Graduate School Courses Information
Welcome from the Director of the SUPA Graduate School
Welcome to the SUPA Graduate School 2011-2012. With over 570 postgraduate students in total and 120+ new first year students joining each year, we are arguably the largest Physics Graduate School in the United Kingdom - indeed the world - and definitely the best!
This year we extend a very warm welcome to each of our SUPA Prize Students who fought off competition from over 420 applicants to be one of the successful researchers to join SUPA through this world-renowned scheme. We also welcome the students joining the prestigious Scottish Doctoral Training Centre in Condensed Matter.
SUPA is an alliance of the Physics departments of eight major Scottish universities, four of which were ranked 20 or above in the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The SUPA Graduate School offers world-leading education and training in post-graduate physics studies and generic skills. The physics studies are grouped by theme (Astronomy & Space, Condensed Matter & Material Physics, Energy, Nuclear & Plasma, Particle Physics, Photonics, and Physics & Life Sciences), and courses are given by videoconferenced lectures, through the My.SUPA e-learning portal, by tutorials/hands-on-sessions/labs and by residential sessions.
We ask that all PhD students undertake a minimum of 40 hours of physics studies and 20 hours of generic skills training during the first two years of their studies: this is a minimum requirement. Some themes, and in particular the Condensed Matter Doctoral Training Centre, will require their students to do more in order to best equip them for their research careers. More information about these requirements can be found in SUPA handbook.
The enrolment dates for 2011/12 are:
Semester I – 9th September 2011 – 14th October 2011
Semester II – 25th November 2011 – 6th January 2012
As new post-graduate students, you will be establishing yourselves in an exciting, vibrant research environment – meeting lots of new people, learning about a new culture (perhaps in a foreign language) and being bombarded with information on just about everything. In all of this, if I or any member of the Graduate School Management Committee (GSMC) can assist you with integrating into SUPA, your research or your university, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Another important date for your diaries is Tuesday, October 4th, 2011. You are invited to join us at the Glasgow Science Centre to meet the other new Scottish physics doctoral students at the first-year student SUPA induction and networking event. I look forward to welcoming you all in person at this exciting event.
All the very best in your studies,
Avril Manners
Director of the SUPA Graduate School
Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained within this brochure is correct at the time of publication. SUPA Graduate School courses are subject to ongoing development which could necessitate cancellation of, or alteration to, the advertised courses. The SUPA Graduate School reserves the right to make changes at any time without prior notice.
Please note that the term ‘credits’ is only used in SUPA handbook to refer to ‘SUPA Hours Equivalent Credits’ (the number of face to face hours per course that students are credited with towards their minimum coursework requirements). This term does not refer to ECTS or any other crediting system. Should you notice any errors or inaccuracies, please let us know by emailing admin@supa.ac.uk.
You can find information on other grad skill courses at following URLs:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/researcherdevelopment/ Glasgow
http://www.hw.ac.uk/edu/research/ Heriot Watt
http://www.sie.ed.ac.uk/ Scottish Institute for Enterprise
http://www.strath.ac.uk/postgrad/ Strathclyde
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/rsd/ Aberdeen
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/genericskills/ Dundee
http://www.transkills.ed.ac.uk/ Edinburgh
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/GRADskills/ St Andrews
