Research Student’s Progress Report
The process of progress reviews for Tyndall based students is intended to be a constructive
and positive experience for the students and thesis committee and should recognise and
acknowledge good progress made.
All research students are required to complete 3 to 6 month, 12 month, 24 month and not later
than 36month reviews. Thereafter, progress updates are required at 6monthly intervals until the
thesis is submitted. It is the responsibility of the supervisor to arrange and inform the Thesis
Committee of the progress review meetings. For further details on the supervision procedure,
please see the post-grad supervision procedure TYN-GS-PR-62 Graduate Management Process
located under Associated Documents within QT9 Software.
This progress report should accompany the reports required at each of the reporting periods as
described in the procedure.
Research student:
Centre/Department:
Date of Initial Registration:
Programme (e.g PhD Eng Sc, PhD, Masters):
Departmental Affiliation (e.g. SEFS, Physics, Chemistry, Elec Eng, CIT)
Supervisor:
Co-Supervisor:
Advisor(s):
Monitor:
Please attach, for
3 to 6 Month Report: Project and personal development plans
12 Month Report: Progress report
24 Month Report: Progress report and completion plan
36 Month Report, and subsequent reports: Progress report
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Progress reports should include details of training undertaken, conferences and presentations,
publications, software written, and patents filed or granted during the reporting period.
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To be completed by the student prior to thesis committee meeting
Satisfactory
Reservations
Unsatisfactory
Project planning
Frequency of supervision meetings
Access to facilities
Comments from Candidate
(attach additional sheets as necessary)
To be completed by thesis committee at review meeting
Satisfactory
Reservations
Unsatisfactory
Project planning
Research outputs
Communication skills
Work performance
Frequency of supervision meetings
Access to facilities
Comments from Committee and Candidate
(attach additional sheets as necessary)
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Agreed Outcomes of the Progress Review
Please provide a summary of revisions to project plan and any training recommended by the Thesis
Committee. Summary of actions required
(attach additional sheets as necessary).
Modules
UCC PhD students, registered from October 2013, are required to take a minimum of 15ECTS as
part of the structured PhD requirements
List the modules that you have successfully completed
List the modules that you are currently taking
List the modules that you intend to take in the future
Students should include a printout of their assessed modules from the UCC student portal
Recommendations
Please tick as appropriate
1. Progress is good and the student should continue with the current plan
2. There are concerns about progress and some actions are required to get the
research back on track. Progress should be re-reviewed in 3-6month
If this current review is a re-review, the recommendations of the re-review are:
Progress is back on track and the student should continue with the current plan.
Progress is insufficient to continue on the current programme and it is recommended
that the student should change their registration to another programme
Progress is insufficient to continue on the current programme and it is recommended
that the student should deregister.
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Health and Safety Training
List any Health and Safety training undertaken since your last review and H&S training required
in the next 6 months.
Additional Activities
List other relevant activities you have participated in since your last review and activities planned
for the next 6 months; e.g. outreach activities
Lab Safety
 Are you lab based?______________
 If yes, have you and your supervisor signed TYN-LAB-REC-56: Responsibilities of supervisors
and their staff/students in Tyndall labs and returned to Health and Safety manager?
Signature Student:__________________________
Signature Supervisor:_______________________
Lab Documentation - The student is required to bring their lab notebook to the review. It is the
responsibility of the supervisor to ensure that these are maintained according to TYN-SW-PR-10.
To be signed by supervisor: I have reviewed the lab notebook of __________________(insert
student name) and am satisfied that all records are being maintained in accordance with TYN-SWPR-10 Research Project Management
Signature Supervisor_________________
Leave Entitlement
Have you and your supervisor discussed your annual leave (20day entitlement) ______________
Signature Student:__________________________
Signature Supervisor:_______________________
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Signatures
Supervisor / Co-supervisor(s) ___________________________ Date: ___________
___________________________ Date: ____________
___________________________ Date: ____________
Advisor(s):
___________________________ Date: ____________
___________________________ Date: ____________
Monitor:
____________________________ Date: ___________
At the periodic progress-review meetings, the thesis committee (supervisor/co-supervisor(s),
advisor(s) and monitor sign the progress report. The student will subsequently review the report and
sign prior to submission. Any issues arising should be discussed with a member of the thesis
committee and/or mentor.
I confirm that I have read the above actions and recommendations from the Thesis Committee, and
will forward a pdf version of this Progress Report (with signatures), along with pdf version of the
Research Summary Report (including any changes or updates to the project plan) to:
pgreports@tyndall.ie
In addition, electronic copies will be sent to all committee members and to the appropriate
departmental contact:
EEE
Mary O’Leary
mary.oleary@ucc.ie
Microelecronics
Niamh O’Sullivan
ni.osullivan@ucc.ie
Physics
Margaret Bunce
m.bunce@ucc.ie
Chemistry
Katarzyna Pyrz
kpyrz@ucc.ie
For other UCC academic departments or institutes of technology, please arrange with your
supervisor that your reports are sent to the appropriate academic contact person.
Research student:
_________________________________ Date: ___________
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Appendix
Guidelines for the production of Month 12 Progress Report for Postgraduate Students
Registered for PhD Programmes
Overview
This appendix is intended to provide guidelines, where required, for the 12month Progress Report.
It is not intended to be a completely prescriptive template. It is acknowledged that the supervisor,
as the person with overall responsibility for the research conducted by, and academic progress of,
the student provides clear recommendations as to what is required in each instance.
Guidelines for the production of Month 12 Progress Report for Postgraduate Students
Registered for PhD Programmes
1. Preamble
This document has been prepared to try to standardize the format of these reports and to provide
clear guidelines to graduate students as to what it is expected of them in terms of report preparation.
It is recommended that each student discusses these guidelines with their project supervisor before
commencing report writing.
2. Suggested Format
It is recommended that the report be prepared as a working document that can be updated over time
to evolve into the final thesis. It should contain the following sections, each of which is described
in more detail below:
Title page
Abstract
Contents Section
Glossary of terms used, acronyms employed etc., if appropriate
Chapter 1, Introduction
Chapter 2, Methods of Research
Chapter 3, Results and Discussion
Chapter 4, Conclusions and Further Work
References
Appendices, if appropriate
3. Section Requirements
3.1
Title Page
As near as possible, this title should be the title listed on the application form which was used to
enroll the student. It is expected that the title will be very similar, if not necessarily identical to the
title of the final thesis produced by the student at the end of the study.
3.2
Abstract
What the report contains and just this.
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3.3
Contents
A clear, professional-looking contents section is required, where each separate section may be
located via its title and page number within the report.
3.4
Glossary
Not always required, but if the report contains lots of acronyms or other jargon which is appropriate
to the field concerned, then it can be a very useful addition to the report.
3.5
Chapter 1, Introduction

