School of Psychology Progress Review Guidelines

Before reading the guidelines outlined on this page, ensure you have reviewed all the information about Progress Reviews, including the criteria for each review, and the Higher Degree by Research Candidature Progression Procedure.

How to organise a Progress Review

The following guidelines outline the management and conduct of HDR Progress Reviews in the School of Psychology. These guidelines should be used in combination with the Higher Degree by Research Candidature Policy and the Higher Degree by Research Candidature Procedure. Further instructions to help you to arrange your upcoming review are available here.

Progress Reviews Snapshot

Progress review requirements
	Confirmation of Candidature (R1)	Review 2 (R2)	Review 3 (R3)
Candidature Documents	Candidate statement Individual Development Plan (IDP) Portfolio of Activity	Candidate statement Individual Development Plan (IDP) Portfolio of Activity	Candidate statement Individual Development Plan (IDP) Portfolio of Activity
Project Documents	Literature review and research outline, ethics approvals iThenticate report	Summary of completed work/ draft chapter/paper, plan for completion, iThenticate report	Thesis preliminary pages with expanded outline of thesis, thesis draft (at least 2 completed chapters) iThenticate report
Oral Presentation	25 minutes presentation, 10-15 minutes question time	Oral presentation (e.g. oral or poster at conference; seminar; oral presentation at HDR day). to be completed after confirmation and before R2. If it is not possible to present at a conference, seminar, or HDR Day, the student and PA should organise an open School-based presentation (20-minute presentation plus 10-minute questions) prior to the R2 Progress Review meeting.	oral presentation (e.g. oral or poster at conference; seminar; oral presentation at HDR day). to be completed after R2 and before R3. If it is not possible to present at a conference, seminar, or HDR Day, the student and PA should organise an open School-based presentation (20-minute presentation plus 10-minute questions) prior to the R3 Progress Review meeting.
Interview	Approximately 30-45 minutes	Approximately 30 minutes	Approximately 30-45 minutes

Note: Documents should be submitted before the census date of the research quarter in which your review is due.

Panel Composition

Your Progress Review Panel (PRP) in the School of Psychology will consist of a chair, the supervisory team and two reviewers (“readers”) for Confirmation of Candidature Review, and a chair and the supervisory team for Progress Reviews 2 and 3.

Progress Review Chair

The Psychology DHDR appoints the chairs for all progress reviews. Before the start of the Research Quarter in which your progress review is due, the DHDR will pre-appoint a chair of the Progress Review. The HDR Liaison Officer will then advise the student, Principal Advisor and Chair of the appointment via email. If you are planning to do your review before the start of the research quarter and do not yet have your chair details, please reach out to your DHDR to confirm the name/details of your progress review chair. Please note that your chair may not be the same for each review, so it is important that you receive confirmation of your chair details before arranging your review.

Confirmation of Candidature (R1) Readers

It is the responsibility of the HDR candidate and advisory team to find and confirm the 2 nominated readers for Confirmation of Candidature (R1). To ensure the nominated readers are available, the candidate or advisor should contact each reader and confirm their availability prior to nominating them. It is possible for one Associate Advisor to act as a reader, provided their advisory load is no more than 30%.

Confirmation of Candidature Review (R1)

Your confirmation of candidature review will include the submission of your review documents, a 25 minute oral presentation, 10-15 minute question time and a 30-45 minute interview with the review panel (typically of 1 hour duration).

The confirmation of requirements document (DOCX, 18.8 KB) (maximum of 40 pages for PhD or 20 pages for MPhil, excluding references and appendices, using 1.5 line spacing) should review prior work in the area under study, including a full citation of the directly relevant literature. It should establish the research objectives and pose the formal hypotheses if these are relevant. The proposal will also concisely and clearly describe the proposed research methodology and scheme of analysis, and briefly describe work already completed.

As a guide the following elements are usually included in this document:

Title page (name of candidate, title of project, names of advisors and their signatures to indicate that they have read the document).
Brief summary/introduction to define the key concepts of the project and the rationale for the project (i.e. why are you doing this study?)
Literature review. Critical up-to-date review, which should demonstrate a good knowledge of the field and identify knowledge gaps.
Hypothesis development and Aims of the project. This should be related to issues identified in the literature review.
Research methodology, including a clear statement of the methods to be used, resource requirements (are all pieces of equipment and funds to complete the study available to you, or do you need to look for collaborators who can provide these?), data analysis methodology to be used, ethics requirements and approvals etc.
Preliminary data (if any; max. 5 pages).
Timeline for undertaking the proposed work and completing your thesis.
Reference List.
Appendices (only if applicable).

Written feedback will be provided by your reviewers before the interview. Your chair will also prepare a written report and will provide a recommendation to the Dean, UQ Graduate School about attainment of the review.

Progress Review 2 (R2)

Your second progress review will include the submission of your review documents, and an interview with the review panel (typically of 30 minutes duration). A conference presentation or similar fulfils the oral presentation requirements.

The confirmation of requirements document (DOCX, 20.6 KB) (maximum of 25 pages, excluding draft chapter/journal article, using 1.5 line spacing) should include:

Summary of completed work – this can be in the format of a draft results chapter or a journal article to which you have contributed substantially – and should include a statement of progress made since Review 1
Detailed plan/outline for completing the thesis, including a timeline
Plans for disseminating your work, e.g. plans for conference attendance, papers to be written etc.

Progress Review 3 (R3)

Your third progress review will include the submission of your review documents, and a 30-45 minute interview with the review panel. A conference presentation or similar fulfils the oral presentation requirements.

The confirmation of requirements document (DOCX, 20.8 KB) should include:

Thesis preliminary pages (using the UQ template downloadable from point 6 of this webpage) with expanded contents/outline of thesis
Draft of the thesis (with at least 2 completed chapters)
Outline of any publications that will arise from the HDR research
A detailed plan and timeline for completing the thesis