########################## Student Quick Guide ########################## Some text ########################## Staff Quick Guide ########################## Some more text ########################## The Complete Handbook ########################## The full thing **************** Getting Started **************** The School is located in the Kilburn Building, and the IT building behind it (accessed via the internal first floor walkway). Due to the interdisciplinary nature of computer science, several of our staff are located elsewhere, most notably at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB). MIB is building number 16 on `University interactive map `_. Plans of the building are included at the end of this document. People and Places ================== .. _SSO: The Student Support Office (SSO): is located in Room LF21 (Lower First floor), Kilburn Building, email: |sso-email|. They provide administrative support for all students, from registration to graduation. They will be very helpful during your time here. .. _PGR Home: PGR Home: .. todo:: Needs text here. Supervisors: You have already been assigned a main supervisor, who is responsible for your research and training. There will usually be one or more co-supervisors; their role in the research should be clarified at an early stage. Students should have regular contact with their supervisor(s), typically in the form of weekly meetings, although different supervisors may have different approaches. **Important point:** The relationship between the student and supervisor is crucial to the success of the doctorate. If anything goes wrong with that, you should get help to get it resolved. Cohorts: When you arrive you'll be assigned a cohort. You'll keep this cohort for your entire time here in Manchester. And have regular meetings with your Cohort Advisor. The cohort is there provide peer support to each other, to maintain a group dynamic as you progress in your studies, to get help and advice on technical aspects which you may not be familiar with but others in your cohort are, and for your pastoral care. Advisor: Each student (and cohort) will be assigned an advisor. The advisor is not an expert on your research. Their role is largely to be an independent person to turn to when you are having difficulties you don’t want to discuss with your supervisor. They can also provide general advice. .. _PGR Tutor: PGR Tutor: Alvaro Fernandes is our PGR tutor. He is another person you can turn to for help and advice. Mentors .. todo:: Need to get this sorted. .. The Mentors are research students in their second or further years. They can help with queries about the School or University, or other aspects of the PhD experience. They also organise social activities. Find out more about them and how they can help from their web page:\ http://mentors.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ or join their Facebook group:\ `CS Research Students (University of Manchester) `__. Accounts & Passes ================== Identity Cards: All students will be issued with a **photographic University identity card** (swipe card/student card). You should have this card on you at all times whilst on University premises. It is used to access various restricted areas, as well as acting as your library entry/borrowing card for the central university library. *On the back of this card is the number for campus security.* Out of hours passes: To be in the building outside normal working hours, you will need a School **out of hours pass**. Normal opening hours for the Kilburn and IT buildings are 8am to 6pm weekdays. Out of hours passes are issued in SSO. You will need to show both cards to get into the building out of hours. You will be issued with a **provisional** pass at registration. You will need to take and pass two on-line Health and Safety tests, a University one and a School one. Once you do this, the card become fully valid. To take the Health and Safety course, go to myManchester https://app.manchester.ac.uk/Default.aspx and log in using your University credentials. Find Blackboard and log into that. Click on the “Out of Hours Induction course (PGR Students). Read the document and then take the test. You can take the test as many times as you need to, until you get all questions correct. Computer Accounts: You will need to set up a University account. A central username and password allows you to access various university-wide systems, as well as giving you access (via the Central Authentication System (CAS)) to online journal content to which the University Library [1]_ has a subscription. It also serves as your username and password for your teaching domain account. You can sign-up for your account by visiting: https://iam.manchester.ac.uk/initial_login/overview\ You will need your personal details and University ID number (the number on your swipe card) to sign-up. Communications ============== Email: You will have a a University email account usually of the form: @postgrad.manchester.ac.uk - detailed instructions on how to send and receive emails, both locally and remotely, for both Linux based and windows based systems, are to be found on the Wiki at the StudentFAQ/IT pages mentioned above, as well as this University site: `Student email `_ page. ***Read your email frequently!*** There may be important messages from the staff or from the School or University. There may even be offers of free pizza. If you use other (external) email accounts (e.g. gmail or hotmail), you may wish to set up a forwarding to automatically forward mail from your School mail account to your external account. If your School account becomes over quota, then mail will not be received and you may miss important messages. Always ensure that you clean up your account regularly, deleting large files and junk (especially in your email box and web browser caches). Or periodically archive your mailbox. Internal Telephone System: External phone numbers for the University are usually of the form 0161-275\*\*\*\*. From an internal phone, you just have to dial the extension number, which is 5 followed by the last four digits of the external phone number. Some internal phones also allow you to make external calls, you dial 9 to get an external line, followed by the usual external phone number. Emergency Phone Numbers: In the event of any emergency, medical or otherwise, please contact the emergency services by calling 9999 internal or 999 external line. The University Security Office must also be informed once the emergency services have been alerted by calling 69966 internal or 0161 306 9966 external line. This number is on the back of your University Identity Card. Resources & Facilities ====================== `Programme Handbook (this document) `_: This describes what is expected of you as a doctoral student in the School of Computer Science, and should also serve as a useful reference. You are expected to consult it. Further information can be found on the `School of Computer Science PGR web-site `_. This handbook also contains some other information that is hopefully useful to doctoral candidates especially when they are new to the University of Manchester. `Research Student’s Charter `_: The aim of this document is to outline and make explicit the rights of research students in the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. It can be found here: `http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/pgr/charter.php `_ `Important Dates `_: **Induction Week (Week 0)** A number of induction events and social events run during this week. **Do take part!