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Teaching
| One to one supervision | The Degree Committee for the Faculty appoints a principal Supervisor and an advisor for each research student. A secondary Supervisor may sometimes be appointed, especially when the research topic is strongly cross-disciplinary. Research students in CCL will have daily contact with the research group they are placed in. In addition, they should expect a meeting with their Supervisor(s) at least once a month. Generally, a full-time student could expect 10-12 hours of supervisions over the course of each academic year. For part-time students, this is 6-7 hours. The University of Cambridge publishes an annual Code of Practice which sets out the University's expectations regarding supervision.
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| Seminars & classes | Research students are expected to attend weekly research seminars and discussion groups in their research area. They may also attend other relevant research seminars offered by Linguistics or other language science departments in Cambridge. Research students must also attend training in research skills, which is offered by Sectional PhD training seminars and the University's Researcher Development Programme. |
| Lectures | Attending lectures is optional, but students may attend relevant courses offered by language science departments in Cambridge. |
| Posters and Presentations | Students are expected to contribute actively to relevant seminars, research groups, and conferences by presenting posters and oral presentations. These can be explicitly recommended by the Supervisor, or selected by the student from among the advertised events and discussed with the Supervisor. |
Feedback
Feedback on progress is provided through regular meetings with the Supervisor. Termly supervision reports are written and are made available to the student online. Students also obtain feedback through a first-year registration interview and 6th and 9th-term interviews. Termly progress interviews take place in the fourth year of the PhD.
Assessment
Thesis / Dissertation
There is a normal word limit for the thesis of 80,000 words (including footnotes and appendices but excluding bibliography). The thesis should represent a significant contribution to learning through the discovery of new knowledge or through the connection of previously unrelated facts, the development of new theory, the revision of older views or some combination of these. In writing the thesis, you are expected to take account of previously published work on the subject, and the thesis should be clearly and accurately written, paying due attention to English style and grammar. Candidates for the PhD in Cambridge are guided by a Supervisor, though they will normally also discuss their work with a number of other experts in their field. Following the submission of the thesis, an oral (viva) examination is held.
Other
Regular progress interviews constitute a system for the formal monitoring by the Degree Committee of the progress of all students working towards a PhD.
Postgraduate students are admitted in the first instance for a probationary period during which they are not registered as a candidate for the PhD degree. The registration interview in the third term (or fifth term for part-time candidates) is the context in which formal registration as a candidate for the PhD is formally considered. Satisfactory progress is a condition for being registered as a doctoral student. In preparation for the review, students submit a plan of the thesis, an account of research undertaken over the past year and forward planning, and a piece of written work, e.g., a draft chapter or preparatory study of some aspect of the research topic.