Preparing for your upgrade

In this episode I talk to a range of PGRs from the University of Exeter about their experience of the upgrade process, where student’s progress is assessed to enable a change in registration from MPhil to PhD. Here they share what the upgrade involved, how they prepared and what their upgrade viva or presentation was like.

This episode features:

• Jo Sutherst, PGR in Art History and Visual Culture. You can follow Jo on twitter @JoSutherst.
• Steve Burrows, PGR in Marine Biology. You can follow Steve on twitter @Steve_D_Burrows.
• Merve Mollaahmetoglu, PGR in Psychology. You can follow Merve on twitter @mervemolla, and listen to her podcast PhD: addicted to research
• Aoife Maher, PGR in the Centre for Rural Policy.

If you are preparing for your upgrade, you may find these blog posts useful:

• Surviving your PhD Upgrade – Merve Mollaahmetolgu
• Top 40 Potential Viva Questions
• Preparing for a Virtual Upgrade – Issy Sawkins
• PhD Chat My PhD Upgrade Experience – Debbie Kinsey

We will be running a question and answer panel for University of Exeter PGRs on Wednesday 24^th February at 2pm. You can book your place on My Career Zone.

You can access the University of Exeter policy on the Upgrade, and the temporary policy for COVID-19.

Music credit: Happy Boy Theme Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

 

Podcast Transcript

 

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Hello and welcome to R, D and the In-betweens.

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I'm your host, Kelly Preece, and every fortnight I talk to a different guest about researchers development and everything in between.

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Hello and welcome to the latest episode of R, D and the In Betweens.

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For this episode, I'm gonna be talking to three of our PGRs at the University of Exeter about the process that at Exeter we call the upgrade.

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I've heard it variously called the transfer. The confirmation, whatever your university calls it,

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it's the process through which your candidacy or your status is upgraded from MPhil to PhD or insert other acronyms here,

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depending on what kind of research degree programme you're on. Before we start,

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I want to just say the caveat to say obviously the advice being given in this episode is very specific to the processes at the University of Exeter.

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And you should absolutely if you're listening from other institutions, go and find out more about the specifics of the processes at your institution.

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Although there may be similarities with how we do this at Exeter to there will inevitably be differences.

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And in fact, as you'll see throughout this episode, there are even differences within the university,

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depending on the college and discipline that you're in. And without further ado, I'm going to hand over to our PGRs.

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First up, we've got Jo Sutherst. Jo's been on the podcast before talking about being a distance based researcher.

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And Jo is based in the Department of Art, History and Visual Culture in the College of Humanities.

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So can you tell me a little bit about the process of preparing for the upgrade?

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So for my upgrade, I had to submit five pieces of work in advance, which was a time plan of a page,

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an abstract, thesis chapter plan, a project proposal and a writing sample of between five and six thousand words.

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Then once those have been submitted and had a good look at, then there was the upgrade viva.

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So for me, I started work on these things really early.

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So my initial deadline was the beginning of May 2020.

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It did subsequently move slightly because of the pandemic.

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So I started back in December, started to put these documents together,

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and I had regular meetings with my supervisors and I regularly submitted work to them to have a look at and to critique and to give feedback on.

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And then I also as part of my preparation, spoke to people, particularly in things like shut up and write about what their experiences have been,

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what kind of things people were trying to do or having to do, and how they were finding it,

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how they prepared particularly for the upgrade over what they did to prepare for that and ask lots of questions.

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And I think the important thing about the upgrade preparation is that.

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You try to or I tried initially to fit myself into a box that I only did to look a particular way, and a few of us fell into that trap,

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particularly things like the time plan and the chapter plan, because at the end of the day, your work's unique.

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So it needs to fit your project and not what you think is a checklist of what needs to be in each of those items.

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So it was essentially that the main thing is starting early and just keeping on top of regular submissions and regular feedback.

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Thanks so much, Jo. That's a really helpful overview of how you prepared for your upgrade.

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So now could you tell me a little bit about the upgrade itself?

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Yeah. So I'm from humanities, from art history, and visual culture. And each of us, each discipline has its own requirements.

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So the biggest part of the upgrade. The upgrade for myself.

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Was the writing sample between five and six thousand words.

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Although I submitted nearly six and a half thousand words, because if I had cut it, it just didn't make sense.

