Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme

Thesis Committee

Information on the composition of Thesis Committees

Your Precision Medicine student will have a Thesis Committee consisting of:

  • an appointed Chair from the Precision Medicine Academic Steering Group
  • an external member
  • all named supervisors
  • day to day supervisors if relevant

Important points to note:

  • The appointed Chair does not necessarily need to be tuned into the area, as that is the role of the external member [see below]. Part of the remit of the Precision Medicine DTP is to train interdisciplinary future leaders who will be able to converse at many different levels, hence their reports and talks should always be amenable to most academics.
  • The external member should be the expert on the project area and are identified and recruited by the supervisors. They must be a member of staff at the lead institution.
  • The external member cannot be a named supervisor on the project or indeed likely to be a possible supervisor later in the project, but should be relatively expert in the field or area. They should also not be related to any of the supervisors OR part of any of the supervisors teams.
  • The Chair and external member act as both a monitor of progression and also of pastoral support, there should be at least one of these roles that is filled by a person of the same gender as the student and preferably a diverse committee is most useful.
  • The Chair and external member should be appointed promptly at the start of the first year and prior to the submission of the 10 week plan, as together they will provide feedback to the student. 
  • The Committee should meet annually as part of the annual review. A meeting following submission of the 10-week plan is not necessary but can performed if a useful way of everyone meeting. 

Following the meeting the Thesis Committee Report Form should be completed by the Thesis Committee Chair, in collaboration with the other members of the Thesis Committee. Once it has been signed off by all members of the committee, the completed form should be uploaded to the students Annual Review in EUCLID.