As part of an ongoing effort to foster good graduate student mentoring and facilitate communication between graduate advisors and advisees, The Graduate School has developed a template for annual reviews for doctoral (and potentially other) students. The purpose is to provide a tool that programs can use to: (1) allow students to report and reflect on their progress and accomplishments during the previous year and plan their activities and efforts for the coming year, and (2) aid major advisors in providing their graduate students with feedback on their progress to date and plans. The template is attached, along with examples of similar forms currently being used by some departments (English, Marine Sciences, and Psychology). The template draws from examples such as these, and incorporates feedback received from the Graduate Faculty Council and the Executive Committee.
Importantly, the template is designed to be customizable. We anticipate that programs will modify it — adding, changing, or deleting items – to suit the specific needs of their programs. Although use of this or any form is purely voluntary (i.e., there is no Graduate School requirement that annual reviews of this sort be conducted), we strongly urge programs to institute a process based on some version of a tool like this.
We are distributing this template now so that programs that want to do so can use it this academic year. However, we view this as a “living document” that we will be revising as we receive feedback on it. In addition, we will be developing guidance/tips on implementations suggestions and strategies that we will be posting on the TGS website, along with the template itself, over the coming months.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the template itself or its use, please reach out to us at kent.holsinger@uconn.edu or Kathleen.segerson@uconn.edu.
Kent E. Holsinger
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School
Kathleen Segerson
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
Associate Dean of The Graduate School
