Information for Students

PGR Handbook

Information and guidance about the regulations.

What to do in your first 6 months

Need some ideas? Read this page for useful tips and suggestions.

PGR Timeline

A detailed look at what each year on the PhD/Professional Doctorate programmes entail.

Wellbeing and Disability Services

What’s available, both internally and externally, to help you look after your personal wellbeing and mental health

Student Reps

If you would like to contact your student rep their details can be found here.

Updated 09.10.23

Researcher Environment

The Researcher Environment Team provide support to PGRs from all Schools, including training, online resources and drop-in sessions.

Research Tools

From data analysis and digital tools to reference management and reminder tools, click here for further suggestions.

Library / IT support

Computing and Library Services provide a wide variety of facilities and support for PGRs.

The Students' Union

You can find out about SU PGR networks and representation across the University.

Support for International Students

Read this page for more information about international societies, events and support for PGRs.

Enterprise and Business

Learn more about the support available to PGRs for developing your own business, freelancing and self-employment opportunities.

Careers Service

What the Careers and Employability Service offer, Vitae, useful job websites and the skills recruiters are looking for.

Where to turn if things aren’t working

To access help or advice during your research degree, click here for further information and contact details.

ResearchFish Submissions for those on a funded PhD

If you are the recipient of a funded PhD you will be required to make a yearly submission to the funder.

If you are the recipient of a funded PhD, for example from UKRI (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC), you will be required to make a yearly submission to the funder regarding what types of outcomes have resulted over the past year. UKRI in particular require their PhD grant recipients to continue to submit a yearly report for 3 years after the PhD ends.

For the past few years, these submissions have been optional. This continues to be the case for the 2023 submission period.

Even though the submission is currently optional, and you may not have any outcomes (such as published journal articles or public engagement activities) to report yet, it is still beneficial to login and make a submission.

Why?

Having a funded PhD is prestigious. If you are considering a career as an academic/researcher, a career in research support, or a career working for a funding body, then being able to say you have used the reporting system (called ResearchFish) and are familiar with it is something you can add to your CV. Many funders use ResearchFish to manage their reporting and it is the same system that academic staff and Principal Investigators use when they have received a grant.
Even if you don’t have any outcomes to report yet, submissions are valuable in helping funders understand the outcomes of student research, timescales and in particular the impact the pandemic has had on student outcomes.
Submissions are likely to become mandatory again in future, so being able to login, familiarise yourself with the system and make a submission now will likely make this process easier in future years.

You can login to ResearchFish and add outcomes to your PhD at any time throughout the year. However, there is a limited period each year where you can submit these outcomes to the funder. We call this the Submission Period. The ResearchFish Submission Period for 2023 begins on February 6^th and ends at 16:00 on March 16^th.

If you would like to login and make a submission, you will receive an email from your funder (for example UKRI), with further information before the submission period begins. This email will have instructions on how to login and what kinds of things to include/not include in your submission.

If you need any further help or guidance, the institutional contact for ResearchFish submissions is the Open Access Manager based in the University’s Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange service. Please email oa@hud.ac.uk with any questions. You can also contact ResearchFish directly by emailing support@researchfish.com.

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