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And then it started like a guilt thing
Upon a fearful summons.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. i. 148
Am I on Track?
NO! Closing out 2024, December was a particularly busy month for me. November was spent preparing for our faculty’s PhD conference day. This consisted of the Business and Law School Post Graduate Researchers (PGRs) doing a 15-minute presentation on their research.
Whilst preparing for this in November, I was approached by our Doctoral Academy (the department that looks after the PGRs), who informed me that I was late in submitting my Confirmation of Registration documentation.
My submission date was 18th December 2024. However, that was my fault for applying the literal meaning of the word ‘submission’ to that date. I was informed that it actually meant ‘completion’. Unbelievably, after completing an undergraduate and graduate degree in Law, admittedly with not being a scholar of statutory interpretation, I thought I had an idea about what the ‘literal’ rule was. However, this experience shows that you can have all the education you can handle, and discover it means nothing when administrators change the rules.
What are the Requirements of the Confirmation of Registration?
There are lots of resources that explain the Confirmation of Registration so I will not waste time describing this, but I will spend time describing why mine was somewhat complicated.
Other PGRs in my faculty informed me that it was nothing to worry about. Their experience was a 10-minute chat about their research and then you just carried on. In the 2 or 3 months before my submission date, sorry completion date, three PGRs who started their PhD just before me, had their Confirmation of Registration.
The horror stories that emanated from these events were quite shocking. Words were being relayed that I had never heard of, epistemology, ontology, theoretical framework etc. What evil magic was this? These interviews lasted over 1.5 hours. What happened to the 10-minute chat around the proverbial fireplace?
I dusted off the old PGR handbook and discovered what seemed a simple enough 3 stage criteria. The Confirmation Submission comprises of the following:
- Submission Document, which will normally comprise a draft of work which will ultimately contribute to the final thesis. The content and length of the submission should reflect the normal expectations for the Candidate’s area of research as detailed below:
Your supervisor will be asked to fill out a form (Confirmation of Registration), confirming that they deem your work to be of an appropriate standard for achieving a PhD. For your part, you will prepare a full progress report on the work undertaken for the Research Support Office. The progress report should normally be 5,000 to 6,500 words in length up to a maximum limit of 8,000 words. The progress report must include:
a) an abstract of the work undertaken and described in the report
b) a succinct review of the relevant literature and theoretical framework for the research
c) a brief review and discussion of the work already undertaken
d) a statement of intended further work, including the original contribution to knowledge which is likely to emerge (including where applicable a work plan and Gantt chart).
- Summary Report (typically no more than 1 side of A4) critically reflecting the Candidate’s progress to date and plans from now to Completion.
- Research Training Report (typically no more than 1 side of A4) critically reflecting on research training undertaken and an updated Training Needs Analysis from now to Completion.
Sounds simple enough. This document was a nightmare! Somehow, I received clearance from my supervisor to submit it. I did so on the 14th December 2024, before my submission date, sorry completion date, and then I waited.
Next steps
Unfortunately for me, there were some complications. First, there is not a member of staff in my law school that can examine me on my chosen topic. My supervisors could, but that is not allowed. So, I have an external examiner doing my Confirmation of Registration. He was lecturing in America over the Christmas and New Year break and did not return until late January.
His calendar was full and the date he set for my Confirmation of Registration is the 28th February 2025. Last week was my annual pilgrimage to Paris, France to rejuvenate my desire to live in France and to re-enforce my ongoing war with the ‘bloody French’. Our love hate relationship is never ending.
Tomorrow, I have a mock mini viva with my supervisors who are adamant that everything will be fine. But they said it whilst squinting their eyes and the corners of their mouths slightly curved in a rather menacing manner. I am unsure what to expect.
Trepidation & Foreboding
There is a fear I have a due to the suspected questions that I shall face during my Confirmation of Registration. I am comfortable about discussing my research from a legal perspective, but it is the methodology section that is filling me dread.
Up until November, I had been reading legal theories of financial regulation, studying the regulation that was in place for the private debt instruments I am researching and discovering the science of cybernetics and how evolutionary game theory can be included into financial regulation. Suddenly, I had to drop this for subject fields I had never heard of.
My graduate degree was not a research degree but a taught degree. This means I had no idea about what was required to fulfil the criteria of a research degree. I thus spent Christmas and New Year skim reading what was to be included within a methodology and a literature review. This has presented a new challenge that honestly, I did not need. I already had one. I am teaching through this semester, but I shall write a separate post about that.
This upcoming week
There is not much time to prepare for the events this week. Monday is teaching preparation and my mock mini viva. I teach four lessons on Tuesday and have a supervisor meeting on Thursday which is followed on Friday by my Confirmation of Registration.
If I thought I could relax a bit the following week, then I am mistaken. There are further tasks the following week which must be started. I have to prepare for 2 conferences where I am presenting, our upcoming 3-minute thesis competition, applying for ethical approval for my empirical interviews, teaching and continuing to write my PhD.
Here’s hoping that the next post I write will be a positive one with the knowledge of having passed the Confirmation of Registration and I will be upgraded from MPhil to PhD.