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So I think you just have to realise that that's a guideline for the number of words, and that's quite important.

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It's actually a really, really supportive process,

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although at the time you think it's quite stressful and if you've never done anything like it before, it can feel really stressful.

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Add into that lockdown pandemic. It all comes to feel like a really big task, but actually it's really supportive.

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And it's really good to see your whole PhD laid out in front of you.

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The plans that you had at the start actually down on paper and just see it all start to come together.

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And it's absolutely amazing to talk through your plans, your work, your research questions, the stuff that you've already written.

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So good to talk to other people, other academics who'll give you a completely different viewpoint on a particular point or say to you,

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like, in my case it was they picked out certain things that got these things are really key.

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They're really unique and they're really exciting. And they're things that I thought was exciting.

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But you sort of think you need to go a particular way as well at parts. But to have someone else go, you know, that bit that that's a nugget.

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You know, that's really, really good.

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It's so good for your confidence and actually is quite an exciting and really supportive, great, fantastic process.

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But before you get there, you think, oh, my goodness, it's really stressful.

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Thanks, Jo. So next, that we're going to take a completely different perspective or certainly in terms of discipline on the upgrade process.

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We're going to hear from Steve Burrows. Steve is a PGR in bio sciences in our College of Life and Environmental Sciences.

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So, Steve, how did you prepared for your upgrade? The main part, obviously, was the upgrade document.

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So that was the general outline and background of my projects subject.

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And then an outline of my plan thesis structure.

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So it's just going through the ins and outs of what methods that was used in, why I was using them,

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and what the four chapters that I hadn't completed, what I had planned and why I was doing about it, where it was basically.

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And so for the. So I had to prepare a documents that prepared.

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I think it was a 25 minute PowerPoint presentation that I had to send to them beforehand.

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And that was a basic like basically going through the content of the upgrade documents.

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And then there was the gantt chart. So that was like a planned timeline for the project.

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So what I plan to deliver at what times throughout the PhD

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Thanks, Steve. And what about the upgrade and the upgrade, viva itself? Yes,

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So it was kind of the most stressful part was kind of a build up to those.

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So you prepared this document for such an amount of time and you kind of build up in your head.

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There's this great milestone that's coming up. And so it gets a little better.

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It's a little bit like anxiety inducing. And it's kind of that's kind of the worst bit.

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And then it happens. And then you, as you're going through the talk with the assessors,

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it turns in to more like more of a conversation after you do the actual presentation.

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It's a lot more conversational and you realise that they're you know, at least in my experience, it was very constructive.

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And I definitely gained a lot from it. But in terms of preparing for the actual presentation itself, a lot of my preparation.

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Well, I mean, outside, just making sure that I knew everything.

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Well, as much as I could about the background and the different methods and techniques that I was using,

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the most beneficial thing for me preparing was actually explained like going through the

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presentation and having a conversation with people that weren't necessarily in my field

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So whether that was other PhDs or postdocs, that would just listen to me.

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And. After it's after I gave them the presentation,

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they'd have different questions and there'd be there'd be a few curveballs and that I wouldn't necessarily be able to predict myself.

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And so it kind of helped me become. It helps you become a little bit more adaptable kind of which

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Yeah, I find that really useful. And this or any particular advice you give anyone who's got the upgrade coming up?

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So like I said before,

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that the main advice would be just to go through that process with friends or colleagues not necessarily in your fields or maybe like tangent,

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like somewhat connected, but not directly. And they'll.

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Least it was my experience they'd kind of produce situations that you can learn from

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that are going to be similar to what you're going to come across in the upgrade

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For the things that I'd recommend being OK with saying that you don't know something that was really that was really liberating,

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liberating in a way because it just it just takes the stress off a little bit.

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You know, you're only human. You're a student still and you're still you know, you're still learning.

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And so it's important to know that it's OK to say that you don't know that the ceiling is not going to crash in on you.

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If you do, you know, it's not the end of the world. I didn't understand.

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And it was like, say, my experience was very constructive and there was very much okay with hearing that.

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I think I've said it once or twice. And it's, you know, it's completely okay to say that.

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Another tip probably I have is if. Because it's so I talked about the anxiety builds up before you go into the upgrade

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And I'm quite an anxious person as it is.

