1. Research Student Award and Penalty System

 

1.1 Excellent Tutor Award

1. There are up to 3 Awards per academic year.
2. Each awardee will receive a certificate of recognition for their excellent efforts in TA duties.
3. PHY Research Students who have taken up TA duties in the relevant academic year are eligible for award nominations.
4. The Selection Committee is composed of all Major/Programme leader and Research Degree Coordinator.
5. The selection will be based on nominations, TLQ/LOQ results and actual efforts of teaching duties.

 

1.2 Penalty

1. Course Leader launches complaints to concerned Program Leader(s) and  the Chair of Research Degree Review Committee within 10 working days if there is an incident observed, such as late presence or absence in tutorial or lab teaching, invigilation, postgraduate seminar presentation, etc.
    
2. The Research Degree Review Committee will investigate the case and make recommendation to Head within 2 weeks.
    
3. Penalty will be proposed which can include:                
     i.  not being recommended for Research Tuition Scholarship for one year
     ii. not being recommended for Outstanding Academic Performance Award for one year
     iii. not being recommended for Student Research Excellence Award for one year
     iv. not being recommended for Conference Grant
     v.  reduction of studentship (up to 12 months)
   
   In addition, according to the Guidebook for Research Degree Studies :
    
4. Students’ studentship awards will be placed on probation in the following semester in the event that they:
   (a)  failed in the first attempt in “English for the Medium of Instruction” course; or
   (b)  obtained a “Fail” grade in SG8001 in the first attempt, and are therefore not permitted to teach; or
   (c)  failed to perform the assigned TA duties and/or teaching and/or research-related duties satisfactorily as evaluated by the School/Department concerned.
    
5. During the probationary period, students will continue to receive a studentship and they are expected to successfully complete the “English for the Medium of Instruction” course, or SG8001 course, or to perform TA duties up to the required standard. Students will be required to exit from the TA Scheme and have their studentship reduced by 25% in the following semester(s) in the event that they:
   (a)  failed in the second attempt in “English for the Medium of Instruction” course, and are not qualified to take SG8001; or
   (b)  obtained a “Fail” grade in SG8001 in the second attempt, and are therefore not permitted to teach; or
   (c)  failed consistently to perform their TA duties satisfactorily during the probationary period.

 

1.3 Remarks

1. PHY research degree students will be briefed once a year about the PHY Research Student Award and Penalty System.
2. We expect to have 3 awards presented and zero penalty case each year.

 

2.    Guidelines on Application for Credit Transfer

 

In addition to the regulations of credit transfer for research students stipulated by SGS, all PHY research students should observe the following internal departmental guidelines when submitting their application for credit transfer.

 

2.1 Only PhD Research Students are eligible to apply for credit transfer.

 

2.2 Students will only be allowed to transfer a maximum of 7 credit units for their Research Studies at CityUHK if they meet the following conditions:

1. Their previous postgraduate study was completed at a university whose ranking is HIGHER than CityUHK according to  QS World University Rankings ,  US News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings (US News) , or  ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ; and
2. They should attain a minimum score of 92 (TOEFL) or 7.0 (IELTS) unless the credits were obtained in the courses taught in English .

 

2.3 For students graduated from a CityUHK postgraduate programme (e.g. MScAP, MPhil), up to 6 credit units will be allowed to be transferred, on condition that the grade of each course is B+ or above.

 

2.4 Students who fail to satisfy the conditions specified in (2.2) and (2.3) will only be allowed to transfer up to 4 credit units for their Research Studies at CityUHK.

 

2.5  When evaluating the course transfer request, if the two courses in CityUHK and another university have similar teaching hours, the number of course credits can be considered to be the same, even if the course credits are different on the transcripts.

 

2.6  To apply for credit transfer, students should submit the following documents to the PHY General Office:

1. Application form for Credit Transfer/Coursework Exemption for Research Students (SGS16C) <  https://www.cityu.edu.hk/sgs/student/form/RPg >
2. Academic Transcript issued by the university where the equivalent course was taken
3. Syllabus of the equivalent course taken
4. Result Slip of TOEFL or IELTS (if applicable)
5. Records of transferred credit

 

2.7  For enquiries about the credit transfer application, please contact the PHY General Office at 3442-4710 or via email at phy.go@cityu.edu.hk .

 

3.    Guidelines on Change of Supervisor for Research Students

 

3.1  Students should first submit a formal written request for changing his/her supervisor with the following supporting documents to the Research Degree Review Committee for consideration:

1. Justification(s) of the request for changing the supervisor;
2. An agreement signed by the student to undertake his/her research studies with the new supervisor for a reasonably long period of time which normally gives a round-off number of academic years to be N (N is the normal study period set by CityUHK);
3. Written comment on the requested transfer of supervision from the two supervisors concerned; and
4. An agreement signed by the two supervisors concerned indicating that there would be no remaining issues (e.g., funding or quota).

 

3.2  Upon receipt of a well-documented request for the change of supervisor, the Chairman of the Research Degree Review Committee would seek the recommendation from the Committee in a forthcoming committee meeting.

 

3.3  If the Research Degree Review Committee approved the request for changing the supervisor, the Chairman would forward the recommendation to the Head of Department for endorsement.

 

3.4  For enquiries about the change of supervisor for research students, please contact Ms. Carmen Leung of the PHY General Office via email  carmen.leung@cityu.edu.hk .

 

4.    Teaching duty (TA duty)

 

4.1  It has come to our attention that some students swapped their duties without obtaining prior approval from the course leader. If you cannot teach the scheduled tutorial/ lab sessions, you are REQUIRED to get approval from the respective course leader(s) and complete the leave application procedures as detailed below:

1. Research student  request  (email)
2. Course leader(s)  approval  (email)
3. Research student leave application (online) + course leader(s) approval (email)
4. Supervisor approval (online)

 

4.2  No more than  126 hours  of duty to teaching tutor per semester.

 

4.3  It is reminded that the medium of teaching is  English . All tutors should conduct classes in  English .

 

4.4   If more than 126 hours  of workload per course are assigned by the course leader(s), please contact Prof KS Chan to review the teaching load.

 

4.5  Research students who are not assigned any teaching duty before the start of the semester  may be asked to take up duties later , whenever necessary; OR they will be required to take up more duties in the next semester(s).

 

4.6   Changes in teaching duty assignment  might be made according to the actual enrollment of courses from time to time.

 

4.7 As stated in the Guidebook for Research Degree Studies (“Guidebook”), all research students are required to take the “Teaching Students: First Steps (SG8001)” course and obtain a “pass” in the course before delivering face-to-face teaching. Individual students with insufficient English proficiency may be required to take the “English as Medium for Instruction (SG8002)” course before they are allowed to enroll into SG8001. You are strongly advised to take the course SG8001 in the first semester of your studies (or in the second semester of your studies if you are required to take SG8002), and start your tutor duties as early as possible, otherwise, your outstanding tutor duties would be accumulated, which would result in heavy tutor duties in the later stage of your studies. 

 

4.8 Research students who could not complete the required teaching duties by the time they submit the form SGS09A - Certifying Form for Submission of Thesis for Examination (i.e. three months before their expected date of thesis submission) may not get recommendation from the Department for thesis assessment and oral examination.