Graduate Supervision Reporting (GSR) FAQs

• Graduate students are given access to GSR in Student Self Service automatically.
   
• Supervisors are assigned relationships with students in eVision by graduate administrators/GSAs, and access to GSR is based on these relationships. Supervisor-student relationships are usually updated in the run up to reporting. If, during the reporting period, you need to get a contact updated, please get in touch with your graduate studies contact. External supervisors will need a virtual access card form, in order to access GSR in eVision. 
   
• College advisors are assigned relationships with students in eVision by their college, and access to GSR is based on these relationships.
   
• DGSs, Course Directors and subject administrators are given access as advised by GSR super users.
   
• College administrators are given access as advised by college information custodians (Oxford SSO login needed to view this page)

Please refer to the GSR: Overview of access page.

Please refer to the relevant Dashboard Quick Reference Guide, available on the GSR training materials page.

It is the student's forename which is displayed on the dashboard view. However when you View or Write a report you should also see the student’s preferred name at the top of the page. You can also see the preferred name by clicking on the Student Details button.

Please refer to the relevant Dashboard Quick Reference Guide, available on the GSR training materials page.

Yes, you can. 

Please refer to the flagging of concerns frequently asked questions tab. 

The 'Write Report' button will appear when the report is available for editing, and it will continue to appear until the report has been edited and submitted. After you have submitted your report, the 'View Report' button will appear instead.

There are three different levels of concern in GSR, which can be used to flag a concern relating to a student's academic progress. Guidance is in the relevant dashboard Quick Reference Guide on the GSR training materials page.

Please refer to question 2 for definitions of the three levels of concerns.

Student concerns should relate directly to academic progress. If students are dissatisfied with any other aspects of provision e.g. their supervisory relationship or their working environment, they should raise these with the Director of Graduate Studies (or equivalent) in the first instance, and pursue them through the department’s complaints procedure if necessary.

Supervisors should discuss any concerns about academic progress with the student before flagging a concern in GSR. 

Directors of Graduate Studies should review all flagged concerns and take action as appropriate. A severe concern should result in a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies without delay. Directors of Graduate Studies should briefly note any action being taken to resolve the matter.

Minor concerns – Satisfactory progress is being made, but minor issues have been identified where further action may be required to keep progress on track

Major concerns – One or more factors are significantly affecting progress, and further action is required now to keep progress on track

Severe concerns – Progress is being seriously affected by one or more factors, and a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies should be held as soon as possible to discuss further action to get progress back on track

Supervisors, college advisors, Course Directors and DGSs will all receive an automated GSR email notification if a concern is raised at any level, and the same applies when a flag is removed.

When you view your dashboard in GSR, the highest level of unresolved concern raised about student’s academic progress will be displayed in the student, supervisor or DGS columns. If no open concern remains, the highest level of resolved concern will be displayed, and marked as resolved.

The highest level of concern that has been flagged by a supervisor will display in the dashboard. If the supervisor who has flagged the concern at the highest level subsequently removes the concern, any remaining, lower level of concern will still show in the dashboard until the supervisor that raised it, removes it.

Concerns will not show until the report is saved and submitted, and there will be an option to cancel a flag if raised in error. Details on this process can be found in the ‘Update a Concern’ Quick Reference Guide on the GSR training materials page.

The Course Director or DGS can add a comment, but no one else can. GSR is designed in line with the principle that any discussion about concerns should happen outside the system, and the final comment from the Course Director/DGS should be a summary of the outcome. The comment must be entered before the reporting period closes, but if this is not possible, the recommendation is to carry the note forward into the next reporting period.

No, once the reporting period is closed, no further changes can be made.

Only general supervisors receive payments for supervision through GSR. Dissertation/thesis supervisors for PGT programmes and course tutors are not paid via GSR.

If you are on the main University payroll, and you submit your supervision report before the 8th of the month, you will receive payment in your usual monthly salary at the end of the month. For example, supervision reports submitted between 9th December and 8th January will be paid in the January payroll (at the end of January). 

For supervisors who are not on the main University payroll, the Division or relevant GSA will send a payment request to the relevant department's finance office.

Payments for supervision are triggered by supervision reports being submitted in GSR, and are not based on whether the Course Director/DGS has viewed the report or not.

Payments other than for graduate supervision claimed by a supervisor are not processed by GSR. Each Division has different procedures on how special tuition payments should be claimed. Please contact the relevant GSA for further information.

Due to extremely low uptake in the old Graduate Supervision System (GSS), and the requirement to complete a Royalties and Income waiver prior to commencing supervision, requests for payments to be made to departments and colleges will no longer be possible in GSR. The only options will be to receive payment directly or to opt out of payment. If necessary, supervisors can subsequently Gift Aid their supervision fee to a department or college (please see https://www.development.ox.ac.uk/contribute/tax_efficient_giving/gift_aid.html for further information).

Please note supervision payments are recharged back to the relevant departmental cost centres.

You will be expected to use GSR to submit your self-assessment report, everything you need to know is included in your graduate handbook, and you may find it useful to refer to the summary of what you (and the relevant staff) have access to in GSR is on the overview of access page.   