Must contain the background to the project- why exactly are we doing this? What are the
main aims and objectives? Why have we selected the methods to be used? What could be
the benefits of achieving the aims and objectives?

Must also contain a concise summary of all relevant previous research in the field that is
relevant- key papers, important findings etc. (obviously whether something is relevant or
not is subjective, but you must be able to defend your decision to include or not include
particular pieces of work).
Overall, a good chapter 1 can often be incorporated into a final PhD thesis with only minimal
alterations being required. Don’t skimp on this section. At month 12, progress is mostly dependent
upon gauging the level of understanding that the student has managed to achieve, rather than on
achieving loads of results.
3.6
Chapter 2, Methods of Research
This chapter could also be termed ‘Experimental Methods’ for some student, but as not all projects
are experimental in nature it is perhaps best to use the more generic term ‘Methods of Research’.
This chapter should contain the following

Must contain a brief description of the methods being used or to be used, together with some
background as to how these methods work, but it is not necessary to explain the background
theory to all techniques in enormous detail. Remember that the point of describing these
methods in the report is to demonstrate that you understand how they work and how to
interpret the data they produce.

Must contain details of the specific methods and, where appropriate, specific apparatus or
equipment that have been used thus far on the project. Here what is needed is something like
the Experimental Section of a paper in a high-quality journal
3.7
Chapter 3, Results and Discussion
It is often a good idea to start the report writing with this Chapter, because once this is written it
indicates precisely what is needed in Chapters 1 and 2 to put the results in proper context.

The format of this chapter will vary greatly from project to project, but as a guide, try to be
as concise as possible and don’t worry if results are presented which do not provide
unequivocal answers to the questions being posed in the research. It takes at least 3 years of
diligent research to achieve a PhD (and a statement to this effect may usually found
somewhere in regulation for all Universities) and so at month 12 it is expected that you will
not have all the answers.

Highlight the main results that have been obtained thus far and provide some discussion as
to their significance. Be critical here. Point out the limitations that have to be applied when
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trying to interpret data. Examiners often pick up on examples of over-interpretation of
results- where conclusions are drawn that are not justified.

Try to be dispassionate in terms of presenting your findings. Cast a cold eye over what you
have in terms of results and assess them for what they are.

In particular point out where further work is needed to build on results obtained thus far,
because this will then connect in with Chapter 4.
3.8
Chapter 4, Conclusions and Further Work

Briefly summarize what you have done in the first 12 months, what results you have
achieved and why you think they are significant. This summary will necessarily involve
some repetition of what was described in Chapter 3, so keep it brief and to the point

In the context of the summary, you need to present a detailed plan of what you intend to do
in the next 12 months, and also an idea of the revised overall aims and objectives that will
lead you to your PhD. This is arguably one of the most important sections of your report.
Think carefully and discuss this Chapter with your supervisor before writing
3.9
References
All references must be correctly numbered and listed, using an appropriate style.
3.10
Appendices
If these help in terms of what you are trying to say in the report then include them. If not, don’t.
Examples of appendices include papers published. Mathematical proofs of certain important
relations, computer program code etc.
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