students who are holders of a Student visa who are either pending submission, extended submission or under examination and residing within the UK must continue to record regular meetings with their supervisor up until completion of their studies.

Occasional students

Every month Student visa holders are required to report to their Graduate School and bring their smartcard along to this meeting. The Graduate School will contact the student with a date and time on which to report. If for any reason a student is unable to attend one of these census dates, they must inform their Graduate School prior to the meeting so another date can be arranged.