It is your responsibility to complete these required milestones. We suggest you review the Regulations relevant to your degree, and the Research Student Supervision Policy as well as the Master's Thesis Work Policy and Guidelines to ensure that you fully understand the milestones.
It is important to make a time to discuss your progress in relation to each milestone with your supervisory team, and consider your learning needs and goals. This process is important for you, your supervisory team, and the University, to monitor your progress.
Part-time students
The milestone due dates depicted in the diagram above are those for the majority of full-time students. Most part-time students will have their Supervisory Agreement and Research Proposal due at 4 months, Progress Reports due at 10 months and then every 6 months after that, with Submission at 19 months.
The following degrees follow a different reporting timeline, and students in these programmes should check with their Supervisor or Graduate Research Coordinator for this: ME with the course codes ENCM690, ENCI690, ENEQ690, MEFE, MET, MHIT, MMathSci, and MProdDesign.
Enrolment, registration, and milestone approvals are managed by your Faculty.
If you have any questions about the processes, or require clarification, please contact your Faculty Student Advisors or Graduate Research Coordinators.
Milestones
Appointment of supervisors, supervisory agreement, and research proposal
Your full supervisory team is confirmed. Expectations related to your supervisory relationship are established and agreed. It is important that you talk with your supervisory team about all aspects of the Agreement. This will reduce the possibility of issues arising as your studies progress. The outline of your thesis is determined and resourcing confirmed. Your Senior Supervisor may also need to arrange for an External Supervisor Agreement to be completed if you have any supervisors who are not UC staff.
Human ethics, Māori consultation and animal ethics
You should discuss with your supervisors early on in writing your research proposal whether any ethics applications will need to be submitted to the relevant ethics committee(s). This will be required if you plan to work with human or animal participants, or if your research will involve mātauranga Māori. Check out the Responsible Research page to find out more.
Progress reports
Progress reports are due at 6 and 10 months and provide an opportunity for research students to:
- review and track their progress against their overall project plan;
- reflect upon research and development in past months and structure plans for the next part of the research journey; and
- raise any issues or concerns regarding progress.
Thesis submission
You’ve done it! All you need to know about the submission process can be found here.
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