Credit for non-SUPA courses

Students may complete their course requirements through courses offered outside SUPA.  This applies to both Specialist and Professional Development courses.  Credit for these non-SUPA courses should be requested via this online form.  Applications will be reviewed by the SUPA Graduate School Coordinator and Graduate School Committee.  

SUPA does not give credits for attending conferences.

Professional Development courses may be provided by a University, Research Council, Vitae or other organisations. Students are encouraged to take these courses with their supervisor’s agreement.  Often these courses are not marked, but will confirm that students have completed assignments to a satisfactory standard.  

Advanced Specialist courses include Master’s (MSci/MPhys/MSc) and 4th year Bachelor’s courses and Summer Schools designed for research students (e.g. those organised by doctoral training centres or SUSSP, or international organisations.)  Most Advanced Specialist courses are marked, but we also have a process for accepting unmarked courses.  

Marked courses

These include Master’s and Bachelor’s level modules. The ideal arrangement is that the course coordinator arranges an assessment for the student. Even if postgraduate students are not typically assessed, the course coordinator may have a method for assessing them and students should consult the course coordinator about this. Students are not expected to register on the course through the host university. Instead, the course coordinator should email the student’s marks to admin@supa.ac.uk. 

Unmarked courses

SUPA recognises that Summer Schools are valuable learning experiences even though they typically do not include an assessment. In these cases, and in any non -SUPA specialist course that cannot arrange an assessment, students must write a reflection on the course. The reflection should be up to 4,000 words and include:

• a brief (<200 word) overview of the course content, including the schedule of lectures
• exploration of how the course content relates to the research questions you are trying to answer in your own work, and/or
• discuss the content you found most valuable.

Other Types of Training

Some training that is mandatory, for example, as part of induction, or training provided by a CDT, may also qualify for SUPA credit if the activity meets our expectations for professional development or specialist training.  Activities such as team building or networking are not usually awarded credit.  However, training about how to network could qualify as Professional Development training.  In a similar way, credit is not awarded for doing outreach, but credit is awarded for training about how to do outreach.   

Online courses may qualify for SUPA credit.  Students should submit evidence that they completed the course, such as a certificate of completion or screen shot indicating completion.  

In all cases, for a single non-SUPA Specialist course, students can earn at most 20 hours of credit. Please note that this limit of 20 hours was put in place for students beginning in 2020/21.  Students who began their studies prior to 2020/21 are allowed to claim up to 30 hours of credit for a single non-SUPA course. 

We aim to add non-SUPA courses to your My.SUPA training record within one month of receiving the application.  If that has not happened, please contact SUPA as we may need more information from you.