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One thing I would recommend is it's kind of just look after your own well-being beforehand and understanding that the anxiety it.

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You know, it it does play a part in, you know. Quotation marks like performance on the day.

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So taken up things like meditation and things like that, I found very beneficial to dealing with those sorts of situations, throughout the PhD as well.

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So I can highly recommend that. And it's really there's loads of different apps and stuff like that that you can

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download and get into it quite easily if you got the student version of Spotify.

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And I'm pretty sure you get the Headspace app free with that.

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I can't recommend that enough if anyone's. If that resonates with anyone else.

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Next, we have Merve Mollaahmetoglu 
 who is a PGR in psychology, talking about her experience of preparing for the upgrade.

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It must have been about a year ago. I think. I started preparing for it.

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Yes. For me, it was sort of thinking about the upgrade report, which was the biggest part of the process in my case.

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So now, you know, it's different requirements for different disciplines, but in psychology and probably other STEM disciplines as well.

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The report is quite an important part and it involves writing a literature review.

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And usually you'll be asked to write up about an empirical study and its results, at least one study.

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And then also talking about future plans. I think that was a key part of the preparation of the upgrade reports.

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And I worked closely with my supervisor to work on a report, basically writing up the results of my study,

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writing a literature review and thinking about future studies and sort of what's stage.

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So I had some other studies that I was working on, but that weren't completed. I was kind of writing up about.

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Okay, so when do I expect to complete this? What stage am I at

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And I think that was a really useful thing to include because it shows that you're

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thinking about all these different stages and you have a clear plan for going forward.

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So what did the upgrade process actually involve for you in psychology? What did you have to submit?

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And did you have a viva? Yes, of course.

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As I said, the upgrade involved from me writing a report which consisted of a literature review, at least one.

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empirical study and talking about future studies. I think it was meant to be about 10000 words at the time, roughly about that.

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And then I also had a viva a mini viva

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They call it. Which sort of lasted about, I think up to an hour.

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And it was sort of, you know, talking about your reports, asking you questions about why you chose that specific area of research,

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you know, justifications or research questions, any clarifications of methodological considerations.

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And then discussing plans for future studies.

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And for me, but I think in most cases, it also involves the examiners giving you a bit of feedback about what you should be doing next.

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You know, in some cases, they might say, oh, you know, we think that you should really focus on X, Y, Z.

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In my case, they said, you know, it might be best for you to focus on writing up your studies for publication.

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You know, maybe rather than doing any more studies, because we sort of had plans for a couple of studies in place already.

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So that was one of the recommendations from my upgrades in terms of, you know, going forward, with my PhD

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Yeah. That sounds like a really supportive and fruitful process.

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Is there anything that you wish you knew before you started preparing for the upgrade or worrying about it?

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Is there anything that I wish I knew? But I think in terms of tips, I would say, you know, the upgrade sounds sounds like a scary thing.

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It's one of the first milestones of a PhD. They say it might be quite daunting, but actually it's not something that's there to catch you out.

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But it is that sort of you know, if there are any problems early on in your PhD about your studies or, you know, anything to do with, you know,

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your working relationship with your supervisors, you know,

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it's sort of an opportunity to highlight these issues and figure out how you can address them.

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So, you know, I wouldn't necessarily worry if things are not necessarily going well with your PhD.

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It doesn't mean that the upgrade will be and will be a bad process as it will be a process where you can highlight any of those issues.

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And the examiners, you know, you can sort of work with the examiners and your supervisors to come up with a plan of how to address,

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you know, how to address any issues and how you can progress on with with the PhD basically.

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So, you know, even if you submitted a report and, you know,

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the outcome could be that they ask you to resubmit the upgrade report with some changes, that's not necessarily a negative outcome per se

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So, you know, I would just say it's sort of an opportunity to to discuss your research, talk about your research and to improve it.

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So I would sort of remind people that it's a helpful process for you.

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It's not a process to punish you or anything.

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Finally, we have a Aoife Maher  who is a PGRin the Centre for Rural Policy.

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So Aoife. Can you tell me a bit about how you prepared for your upgrade? Sure.

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So my upgrade was originally scheduled for January 2021 and I made the decision to up the amount of hours.

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I'm doing something as I'm doing my PhD part time and it was certainly moving forward, which I felt quite frightening, quite dramatic.

