Confirmation Assessment Purpose Within the first year of study, at approximately month 12 for full-time PhD Researchers and month 24 for part-time Researchers (assuming there are no exceptional circumstances), a confirmation assessment will take place. The dates of the confirmation assessment will be notified to Postgraduate Researchers by Leona O’Neill. Content The confirmation assessment comprises written and oral elements and should be organised in close co-operation with the project supervisors. The written element comprises two components: a. A Literature Review (or other relevant piece of academic writing agreed with supervisor) in font Arial 12 with 1.5 line spacing, not exceeding 10,000 words, including any relevant additional information contained in appendices. Please note that the reviewer is not required to read beyond the 10,000 limit. References are not included within the 10,000 word limit. b. A progress update, a written summary of the work completed to date, not exceeding 10 (ten) A4 pages. Oral Presentation: PhD Researchers are expected to give an oral presentation to the Assessment Panel. The following points are suggested as guidelines (not requirements due to the varied nature or Research Projects within the unit) for the presentation content: Title slide. Background to the problem. Aims of the research, methodology and planned contribution to knowledge. Progress to date, with a plan of activity for the remaining period. Thesis outline, emphasising its logical structure and how it meets the aims of the research. Conferences/journal publications/presentations to date or proposed. Summary slide. Duration A maximum of one hour is set aside for each Confirmation Assessment. The presentation will normally last between 10-15 minutes, followed by up to 30 minutes for the Panel to question the researcher. The final 10-15 minutes will be a private discussion between the Panel and the supervisor(s). The researcher will then be invited back into the room to hear the outcome of the assessment. Procedure Upon receipt of the date for your confirmation assessment, please log in to your account in the PhD Manager and click on the PhD Research Project followed by Confirmation Assessment to initiate the process. A training video is available at the following link to guide you through this process: PhD Manager 7 – PhD Researcher – Confirmation Assessment All paperwork needs to be uploaded no later than 10 days before your confirmation assessment. The reports you upload are final and cannot be changed so please ensure they the reports have been discussed with your supervisor and are correct at the time of upload. PhD Researchers need to submit the document to Turnitin for a plagiarism check. The process to obtain your Turnitin report is as described in the initial assessment guide. It is important that you do not use this system to ‘test’ your submissions or work at any stage as this will affect the final Turnitin report, which will show a higher similarity index than expected.