What is it? Who is it for? Why should I use it?                                                                       

MyPGR is a dedicated online tool for postgraduate research students and their Supervisors. It is a private webspace where you can record the progress and personal development you have made through your PhD. You can record reflections on your learning and thoughts about your research, think about future careers and support your own personal development. It is linked to MyPlace, but MyPGR is only accessible to PGRs and their Supervisors and is password protected.

MyPGR will be an invaluable record of your development further on in the PhD process when drafting CVs, seeking jobs or any situation where you need to describe and evidence your personal development and competencies. If you decide not to use MyPGR then you must ensure that you are keeping a Progress File of your own and keeping a record of your meetings with your Supervisors.

What is within MyPGR?

MyPGR contains four sections:

• Development Needs Analysis (DNA)
• Skills Development Record
• Supervision Meetings Record
• Personal Development Plan

Each section is explained in further detail below.

Development Needs Analysis

The Development Needs Analysis allows you to audit yourself against a range of research skills that you would be expected to develop throughout your PhD. These research skills are based upon the Joint Skills Statement from Research Councils UK. One new DNA is filled out at the start of each year of your PhD. Think about the skills you have learned over the previous year and measure yourself with thought against the skills and competencies within each subsection of the DNA. As you progress through the PhD, you will find specific sections will resonate more closely to your development at that time. Email reminders are sent to both PGRs and their Supervisors about completition of the DNA for each year of the PhD.

After filling out your DNA you should share it with your Supervisor. Arrange a meeting to discuss the self audit and think about what training activities you need to consider for the forthcoming year - what experiences/training/development will enhance your skill set and further your research?

Skills Development Record

Linked to the DNA is the Skills Development Record section. This is where you can record examples of progress and personal development. You can keep a record of all the experiences, courses and events you have undertaken during your PhD for example, presenting a paper at a conference. You can note down some thoughts on the event - how it was organised, how well you feel you presented, what others said to you about your work as well as keep an online copy of your presentation. This information will be invaluable when you come to moving onto the next stage of your career. Regardless of sector or discipline, potential employers will be looking for specific examples of your skills in action e.g. can you show an example of working to deadlines/independent working/working within a team. Make life easier on yourself and record when you have a new experience related to the skills identified in the Skills Development Record.

Supervision Meetings Record

This section allows you to keep a record of meetings with your Supervisor(s). You can create agendas for your meetings and share these with your Supervisor(s) in advance. They can add any items that they would also like to cover. By creating an agenda, you can ensure that issues you want discussed will be so and therefore get the most out of your meetings. After the meeting you can add to the record any points that were raised, comments made and your thoughts on the meeting. Your Supervisor(s) can do this too, allowing clear records to be kept which are great for reminding and reinforcing what progress you have made alongwith the issues that you need to work on until the next meeting.

Personal Development Plan

This section allows you space to reflect privately on the journey you have taken in choosing a research career. Think about why you are doing a PhD, what you enjoy and what your thoughts are for the future and write about them in the PDP section. These are important and powerful questions as often when you apply for jobs you will be asked these kinds of questions or write a personal statement. You also need to know why you have made the choices you have so you can apply what you have learned to future choices. It really is worth taking some time out to think seriously and reflect on your own career and the progress you have made so far.

You can also keep records of conferences, presentations and events in the section if you wish.

Who to contact?

If you have an issue regarding a missing Supervisor from your record or you need to change you details, please contact the Postgraduate Studies Office on pgso@lancaster.ac.uk.

If you have technical issues regarding the MyPGR system, then please contact the ISS service desk. 

One last thing about MyPGR

Don't forget that MyPGR is a private space that is password protected and you as the owner of your Progress File have to choose to share documents with your Supervisor(s).

Help Guides

Please note the MyPGR Help Guide can now be found here