** You will have opportunities to learn what is expected of you, as meet and make friends with staff and other doctoral students, and familiarise yourself with the layout of the School and of the University. Within Computer Science, undergraduate and MSc teaching occurs in 12-week semesters, although MSc teaching occurs in 6-week blocks which divide the semesters. You will have the opportunity to get involved in many activities of the School including UG or PGT laboratory teaching by becoming a Teaching Assistant. Computing Facilities: Each doctoral candidate will be given a desk and a computer in the PGR Home and then in the appropriate research group lab. Most machines are set up to run Linux and MS Windows. Depending on the conventions of your research group, you may need to be familiar with either. There is an introductory Linux lab for those who need to familiarise themselves with our local setup during welcome week. .. _CSIS: Computer Science Information Systems (CSIS): The University has an IT services section; their website is\ `www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk `_. The group who work within our School are called CSIS. They are very helpful. However, if there is some fault with your equipment or with your CS account, you should “raise a ticket” with the IT service desk. Follow the link on this page, http://www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/help which says *contact the IT Service Desk*. Other useful places to get information are the `CS studentnet pages `_ under the “Technical support” drop down menu, and the School Wiki, in particular the `StudentFAQ/IT `_ pages. Intranet: There is a School Intranet which is divided in sections for students (StudentNet http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk) and for staff (StaffNet http://staffnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk). StudentNet has sub-sections on the post-graduate taught  (PGT) and post-graduate research (PGR) programmes. These both contain material of interest: PGT: http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/pgt/; and PGR: http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/pgr/. School Wiki: The School has several Wikis: a `School Wiki `_, a `student Wiki `_, a `staff Wiki `_, and a `PhD student Wiki `_. These are just starting to be populated with content. On the School Wiki, there is a section called “Tools for Researchers” which contains links which PhD students might find useful. When you come across useful tools, or exemplary papers, feel free to add to this. eProg: The University has developed an online system for post-graduate research students which is called eProg. This enables students to plan and track their progression, and provides online listing of various skills training courses. You will need to use eProg as part of your assessment. Student Societies: The University of Manchester Students’ Union (UMSU): http://manchesterstudentunion.com is an organisation, independent of the University, to which all students automatically belong. As well as the facilities within the Student Union building itself, UMSU also supports an enormous range of student societies, where you can meet students with similar interests: `http://manchesterstudentunion.com/groups#club-society#all `__. International Students & English Language Courses: If English is not your first language, you may need to further develop your skills throughout the course of the programme. Further English language courses are available during the course of the PhD programme, to enable students to fulfil their full potential as they progress with their study and research. Further information about these courses will be provided at registration. A full guide to the courses provided by the University Language Centre can be found at: http://www.langcent.manchester.ac.uk/english/. International students may also find it useful to participate in activities arranged by the International Society http://www.internationalsociety.org.uk which has more than 6000 members representing more than 120 nationalities.The university’s International Advice Team offers help and advice to international students on a wide range of issues: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/international/support/advice/. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/international/support/ `societiesforinternationalstudents/contact/ `__ Help and Advice =============== Starting a new course can be daunting for anyone. In many cases, students will have moved from a familiar university and course, where they were seen as an experienced and knowledgeable student, someone who others came to for advice. Compared to this, being a new student, at an unfamiliar university, in what may also be an unfamiliar city or country, can be a big change that isn’t always that easy to deal with. If you do experience difficulties, remember that even if all the other students in your cohort seem to be having a wonderful time, with no problems at all with the course or anything else, things aren’t always exactly as they may seem, and many other people may be having similar problems to yourself! It is important that if you are experiencing any difficulties, whether they be academic, personal, or university related, that you seek advice at the earliest opportunity. Any matter whatever that affects your work and progress can and should be brought to the attention of the Programme Director or other suitable member of staff, or to the Student Support Office in room LF21. The PGR Director, Simon Harper, PGR tutor Alvaro Fernandes, the Mentors, your advisor and your supervisors are all here to help you succeed. In general, if your difficulties involve carrying out your research you need to make this clear to your supervisors, who are here to help you and train you on how to be a researcher. Other members of your research group can also be very helpful. Issues concerning resources required to do your research also must be resolved with your supervisors, who are authorised to decide what resources are appropriate. If you are having difficulties communicating with your supervisors, or are having other problems with your relationship with your supervisors, you should discuss this with your advisor, or the PGR Tutor (Alvaro Fernandes) or PGR Director (Simon Harper). The mentors may also be able to offer advice. Any information will be treated as *strictly confidential* if you request it. If you need help with an administrative issue, such as registration, payment of funds, or form filling, the SSO_ should be your first port of call. Members of university staff (whether administrative or academic) have a wealth of experience in dealing with the issues that effect students, and if they can’t help you themselves, can often assist you in finding the help you need. Academic staff will be able to advise on management of work, and in many cases, any problems or disruptions you may have had can be taken into account when it comes to assessment of your work and progress. The Faculty of Science and Engineering has a set of web pages supporting PhD students, at this address: http://www.researchsupport.eps.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate_home. This contains information about short courses events run by the Faculty, advice, and links to the Faculty and University policies relevant to PhD students. .. 1] John Rylands University Library of Manchester (JRULM or JRUL).