Dear all,

There have been a couple of issues with orientation to research work placements recently.

Please remember.

1.5op per full time week equivalent, up to a maximum of 6op in one group (6op = 4 weeks full time work equivalent).

If a student is doing a course and misses a few hours of research work very couple of days to attend lectures then  I would hope that groups would allow flexibility to allow them do this and to make up the small amounts of missing time during the normal placement period (i.e. for most people 4 weeks) – some projects with careful time management may even fit lectures into normal “incubation” periods so no time needs to be made up.

If the student is doing multiple courses at the same time and/or misses time for other reasons then the placement time needs to be extended until the student has done the equivalent of 4 weeks full time work if they want to get the full 6op.

Some placements e.g. biocomputing, may be more suitable for part time work e.g. a 6op placement could be spread over 2 or 3 months or even longer, but 6op = 4 weeks full time work equivalent.

For students the advice is ONLY do orientations when you have time to do them properly without impacting on your other courses, the growing trend to try to do an orientation at the same time as multiple other courses is worrying.

Best wishes,

Lloyd

Lloyd Ruddock

Professor of Protein Science

Department of Biochemistry

University of Oulu

Finland