Post Graduate Tracker

The University (of Southampton) currently has over 3,000 registered post graduate students. We are in receipt of a considerable sum of fee income from these students and in addition, the University receives Quality Related (QR) income from Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) through Research Degree Programme (RDP) funding. The time has come for the University to invest in a suitable and robust PGR system that:

* Actively manages the progression of Doctoral Researchers in order to ensure that we meet the completion standards expected by the University, Research Council United Kingdom (RCUK), HEFCE and others.

*Records (and archives) the progression of PGRs in order to be compliant with our own QME requirements as well as external requirements and potential audits by RCUK in respect of grant income and HEFCE in respect of RDP income.

* Provides the necessary Management Information for the Doctoral College, Directors of Faculty Graduate Schools, and Directors of Centres of Doctoral programmes.

The Universities current version of PGR Tracker is not supportable over the medium term. Rather than trying to fix the underlying issues with the current version, it is a better use of resource to move to a replacement.