Hi Guys!
I'm currently writing a transfer report from Mphil to PhD and I need some advice!
I have done a lit review, and a research plan and need to write about my progress to date. Just wondering how you guys approached this? Should I include information about conference presentations etc? Does anyone know any useful web sites or of any resources that may help?
Thanks xx

My transfer report was a lit review and then a review of my work to date then a plan of future work and directions where I wanted to take my research.

I put a list of courses, conferences and presentations I had done as an appendix at the back.


Mine was about 13,000 words in the end.

At our university we are initially registered for no degree, then the report at the end of the first year decides whether you are registered for an MPhil or PhD (or whether I have to go back to being a database administrator (down)).

We have to cover:
• a statement of the problem, or aims/objectives
• literature review, with its relevance to your research
• what work you have done so far: theoretical ideas generated, software produced, experiments completed etc etc
• how you propose to complete the research, including timescales and milestones

I would definately include information about conference presentations since it is an achievement. In my case, I have prepared two papers, one is accepted but not presented yet and the other has just had the abstract accepted. My approach was to include them by using them as references.

I was told to stick to 3000 words but my new colleague has been given a limit of 20000 words.

My viva is on 3rd of November, please wish me luck.

Thanks guys. This is all great stuff!

I have been told that it should be 10,000 words. So far i have done 3,000 for intro and lit review and 2,000 on methods leaving 5,000 for progress, extensions and conclusions. Does this seem like appropriate weighting?
xx

I'd actually think your progress extensions and conclusions would be around 3000 words altogether and much more for the lit review and methods. My literature review was over 10,000 for my transfer report - this is one of the most important aspect of your first year. Although I guess it does depend on your subject.

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Hi Joanne,



If you have a look at my previous posts you will see that I've had some problems with my transfer/upgrade report! I'm pretty bitter about the whole thing actually, but I passed eventually!

Make sure you obtain clear guidance about your department and/or university policies regarding the upgrade report. My department does not have clear guidance and I think I suffered as a result (I failed first time round, simply because I did not have a clue of how to write the report/or what was required!). What complicates it more is that different departments have different policies and guidelines for the upgrade.

I was given no concrete written guidance about the report. Other universities and departments do :(

My upgrade/transfer report was far too long ( report was over 80,000, excluding references, tables, figures and appendicies)- and I've been blasted for producing such a large report (although they did think that some of it was excellent- at last something positive!). I was not given a word count limit, but hopefully I've given myself a headstart when it comes to my thesis chapters.

My upgrade report consisted of an intro, 2 large literature review chapters, a research question chapter (my design models and a methods chapter (detailed overview of my measures, anticipated problems and meeting ethical considerations) . I failed to include a progress to date section ( i wasn't told this had to be added) which is something that they would have liked to have seen. Maybe you could integrate your presentations into the 'progress' section!

It might be an idea to see if you can view previous upgrade reports within your department which have passed.

Good luck with it!