Engagement

If you are an undergraduate or postgraduate taught student, your school will track your attendance and engagement via electronic means.

If you are an undergraduate or postgraduate taught student, your school will track your attendance and engagement via electronic means.

• As part of your programme you must have monthly formal supervision sessions.
• You need to have your completed Research Supervision Record signed electronically every month by your supervisor.  
• Your signed research supervision record form must be uploaded to Salford Advantage no later than the Sunday following the end of the calendar month concerned.  The last dates for submission in 2024 are:

• Month	Submission deadline
  January 2024	Sunday 4 February 2024
  February 2024	Sunday 3 March 2024
  March 2024	Sunday 7 April 2024
  April 2024	Sunday 5 May 2024
  May 2024	Sunday 2 June 2024
  June 2024	Sunday 7 July 2024
  July 2024	Sunday 4 August 2024
  August 2024	Sunday 1 September 2024
  September 2024	Sunday 6 October 2024
  October 2024	Sunday 3 November 2024
  November 2024	Sunday 1 December 2024
  December 2024	Sunday 5 January 2025

• If your supervisor has used an electronic signature on your supervision record form and returned your form to you via email, then you must also upload a screenshot of this email to your Salford Advantage submission. 
• If you submit your form late it cannot be processed and will be classed as a missed engagement point.
• You should keep the hard copy of the form for your personal records – you may be asked to provide this at a later date.  

If you are planning on completing an exchange programme outside of the UK, please contact the Home Office Compliance Team for further information.

• You must have permission from your supervisor to return to your home country or travel overseas to complete data collection. It is advisable to keep a copy of this permission with you during your trip, and email a copy to the Home Office Compliance Team.

If you wish to keep your Tier 4 or Student Route visa

• You must stay in contact with your supervisor and have monthly formal supervision sessions.  You should do this by Microsoft Teams or, only in exceptional circumstances, email contact.  Following your session, you should send your completed form to your supervisor and ask them to sign and send it back to you via email.  
• Your signed research supervision record form must be uploaded to Salford Advantage no later than the Sunday following the end of the calendar month concerned (please see above).
• If you submit your form late it cannot be processed and will be classed as a missed attendance.
• You should keep the hard copy of the form for your personal records – you may be asked to provide this at a later date.

If you don’t want to keep your Tier 4 or Student Route visa

• You may return to your home country when no further contact is required with your supervisor or the University.  If this is the case, you must provide evidence that you have left the UK (such as scanned copies of an exit stamp in your passport, boarding pass and flight booking confirmation) to homeofficecompliance@salford.ac.uk

• If you are unwell for a few days, you may still be able to engage with your programme at the beginning or end of the week/ month or be able to re-arrange your dissertation/ research supervision session. 
• If you expect your absence to be for a significant amount of time, i.e. 60 days or more, please consider whether an interruption of study would be a more suitable way to protect your academic record.  If you would like to discuss this, please contact us.
• The university can authorise periods of absence due to extreme sickness without cancelling sponsorship of your Tier 4 / Student Route visa but you must be able to complete your course on your current Visa and your absence should not be for 60 days or more.  If you are in this situation, contact us as soon as possible so we can advise you on the best course of action.

You may be able to ask your school for a period of authorised absence (not usually more than 2 weeks) during term time, but this is only granted at the school's discretion and with relevant documentation being provided. Authorised absence may be applicable in cases of close family bereavement, the sickness of a close relative or for other personal reasons. Please note that a period of authorised absence over 2 weeks will be referred to the Home Office Compliance Team.

You should also be aware that authorised absence can only be given on the proviso that you will not be eligible for a visa extension to complete your course of study if the authorised absence is granted.