What to expect

What to expect as a Statistics research student at Queen Mary

The School of Mathematical Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London is one of the largest in the UK, with a wide spectrum of interests. Active seminar series on a broad range of topics run five days of the week during each semester. There is a large population of postgraduate research students, many from abroad. All this makes for a stimulating research environment for our research students.

The first year

At the outset, we allocate a supervisor to the new student. Soon after that, each student is assigned a second supervisor in the same general field as the first. The supervisor directs and guides the programme of study and research; 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 courses to colleges of London University. 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 modules from the Queen Mary MSc/MSci programme (at level 7) which are relevant to their studies.

During the year, the student undertakes background reading for their chosen project, and usually summarizes this in their own words and notation. To enhance their understanding, they may do substantial worked examples, or some computer investigation, in preparation for the main work of the thesis. After six months, there is a lightweight review to ensure that everything is progressing satisfactorily.

There is a dedicated Statistics postgraduate tutor, who monitors student progress, and is the first port of call if things are not going smoothly.

Progression

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, and are later transferred to the PhD degree, when they have demonstrated their ability to conduct independent research. The recommendation for this transfer is often the outcome of the second-year review meeting. Please note that  from September 2010 onwards all new students are registered for PhD.

Seminars and study groups

Statistics seminars take place every Thursday afternoon during each semester. Statistics research students are expected to attend all of these. In addition, there are many other series of seminars and study groups within the School of Mathematical Sciences: students are encouraged to attend any which they find interesting or relevant.

The postgraduate 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 of Mathematical Sciences holds a Postgraduate Research Day to celebrate the work of the postgraduate 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 judged the best is awarded a prize. The event is attended by all postgraduate 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.

Teaching experience

All postgraduate research students are expected to undertake paid work in marking and teaching support. This includes the opportunity to help at exercise classes and at statistical laboratory sessions for undergraduate students. Training sessions for marking and teaching support are provided by the department, and also by the College’s Learning Institute. The statistical software Minitab and GenStat is used in the laboratory sessions. Research students unfamiliar with these have the opportunity to learn them.

Last academic year, the School of Mathematical Sciences hosted a Postgraduate 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. We intend to host a similar workshop this year.

Skills training

During their first year, all postgraduate research students attend a Mathematical Writing course, mounted by The Learning Institute but with a strong steer from the School of Mathematical Sciences. In addition, there are short courses on such things as typesetting mathematical documents in LaTeX, and use of the library and bibliographic resources. There is the opportunity to learn new software, such as packages to construct designs and packages to analyse data.

Workshops, conferences and meetings

Research students are strongly encouraged to attend instructional conferences, particularly the LMS-EPSRC short courses. We also encourage and support them to attend relevant research meetings at home and abroad. The one-day and half-day meetings organized by the Royal Statistical Society, the British Region of the International Biometric Society, and PSI (Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry) are very suitable. By the time that they leave us, many research students have presented a talk or poster at a national or international conference.