SMS MSc Student Handbook 2017/18

• Read this handbook carefully at the start of the year and refer to it later if you have a question about your course.
• Monitor email communications from SMS staff sent to your qmul.ac.uk email address.
• Check the School QMplus landing page and the student information notice boards in the Mathematical Sciences offices regularly.
• Visit your adviser (personal tutor) at the start of your course, and answer any email from your adviser promptly.
  
• Keep your adviser informed of your circumstances and any problems you may experience.
• Keep your full contact details up to date in MySIS.
• Submit all exercises required for each module by the stated deadline.
• Inform the module organiser if you withdraw from a module or start a module late.
• Ensure you are registered for the correct degree programme, which should be the one you were originally accepted for unless you have explicitly changed it.
• Ensure that you prearrange and respect appointments made with your adviser and lecturers; please see Contact Information.
• Respect Queen Mary policy on harassment, which states that all members of Queen Mary are entitled to work within an environment where they are treated with dignity and respect and where harassment of any kind is unacceptable.
• Don't smoke except in designated areas.

Updating Personal Details

It is important that Queen Mary has up-to-date personal details for all students. Please update your address and contact details online using MySIS, although a change of name must be done in person at the Student Enquiry Centre in room CB02 of the Queens' Building with accompanying identification. Please also ensure you notify the Maths Office so that we can update our departmental records.

Communication

Queen Mary will communicate with you in a variety of ways. We may send you some formal correspondence by letter, so it is important that you keep Queen Mary up to date (via MySIS) with your personal details and address. However, it is most common for the School of Mathematical Sciences and Queen Mary to contact you by email sent to your qmul.ac.uk email address. Queen Mary assigns you an email address when you first enrol and you must check this email account daily.

You can access your Queen Mary email account in various ways. You can use any web browser (on any device) or you can use the same email client you use for your private email on your computer, phone and/or tablet.

Email Etiquette

Email is often the best way to contact Queen Mary staff, but you must use your Queen Mary email account and include both your full name (as registered with Queen Mary) and your 9-digit student number. Use standard and correct English with correct capitalisation; do not use abbreviations or colloquialisms. Save "txtspk" for friends and family! Address staff by their title and surname: for example, Prof. Soicher, Dr. Walters, Mr. Ng. You can check staff titles on the School of Mathematical Sciences webpages, here. If you are replying to an email then please include a copy of that email.

If you follow the above requirements then you can reasonably expect an acknowledgement within about two working days and a full reply within about five working days during term time, but responses may take longer during vacations. If you do not follow the above requirements then we may ignore your email.

• How (not) to write an email to a member of staff - a pictorial guide

Requesting References

If you want an academic reference for a job or further study, you should normally ask your personal academic adviser. If you need a second reference, you should ask another member of academic staff who knows you and your work well, but they may refuse.

You should always ask a member of staff well in advance whether they are willing to act as a referee before naming them on an application form. If you ask them by email then you must follow the email etiquette above. If you need letters of reference (rather than just names of referees), you should allow about two weeks for your referees to write them and referees may refuse to provide references with less than one week's notice.

Code of Conduct

All students are expected to adhere to the Queen Mary Code of Student Discipline. This covers general student behaviour. Please respect others by refraining from talking during lectures (except to members of staff) and in the library (except in designated areas). If you persistently talk during lectures or in quiet areas of the library then Queen Mary may take disciplinary action against you; we take a serious view of behaviour that prevents other people from working.

It is important that when using dedicated PGT resources situated within the School of Mathematical Sciences that you respect the environment.  Queens' W307 (the Maths PGT IT Lab)] is dedicated to PGT and final year MSci students, who can access the room via card-entry access doors.  Students must not let other students access these facilities at any time. 

Personal Information and Data Protection

During application and enrolment you will have provided personal information about yourself which is held in MySIS, such as relevant addresses and information about your background, and given Queen Mary consent to process this. It is important that you ensure this information is accurate and keep it up-to-date, even after you have graduated and left Queen Mary. Throughout your studies you may provide other personal information to us and you should be aware that your personal information also includes any assessed text you produce, i.e. coursework, exam scripts and dissertations. Tutors may occasionally use anonymised student answers (or portions from them) as part of the teaching process. We hope you will be willing to support your fellow students by allowing this, but you may opt out by contacting the School Office.

Use of Mobile Phones

Please do not use your mobile phone or allow your mobile phone to make any sound in lectures, classes, the library, computing laboratories or staff offices. If you do then a member of staff may ask you to leave. You must switch off your mobile phone in all tests and examinations. Allowing your mobile phone to ring during a test or an examination is a disciplinary offence that will normally lead to failure in the test or examination with a mark of zero, with more severe penalties for a second offence.