Students will complete course unit selection via Campus Solutions. Further information can be found on the Student SharePoint.

Students and staff will access their timetable through My Manchester. Further information about the collaborative timetabling can be found on Staffnet. Programmes and Curriculum will collate timetabling requirements from academic colleagues for each academic year, allocate students to activities and support the timetable change request process.

Suggested Best Practice:  

• Limit optional course units and/or create clash groups.  
• Have accurate staff information during the data collection period.

Ethics

Supervisors should ensure they support students with ethical applications and risk assessments. The role of the supervisor is essential in ensuring that students follow the University’s Code of Good Research Conduct. As a supervisor, there are a number of responsibilities that the University expects you follow with regards to your student's research project, these are outlined in the Handbook for Supervisors in the Faculty of Humanities. Some of these responsibilities include ensuring that appropriate ethical approval is sought and received and that you must assist the student with choosing the correct route of ethical review.

There are many university resources to help you in this role. The Handbook for Supervisors in the Faculty of Humanities by the Research Ethics Team is a vital source of information that you should consult to execute your duties. There is also the ethics decision tool; a great resource to direct students to as they begin to formulate their research plans.

Students with a query on the risk level of their research or the outcome of the ethics decision tool should first discuss this with their supervisor. Supervisors should be clear on what constitutes low, medium, and high-risk research by consulting the School guidelines. We often receive queries where it is clear these guidelines have not been consulted, so as a supervisor please do ensure you are making use of these. The University’s central research ethics pages include useful resources including up to date and GDPR-compliant templates for consent forms, participant information sheets, guidance on methods, distress protocols, and even samples of successful applications. Supervisors with additional queries after consulting the available guidance and information, or concerns about grey areas, can discuss this with either our School Chair or with the central Ethics Signatory (for high risk UREC applications) by contacting research.ethics@manchester.ac.uk. 

The role of supervisor involves many elements, but it primarily involves working collaboratively with the student to make sure they complete the ethics decision tool correctly, ensuring that students send them a copy of the outcome of the ethics decision tool for verification and, if necessary, correction. It’s also essential that all supervisors read and provide constructive comments on any draft ethics applications and supporting documentation. To do this effectively, you must do the following:

• Read the contents, check the accuracy of the information and provide any useful feedback to your student prior to submission;
• Ensure that the GDPR-compliant templates have been used for all participant information sheets and consent forms;
• Ensure that all supporting documentation is complete and has been attached to the application;
• Ensure that any advertisements adhere to the expectations and requirements of the University.

By providing your signature on the application, we expect that you will have done all the above.

As a reminder, for projects that are exempt from ethics review but involve participants/respondents:

• GDPR compliant participant information sheets and consent forms/scripts must be used;
• All UoM data protection guidelines must be followed including the anonymisation, storage and back-up of research data;
• Study advertisements, introductory letters/emails or other forms of recruitment must follow UoM guidelines;
• Researchers should obtain letters of permission from organisations or gatekeepers if applicable;
• A signed and completed risk assessment may be needed;
• If conducting electronic/online surveys or questionnaires you must use a University approved platform such as Qualtrics, Gorilla or Redcap. Please note that Survey Monkey and Survey Gizmo are not permitted;
• If conducting online interviews, you must use a University approved platform such as MS Teams, Zoom or Skype.

Dissertation handbooks including information about ethical applications and risk assessment for dissertations/research projects can be found on the Student SharePoint.

Risk Assessment

Supervisors are expected to check the risk rating of the dissertation trip location using the AIG TravelGuard site. If the country is designated a high/extreme risk, they should advise the student to complete a high-risk overseas travel risk assessment. Risk assessments should be checked and signed by the supervisor before they are sent to the Compliance, Safety and Estates team via SEEDestates@manchester.ac.uk for review.

Supervisors should also consider the risk of the activities to be carried out during the dissertation. If the activities can be deemed high risk, they should advise the student to complete a specific risk assessment. This could include dissertations that are based in low-risk locations, like the UK. If they are unsure, they should contact the Compliance, Safety and Estates team to confirm.

For low/medium risk locations and activities, supervisors should ensure the student has read and filled in the details on a low/medium risk assessment.

Please see the Welcome pages for more information on registration and late arrivals or contact the SEED Student Support Hub, seed.hub@manchester.ac.uk. 

For information and guidance on all aspects of programme development, including new programmes and amendments to existing programmes, please refer to the Faculty of Humanities resources.

Programme and unit specification templates can be found on the Faculty of Humanities webpage.

Dates of the school QSDE meetings and the school repository of programme specifications and course unit specifications can be found on the SEED TLSE Academic SharePoint site. Any changes to programmes or course units must be communicated to the Programmes and Curriculum Team, even if the change does not require QSDE approval, so changes can be updated on Campus Solutions and the external course profile pages.

Course unit specifications are updated on course unit information and published in Campus Solutions. The course unit information from Campus Solutions is then published to the course unit portal for current students and the course unit profiles on the external website for prospective students/offer holders. You must inform the Programmes and Curriculum Team if you make any changes which impacts the information on the course unit profiles on the external website as this information is used for the durable email to offer holders to comply with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

MSA students need to register at both institutions EVERY year. Please visit the Welcome pages for more information on registration.

Whilst MSA students can access their personal timetable through My Manchester for lectures and seminar activities taking place on UoM campus, the full academic timetable is housed on the MMU Moodle site and students are directed to this site in the first instance.