Academic support and learning resources
Whether you are a taught or research postgraduate student, our extensive support and learning resources will help you get the most from your time at Sussex. Individual attention from your personal tutor, advisor or supervisors, plus other essential resources and facilities mean we offer a supportive environment in which to undertake exciting, innovative and challenging postgraduate work.
Academic support
- personal attention from your tutor or research degree supervisor
- our new Doctoral School will initially, until it is formally housed on campus, provide a 'virtual' home for researchers, enhancing local arrangements in academic schools. Research students are integrated into the wider University research community
- research skills training helps your academic career develop
- get involved with research groups tackling real-world problems
- excellent learning facilities such as language training, multimedia resources, and disability support
As a postgraduate student at Sussex, most of your day-to-day contact and support will be provided via your department or interdisciplinary unit. Each postgraduate taught (PGT) student has a programme convenor, who may also be their personal tutor or advisor. The Director of Taught Programmes is responsible for PGT students.
Postgraduate research (PGR) students are assigned two supervisors, but your primary source of academic support will be your main research degree supervisor. In addition, each department or interdisciplinary unit has a person with overall responsibility for research degree students within it.
To supplement sources of academic support and advice, assistance is also available in relation to problems or queries of a more personal nature. The University has specially trained student advisors who are available for general support and guidance, and who can intervene on your behalf where problems or difficulties arise.
Doctoral School
Sussex is committed to helping the next generation of researchers to fulfil their full potential, and recognising their contribution both within their own disciplines and to the distinctive interdisciplinary research environment at Sussex.
The Doctoral School is an innovative new development at the University that enhances the support provided to postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers. It ensures they feel fully integrated as members of the University's wider research community, and provides an exciting environment for all researchers across the University to interact. Researchers at all levels can come together to share their interests and also become involved in new or related areas. Working in this way also encourages collaboration and allows everyone, from DPhil students to professors, to play their role in tackling the complex research challenges that, working alone, they would not be able to address.
Sussex has a long heritage of interdisciplinarity, working across traditional subject boundaries. The University's newly introduced research themes, draw on Sussex's core intellectual strengths, and have been developed so that interdisciplinary teams can work together to solve the real-world issues of the day.
As a postgraduate researcher, you will therefore have the opportunity to get involved, researching areas like infectious diseases, new media technologies, climate change, recording the past, international security, or brain imaging. Further details on the research themes are available on the research section of the Sussex website.
For further information please visit the Doctoral School website.
Research training and development
Researchers need the very best subject-specific skills training in methodologies and techniques to conduct and complete their work to the highest standards. Increasingly, potential employers and Research Councils place great importance on transferable skills, entrepreneurship and personal development, essential both in later life and in securing the optimal career path for someone who has achieved a doctorate.
The Doctoral School seeks to ensure that Sussex postgraduate students receive any necessary additional research training, as well as coordinating more general skills training to enhance postgraduate researchers' personal development. In addition to a number of tailored courses, Sussex runs the Profolio Programme, which was shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Award for 'Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers' in 2008.
The programme, open to all postgraduate researchers, comprises a series of workshops, a pendrive to record a professional skills portfolio, and an online researcher profile facility to promote yourself and your research while you are at Sussex.
Research Council-funded doctoral researchers are expected to undertake the equivalent of two weeks of training per year but, beyond meeting Research Council requirements, all our doctoral researchers are encouraged to take the fullest advantage of all the training and development opportunities the Doctoral School offers.
Also, refer to the Career development and part-time work web page for an outline of the activities that support early career development.
Standards and support
The Doctoral School oversees the quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation of activities to ensure the University's high expectations and standards are maintained. At Sussex, we truly recognise that studying for a doctorate is a major personal and intellectual commitment, requiring high levels of academic and personal support.
While the primary academic support for a doctoral researcher will be provided by their main supervisor within their school, there are also Directors of Doctoral Studies (one per school) who are on hand to provide additional academic guidance, if required, and to ensure that the standards set by the Doctoral School are upheld.
For more information refer to the Doctoral School website.
Research groups
At Sussex we think it is vital that as a postgraduate student you are actively involved and engaged in the research life of the University. Our research groups and units undertake a very active programme of seminars and research activities, which are open to all members of the Sussex community.
Feedback from students
We take feedback and comment from our students seriously, and have developed a range of student surveys and evaluation to improve the services we provide to our PGT and PGR communities.
Emma's perspective
'After studying at Sussex for my undergraduate degree, there was nothing I wanted to do more than stay here for my Masters and subsequent DPhil.
'One of the main reasons I wanted to stay at Sussex was because the learning resources here are so vast. The Library on campus has a huge range of books for all subject areas, and as a postgraduate student you can borrow a large number of books at once, making researching easier.
'The computer facilities at Sussex - in both the Library and all around campus - are also great, and I often prefer to come on to campus to work rather than stay at home.'
Amelia's perspective
'After finishing my undergraduate degree at Sussex, choosing to stay on here was an easy decision. The outstanding reputation of the researchers was a big factor for me. This gives postgraduate students the opportunity to be involved in cutting-edge research with state-of-the-art equipment and resources.
'The University is extremely supportive of its postgraduate students and has always provided me with all the encouragement and assistance I need to be successful in my research. This ranges from social events with fellow students, to training courses on everything from computer programs to public speaking and presentation skills. In fact, if you want training or help with improving your skills and there isn't currently a course on it, then just suggest it and the University will do its best to introduce it.'