Monday 6 February 2012

Thesis Monitoring Committee

Last week, I met with my thesis monitoring committee, or TMC. Until I asked my supervisor the week beforehand what it was, I didn't really know.

Essentially, TMCs (at my university anyway) have a pastoral role. Their aim is to make sure you are coping with your workload, that you are getting enough time from your supervisor and whether there is anything going on in your life outside university that might cause you some problems. You meet twice per academic year, to ensure everyone's kept in the loop but also to give you fairly regular opportunities to raise anything if you wish to do so.

Discovering this was a relief. Until I spoke to my supervisor a week beforehand, I thought they were part of the assessment that decides whether you get to continue past the first year of your PhD. That, it turns out, is a whole other ketlle of fish to worry about. But anyway.

I found my TMC helpful, if for nothing else than to see what it was like! The postgraduate co-ordinator was there, as well as my second supervisor, and it turns out it's nothing to be scared of after all. They gave me some useful pointers for what I could do next to help boost things like my employability, which is always good to know. They felt my own plans for improving my productivity were pretty good as is.

On that note, this week is being spent coding, so I'll wait and see if I have anything to tell you on Thursday. I'm also sufferring under a nasty chest infection, so I'm trying to be productive as I can whilst resting as much as possible too, if that's not an oxymoron!

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