The Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York have, through the White Rose University Consortium (WRUC), extensive experience of delivering collaborative post-graduate research training.
The DTP Management Board has overall responsibility for the effective governance of the Training Partnership and its funding from BBSRC. The current Management Board is comprised:
- Dr Tom Bennett (Director and Chair of Management Board, Leeds)
- Prof Katherine Denby (Co-Director & Senior Academic, York)
- Prof Stuart Wilson (Co-Director & Senior Academic, Sheffield)
- Catherine Liddle (DTP Co-ordinator, Leeds)
- Dr Craig Walker (Director, White Rose University Consortium, WRUC)
- Prof Ivana Barbaric (Management Board member & Senior Academic, Sheffield)
- Prof Andrew Peden (Management Board member & Senior Academic, Sheffield)
- Prof Gideon Grogan (Management Board member & Senior Academic, York)
- Prof Gavin Thomas (Management Board member & Senior Academic, York)
- Dr Megan Wright (Management Board member & Senior Academic, Leeds)
- Dr Qian Wu (Management Board member & Senior Academic, Leeds)
- Isabelle Boon, Eshita Sengupta & Erin Tait (Student Reps, Leeds)
- Karolina Pyranowska, Victoria Hill and Anyah Settle (Student Reps, Sheffield)
- Joseph McGrory and Lewis Byrom (Student Reps, York)
The Management Board reports on progress to the White Rose University Consortium Executive Board, ensuring that the Partnership has clear visibility to Vice Chancellors and Pro Vice Chancellors.
Each partner has an effective monitoring system for student progression and reports to the Management Board via the relevant administrative offices, so that financial and strategic consequences can be monitored. All student projects have an academic supervisory team, comprising a principal supervisor and co-supervisors, and also receive input from others (technicians, post-doctoral fellows etc.).
The consortium operates formal progression monitoring, where the student and project are assessed by a committee comprising the supervisory team and independent assessors. Partner mechanisms for monitoring student progression check that the student is well engaged with the project within the first few weeks of arrival, which is followed by an assessment occurring between 9 and 15 months of study associated with transfer to full PhD status. There are regular checks on progress thereafter.