Reminder. If you have recently made changes to your supervisory and/or thesis title prior to your milestone review due date and meeting, or would like an accurate reflection of your candidature consumed, it is important to select the Refresh Candidature Details box on Page 1 of the form before submitting your milestone review form.
Overview of milestone timelines and requirements
Milestones play an important role in the successful completion of a graduate research degree. They enable you to provide updates to your research findings and receive formal feedback on your progress to date. The formal mechanism for reviewing your progress against these milestones are the Confirmation and annual progress reviews.
The Faculty of Arts has specific written requirements to support and facilitate your progress towards your thesis submission. The tables below outline the minimum progress requirements at each milestone. Your principal supervisor and Advisory Committee will monitor your progress and comment on your written work, as well as agree on goals for the upcoming review period and identify any professional development needs.
You will receive the relevant online form for your upcoming review approximately three months before the due date. It is your responsibility to complete your milestones (meeting and online form) by no later than the due date. See Completing progress reviews below for information.
You can check your Student Portal (click on the Student Admin, then the Graduate Research tab) to view the date of your upcoming progress review, including your supervisors, study rate, and other candidature details.
School-specific milestones
6-Monthly Reviews
Asia Institute requires their graduate researchers to complete progress reviews every six months (ie. in between standard annual progress reviews). You will need to refer to your Advisory Committee Chair for guidance on this School-specific requirement.
Confirmation and Completion seminars
Confirmation and Completion seminars are part of your Confirmation and submission requirements, respectively. They both provide an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you have the oral presentation skills appropriate to graduate research study. Your presentation seminars will be used to assess your research proposal and the standard of your academic verbal communication.
You are encouraged to present your Confirmation or Completion seminars during Work-in-Progress Days, Symposiums or one of your discipline research seminars. These seminars are usually held towards the end of the year and align with the Confirmation milestone. The Arts Graduate Research Team or your Discipline Coordinators will get in touch with you to organise a session if you are due to present one of the Work-in-Progress Days or Symposiums. For discipline research seminars, please get in touch with the Discipline Coordinator directly.
If you are unable to participate in one of the events abovementioned, you will need to organise your own stand-alone seminar with your Advisory Committee. Please follow the instructions below:
Stand-Alone Confirmation and Completion Seminar Guide
When you make arrangements for your Completion seminar, please ensure that you submit the Completion Seminar Form at least 10 days prior to your seminar as part of the submission and examination requirement. The form will provide a formal record of the advice provided to you by your Advisory Committee.
Milestone timelines
PhD milestone timeline
| PhD Advisory Committee meetings | Full-time | Part-time | Supporting documents to be attached to online progress review form | Oral presentation required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Confirmation | 6 months | 12 months | Refer to the GR Hub | Refer to the GR Hub |
| Confirmation review | 12 months | 24 months | Confirmation Report + 10,000 words of thesis | Yes (Confirmation Seminar) |
| Progress review | N/A | 3 years | Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion to previous reviews) | No |
| Progress review | 2 years | 4 years | Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion) + 30,000-40,000 words of thesis, additional to materials submitted at previous reviews | No |
| Progress review | N/A | 5 years | Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion to previous reviews) | No |
| Thesis submission OR Progress review Eligible for a 6-month extension | 3 years | 6 years | Submitted thesis OR Complete draft thesis + Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion to previous reviews) | Yes, within 6 months of thesis submission (Completion Seminar) |
| Thesis submission OR Final progress review Eligible for a 6-month extension (Late submission: this option applies if your candidature was confirmed on or after 1 January 2018) | 3.5 years | 7 years | Submitted thesis OR Full final draft + Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion to previous reviews) | Yes, within 6 months of thesis submission (Completion Seminar) |
| Thesis submission OR Progress review (Lapse: this option applies if your candidature was confirmed on or before 31 December 2017) | 4 years | 8 years | Submitted thesis OR Full final draft + Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion to previous reviews) | Yes (Completion Seminar) |
MA milestone timeline
| MA Advisory Committee meetings | Full-time | Part-time | Supporting documents to be attached to online progress review form | Oral presentation required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confirmation review | 6 months | 12 months | Confirmation Report + 5,000 words of thesis | Yes (Confirmation Seminar) |
| Progress review | 1 year | 2 years | Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion) + 15,000 words of thesis | No |
| Thesis submission OR Final progress review Eligible for a 6-month extension (Late submission: this option applies if your candidature was confirmed on or after 1 January 2018) | 1.5 years | 3 years | Submitted thesis OR Complete draft thesis + Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion to previous reviews) | Yes, within 6 months of thesis submission (Completion Seminar) |
| Thesis submission OR Progress review (Lapse: this option applies if your candidature was confirmed on or before 31 December 2017) | 2 years | 4 years | Submitted thesis OR Full final draft + Summary of Progress (including updated timeline to completion to previous reviews) | Yes (Completion Seminar) |
If you have any questions about the timelines above, you are encouraged to contact your Advisory Committee in the first instance or the discipline/school graduate research academic coordinator who can help you clarify the expectations.
More information on each milestone can be found on the Graduate Research Hub:
Completing progress reviews
Timely completion of progress reviews is a course requirement. All milestones must be completed by no later than the due date (eg. Confirmation is due on 1 January 2022, you must have completed your Confirmation form and attend a meeting by 1 January 2022.) You may be considered as at risk of making unsatisfactory progress if progress reviews are not completed within the expected due dates. To ensure that you maintain progress, you will need to make plans with your supervisors on how you will meet the requirements for every stage of your candidature.
- Arrange a time to meet with your Advisory Committee. It is your responsibility to organise the meeting, unless otherwise specified by your Advisory Committee. Three months before (eg. 1 October 2021) your milestone is due (eg. 1 January 2022), you will receive a reminder email containing a link to your relevant online progress review form. If you are ready and would like to complete your milestone earlier, contact the Arts Graduate Research Team to request for the relevant form to be issued earlier.
- Ensure that you select Refresh Candidature Details box, if you recently made changes to your candidature.
- Complete and submit your section of the online progress review form, Page 2, with supporting documentation outlining your progress to date, two weeks before (eg. 18 December 2021) the due date (eg. 1 January 2022) to your Advisory Committee Chair. You must ensure that the information entered is correct prior to form submission - once you submit your form, changes cannot be made.
- You and your Advisory Committee will hold the meeting and your Chair will complete the online progress review form, Page 3 (eg. by 1 January 2022).
An overview of the Candidature Management System is available on the Candidature management system FAQs web page.
You are required to submit your thesis within the maximum course duration for your research degree.
Advisory Committee
All graduate researchers must have at least two academic supervisors for the duration of their candidature. Advisory Committees are convened in line with University guidelines, below. A Chair of the Advisory Committee is appointed within a month of your commencement. You must meet with your Advisory Committee at each milestone stage to monitor progress, complete and sign-off on the online Confirmation and progress review forms. The goal of the Advisory Committee is to ensure that the thesis project is on track and supported within the specified timelines.
You can view your Advisory Committee members on the main page when you log in to my.unimelb (Student Admin > Graduate Research tab).
Accessing completed reviews
All milestone reviews are recorded online. You may view your completed reviews once you have received the email confirmation titled "Review complete: Your Name (Student ID) - Your Progress Review Meeting".
An example of the email confirmation is shown in the below image:
To save a copy of your reviews, access my.unimelb and go to the Graduate Research tab > click on the Graduate Research Forms Portal button > select "Responses" > find and select the button with an arrow pointing down > select "Download" > a PDF copy will be generated.
Glossary
View the commonly used terms or phrases that you may come across throughout your candidature.