Research students can complete their Training Needs Analysis form within GSR - the frequency of this activity varies by course, and your department will let you know when one is due. 

You will receive an email when your supervision reporting window opens, including a prompt to login and find the ‘My Supervision Reporting’ section in Student Self Service, and with details of how to submit your self-assessment report.

Details are on the Student Self Service page.

You will receive an automated GSR email notifications when your reporting window opens. The email will include everything you need to know to get started in GSR.

Reporting windows are displayed on your 'My Supervision Reporting' menu page in Student Self Service.

You can access GSR by logging into Student Self Service and clicking on 'My Supervision Reporting' in the menu. You can log in to GSR from wherever you are, and it will work on mobile devices. 

When your reporting window opens, you will be sent an automated email notification, with details of how to login. 

For further instructions, please refer to the Student Self Service page. 

The following guidance is for students and staff:

Student concerns should relate directly to academic progress. If students are dissatisfied with any other aspects of provision e.g. their supervisory relationship or their working environment, they should raise these with the Director of Graduate Studies (or equivalent) in the first instance, and pursue them through the department’s complaints procedure if necessary. 

Supervisors should discuss any concerns about academic progress with the student before flagging a concern in GSR.  

Directors of Graduate Studies should review all flagged concerns and take action as appropriate. A severe concern should result in a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies without delay. Directors of Graduate Studies should briefly note any action being taken to resolve the matter.

You can raise a concern about academic progress using one of three levels of flags:

Minor concerns – Satisfactory progress is being made, but minor issues have been identified where further action may be required to keep progress on track.
Major concerns – One or more factors are significantly affecting progress, and further action is required now to keep progress on track.
Severe concerns – Progress is being seriously affected by one or more factors, and a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies should be held as soon as possible to discuss further action to get progress back on track.

You have the option to mark a concern that you’ve raised as cancelled or resolved.

Research students can complete their divisional TNA form at any time in Student Self Service and add this to their self-assessment report. The majority of departments have opted to use the online form for graduate students’ TNA, but some departments have provided their students with a Word template to upload to Student Self Service. Details about the TNA form in GSR and the upload function for the Word template is in the Student Self Service manual, which is available from the menu of the Student Self Service web page.

Your Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is a record of how your skills and training have developed and built over the course of your studies, as well as a record of any planned training discussed with your supervisor. Therefore, as you start a new TNA form, your previous answers will be carried forward for you as a starting point for the next round of review and discussion. The only exception to this is where you have transferred to a programme of study in a different division, in which case you will start your next form with no pre-filled answers. 

If you accidentally selected the wrong form type from the options to upload a web form or upload a document, please contact the Student Systems Support Centre and ask them to delete the form for you so you can start again (contact details are at the bottom of this page).

The submit drop-down menu in your Training Needs Analysis (TNA) form contains three options: 

1. ‘For review with supervisor’ - which will send your supervisor an email asking them to review your completed TNA. No one else can see your TNA until you select final submit. 
2. ‘Final Submit’ - takes a snapshot of your submitted TNA and allows all your supervisor(s) and Course Director/DGSs to view the form as part of supervision reporting. 
3. ‘Save, don’t submit’ – select this if you aren’t ready to submit the TNA yet.

If you accidentally selected the wrong form type from the options Preparing for transfer of status and Preparing for confirmation of DPhil, please contact the Student Systems Support Centre and ask them to delete the form for you so you can start again (contact details at the bottom of this page).

Everything you need to know about supervision reporting is in your graduate handbook.

As the reporting window has now closed, you are not able to edit or submit this term's report in Student Self Service. Please email your report to your supervisor, copying in your college and department.

The main changes for students are:

1. Adjustments to the reporting schedule, and a new reporting window in the Long Vacation (summer), which is mandatory for research degrees and optional for postgraduate taught degrees (your department will tell you if this affects you).
2.  More nuanced concern flags available in case you have any concerns about your academic progress to raise (options are minor, major, and severe). 
3.  College advisors will be asked to state how many times they have met with you during the reporting period. 

 Details are in the changes for students who previously used GSS document [PDF].

Reports held within GSR will be visible to you, your allocated supervisor(s), college advisor(s), Course Director(s), Director of Graduate Studies, as well as authorised departmental, divisional and college staff (which may include your college Senior Tutor and Head of House). The list of individuals who are able to view your reports within GSR is displayed to you within the GSR reporting screens.

If you are in receipt of funding from the University, including research council funding, your supervision reports may also be shared with relevant University employees responsible for the oversight of these awards, in order to fulfil requirements associated with your funding. 

In some circumstances, details of your supervision reports may also be shared with the Disability Advisory Service, Proctors’ Office and Education Committee.

Student Self Service will be available to you for 12 months following the completion of your course, and you will be able to view your reports until the end of that period.

Please contact the Student Systems Support Centre:

student.systems@admin.ox.ac.uk
01865 (2)84848

Opening Hours: 
08:30 - 17:00 Monday - Friday
(excluding Bank Holidays and fixed closure days)