What to expect

The School of Mathematical Sciences is one of the largest in the UK, with a wide range of interests. Active seminar series on a wide range of topics run on all days of the week during the semester. There is a large population of PG research students, many from abroad. All this makes for a stimulating research environment for our PG research students.

The first year

At the outset, we agree with the new student a choice of supervisor (a synonym for "advisor").  Soon after, all students are assigned a second supervisor in the same general field as the first.  The supervisor directs and guides the programme of study;  the role of the second supervisor can vary from being a fairly hands-off monitor of progress to an active co-supervisor.  The School participates actively in the London Taught Course Centre, which provides graduate level course to London Colleges. All first-year postgraduate research students are required to attend, and be examined upon, four courses (a total of 30 credits). In addition, students are encouraged to attend level 7 courses from the MSc/MSci programme where relevant to their studies.  During the year, the student will be undertaking background reading for their chosen project, and engaging in warm-up exercises in preparation for the main work of the thesis.  At the six-month stage there is a lightweight review to ensure everything is progressing well.

Progression

There are separate PG Tutors for Pure and Applied Mathematics, who monitor student progress, and are a first port-of-call if things are not going smoothly.  At the end of each year there is a review meeting with two assessors (one of whom is normally the second supervisor) to check that satisfactory progress is being made, and to make recommendations for the coming year.  Students are initially registered for the degree of MPhil (from September 2010 onwards all new students are registered for PhD), and are transferred to the PhD degree, assuming progress has been satisfactory;  often the transfer to PhD status is a recommendation of the second-year review meeting (similar review process applies to those students who have started September 2010 or after as well).

Seminars and study groups

There are regular seminars covering all the main areas of interest of members of the Mathematics Research Group (MRC). Students are encouraged to attend the ones of relevance to them. In addition, there are study groups in Combinatorics, Representation Theory and Statistical Mechanics to which the PG research students make a very active contribution, especially in the later stages of their studies. The students themselves run a regular series of Internal Postgraduate Seminars (QuIPS), which provides the students with early experience in presenting mathematical ideas. The QuIPS seminars are very popular with students, and frequently spill over into an ad hoc problem solving session.

Postgraduate Research Day

Every May the School holds a Postgraduate Research Day to celebrate the work of the PG research students. All second-year students produce a poster on their work and its context, while all third-year students give a 20 minute presentation on their research. The posters are entered into the Ann Cook Poster competition, and the one(s) judged the best is awarded a prize. The event is attended by all PG research students and a large proportion of teaching staff. The Research Day provides an excellent opportunity for students to develop and test their presentational skills.

Experience in teaching and skills training

Students are expected to undertake paid work in marking and teaching support, including the opportunity to conduct exercise classes for undergraduate students. Training sessions for marking and teaching support are provided in-house, and also by the College’s Learning Institute. For the last few years, the School has hosted a PG Teaching Workshop run by the Maths, Stats and OR Network (MSOR). This workshop is attended by students from other institutions as well as our own, and has been very well received by our students. During their first year, all students attend a Mathematical Writing course, mounted by The Learning Institute but with a strong steer from the School. In addition, there are short courses on such things as text-formatting in LaTeX, a programming seminar in C++ and use of the library and bibliographic resources.

Workshops and Conferences

Students are strongly encouraged to attend instructional conferences, particularly the LMS-EPSRC short courses. We also encourage and support them to attend research meetings at home and abroad. By the time they leave us, many students have presented a talk at a national or international meeting.