Supervision and monitoring
Each student has a PhD supervisor from within the Institute's Faculty who provides day-to-day supervision of their research. They also benefit from a co-supervisor (advisor), selected from the University of Cambridge or an affiliated University Partner Institution, who works in a similar or complementary discipline and meets regularly with the student.
Graduate students at the Institute are monitored and managed by the Committee of Graduate Studies, which meets monthly, together with support from dedicated administrative personnel. Monitoring of each student's progress is achieved through the submission of project reports for each rotation (not clinical students), their first year report and thesis committee meetings which take place every six months.
The thesis committee, which consists of the primary supervisor, the co-supervisor (advisor) and one or two Sanger Institute Faculty members, primarily serves as a scientific advisory board for the student throughout their PhD work. Its function is to offer comments, advice and support to the student in order to ensure that the thesis can be completed in an appropriate time frame and with the best possible output. In addition to the student's own research group, the thesis committee provides an independent forum for scientific discussion.
Students are expected to complete their research and submit their thesis within the time frame of the award. At this point each student must give a formal talk advertised externally in the Sanger Institute seminar programme.