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So it was suddenly a real focus of my mind. So obviously there was a real back and forth between myself and my supervisory team to get my submission

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into shape where we were all happy with that and being a good reflection of where I got to so far.

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And so that was quite a lot of.

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Yeah, tinkering with that and making sure I was really comfortable with the content and where things I had included or hadn't included.

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And I was just sort of comfortable with the literature around as well to know

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why certain things were included and were important and why things weren't.

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I also when I was really knuckling down to prepare for the actual day, I found a really good blog by the Open University.

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And they had listed four questions for people who were preparing for their vivas

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And so I use those to try and prepare for the upgrade interview, even though some of them weren't applicable, obviously, because I did not work.

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But it really helped me to sort of focus on what sort of questions I should be thinking about and what sort of questions I might be asked.

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I also reread my submission for the upgrade viva the many,

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many times and tried to persuade anyone that I needed to read it and talk to me about it, even if they didn't know anything about it.

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But that was still really helpful.

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Still points out some of areas or places where I haven't been clear enough in what I was explaining, what I was doing.

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And then I suppose the other things I did to prepare were practical so I printed out, the submission so I had it to hand, I could write notes on it.

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And also, I was kind of because I did my upgrade on Zoom, I could cheat a bit

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And I had a little cheat sheet of all the key things that I wanted to talk about in the upgrade meeting, which I'm not sure I should really admit to.

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But I think in the in the spirit of sharing my fellow PhD students, that was really helpful to just have like keywords.

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I wanted to make sure I talked about when I was talking about my actually my plan to do my research.

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And what was the upgrade itself like? So my upgrade, I was invited to an interview with a panel from my department.

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And it was all an internal colleagues who were carrying out my upgrade interview.

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Which was nice as two of them. I knew well, actually met in person before the pandemic.

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And one person who I didn't know well, but who was also in the department.

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Really nice. So that was. Yeah.

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Quite comforting. And then the other thing was, I didn't have to prepare a presentation or anything like that,

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which I think at this stage was quite helpful because that meant we could just get straight into talking about the documents that I'd submitted.

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So I submitted a project plan and 8000 words.

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So for some people, that might have been a literature review that later bits of it would end up all over that final thesis.

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But because of how my initial stages of research has all been affected by the pandemic, I'd tried to present a full chapter methodology chapter.

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So quite a lot of discussion than I thought would be focussed on that chapter.

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Actually, I think that the discussion, which was really helpful,

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I think more of it was on how I'm going to move forward and how I'm going to tackle my research next.

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Yeah, I found the whole process, even though I've been really nervous about it.

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I found a really supportive and challenging but in a in and really helpful way.

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So colleagues on my panel gave me lots of ideas of other literature to look at that might help and might form part of my conceptual framework.

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And we also talked a lot about my research and how to deal with.

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So as part of my research, I'm trying to work out why some people don't want to grow horticultural crops.

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Some people who are existing farmers and we talked a lot about the problems of exploring a negative in research,

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and it felt really helpful to sort of be able to brainstorm some of those issues and be able to acknowledge that.

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And for some of these issues, I don't have all the answers now, but that's right.

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And I can see where the research will lead me. So that was really helpful.

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And I also was told that I'm trying to do too much in my PhD, which I know is a very common theme.

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So I'm going to take that on board as well.

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Yeah, even though it was a nerve wracking experience ends up being much more supportive and like, really enlightening process.

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And yeah, I suppose I hadn't been anticipating that.

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So I was quite keen to come on and talk to you about how you how beneficial I found the process really to encourage other people about to go through.

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It doesn't have to be a frightening, challenging experience.

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It can be a positive, challenging experience. Thank you so much to Jo

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Steve Merve and Aoife for sharing their experiences with me for this podcast.

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Hopefully it's given you a little bit of insight into what the upgrade is like.

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And also a little bit of reassurance that this is a supportive process that's going to really help you move forward with your research.

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A couple of blog posts and things have been mentioned in the episode.

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I'm going to link those in the show notes and also a booking link for the question and answer panel that I'm running on preparing for your upgrade.

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On Wednesday, the 24th of February for University of Exeter PGRs

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And that's it for this episode. Don't forget to like, rate and subscribe and join me.

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Next time we'll be talking to somebody else about researchers development and everything in between.