Affiliated Research Centre Supervisors

Supervising a research degree student registered with The Open University

Good supervision makes an important contribution to enabling a student to successfully complete their research degree, on time. The information we provide here tells you what is expected of a supervisor of an Open University student, and tells you about milestones, academic and administrative policies and procedures to help you to guide your student through their registration.

The Research Degrees Regulations are the principal means through which The Open University ensures consistency in academic standards across the research degree programmes that it offers. The Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students in Appendix 2 of the Research Degree Regulations sets out your responsibilities as a supervisor of an Open University student. The Conditions of Registration for Postgraduate Students sets out the terms of conditions of your student’s registration with The Open University. The Research Degrees in Affiliated Research Centres Handbook is a guide to the University’s academic and administrative arrangements for research degree study. It provides information about the services available to research degree students, the policies that apply to registration, and it provides advice about key points in the student journey. Please familiarise yourself with the regulations, conditions of registration, and handbook and refer to them when your student needs guidance about their registration with The Open University.

You should then read the Supervisor guidelines document as it provides a quick reference point for you, summarising your duties, conditions of appointment and the policies and procedures supporting key milestones in your student’s registration.

Forms and guidance provide detailed information about the academic and administrative arrangements for your student’s Open University registration.  You can download forms to complete with your student and the research degree coordinator at key milestones, or when something changes.   The research degree coordinator will ensure that they are sent to us so that we have up-to-date registration information for your student.  Before completing a form, please make sure that you have read the relevant guidance notes.

Supervisor skills training

It is the responsibility of your Affiliated Research Centre to ensure that you have the supervisory skills necessary and access to information to help ensure you supervise students effectively.  In addition, the Open University has invested in a nine unit online supervisory skills training course. Please do take the opportunity to make use of this resource to support your supervisory skills development and encourage your colleagues to do so as well.

Library services for ARC Supervisors

The OU Library has negotiated access to a significant proportion of its resources for ARC Supervisors and co-ordinators. The resources include abstracts and indexes, full-text journals, electronic books, images and statistics. Access is via the Library services for Locally Employed Tutors page. 

Professional Development

The Researcher Development Framework (RDF), developed by Vitae, is designed to articulate the "knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful researchers and encourages them to aspire to excellence through achieving higher levels of development."  The framework gives researchers (including research students) a comprehensive map of all of the areas of skill and competence that a researcher will need throughout their career.

As the supervisor of an Open University registered student you have an important role in helping the student, to identify  and develop the generic research skills (as articulated in the Researcher Development Framework), discipline level research skills and project-level research skills, during the course of registration.  We have put in place some guidance and tools to help you and your student identify the skills they may need to develop, plan how to acquire them, and record achievement.

There are many opportunities available through the Affiliated Research Centre for students to develop a range of relevant research skills. The Open University have also developed a set of on-line training modules in generic research skills, aligned with the Researcher Development Framework, to supplement the research skills training available through the Affiliated Research Centre.  At present the modules available are targeted at students who are starting their research projects and in the first year of registration (first two years for part-time students).  If your student has just registered, the 'Starting your research' theme is a good place to begin exploring what’s on offer.