Practical Info
Practical Information for Postgraduate Taught students in Physics and Astronomy.
Contacts
- Faculty List
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Visit the faculty contacts page to find a complete list of teaching faculty in the Department. All your lecturers are based in Pevensey II and III buildings. There is a photo board next to the School Office with all the lecturers’ names and office numbers. If you are not sure where to go, please ask at the School Office.
- Campus Address
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The telephone number for the School Office is 01273 873254.
The main campus address for the building is:
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH
- Term Dates
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- How Can We Contact You?
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Our first point of contact for you will be via your @sussex.ac.uk email and you should check this every day for urgent messages such as a re-arrangement of timetabled sessions or a request to contact their Academic Advisor.
Changing your Address
It is your responsibility to keep your home and term-time addresses up to date on Sussex Direct, under the Personal tab. Formal letters will be sent by post to your local address and to your pigeonhole in term-time. In the vacation, messages will be sent to the permanent home address that is on Sussex Direct.
- Incoming Post
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Collecting post or deliveries
Mail addressed to students in the School is put into pigeonholes for them to collect. The undergraduate and postgraduate A-Z pigeonholes are in the main foyer of the Pevensey 2 Building. Uncollected mail is cleared from the every summer and will be shredded.
School Office Info
- Opening Times
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If you are not sure where to go for something, please contact the Virtual School Office.
The MPS School Office is operating on a hybrid rota, and staff continue to work their usual hours from home.
For full details about contacting the MPS School Office, and what they can help you with, please see the Contacts page.
The physical School Office in the foyer of the Pevensey 2 building will be open from 9am to 11am & 2pm to 3pm
- Letter Requests
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For Postgraduate Taught students, any requests for letters, e.g. "To Whom It May Concern" letters, must be directed to the Student Systems and Records Office (SSRO). Please use the Students Systems and Records Office letter request form.
- Noticeboards
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There are a range of other noticeboards of interest to students along the ground floor level by the student study spaces.
- Handing In Coursework
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All coursework submissions now take place via Canvas.
Please ensure you check your Sussex Direct for up to date deadlines and allow yourself extra time to submit work online to make room for any technical issues you may experience.
What to do if you have an e-submission error and are unable to upload your work on time:
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Email mps@sussex.ac.uk with your work as soon as possible and explain you need an application to replace an e-submission file.
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The School Office will email you back with the form and you must fill this out as soon as possible and return it to mps@sussex.ac.uk
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The form will be sent to the Director of Teaching and Learning for consideration and you will recieve a repsonse as soon as possible.
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If you application is sucessful, your work will be sent to the module convenor and they will upload your mark to Sussex Direct, not Canvas, therefore please check Sussex Direct.
Late work:
When uploading coursework electronically, please allow a few minutes to ensure that your computer uploads the work in time for the deadline. Once the deadline has passed, the system automatically logs the work in as late. There are no exceptions. You can only submit during the late period if you have not already submitted something before the deadline. Similarly once the late deadline has passed the system will automatically mark it as a non-submission and the mark for your work is will be 0.
Missing Sheets:
If after uploading your work you discover that you still have a page that you should have included in your work, then you can re-upload the work before the deadline passes. Once the deadline has passed you cannot re-upload your work during the late period. If you would still like to replace the work then you can contact the School Office and request the application to replace an e-submission file. Note that each student is usually only allowed one application, and any further applications are at the discretion of the Director of Teaching and Learning. See above for details on this process.
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- Lost Property
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If you have lost something in the building, check with the School Office first.
Lost property may be taken to the Porters Office in the Richmond building.
If it was lost elsewhere on campus, check with the porters or at the School Office in that building.
All Lost Property ends up at York House Security Office, but items of clothing are not retained.
Support For Students
- University Services
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Please visit the Support webpage to find about a wide range of support and advice from health to wealth available in the University.
- Student Study Space
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MPS students have access to four study spaces within the Pevensey 2/3 complex.
These are:- The Pevensey 2 foyer
- Gauss house in Pevensey 3
- Wormhole in Pevensey 3
- MSc study space in Pevensey 3, 3C18
They all contain Windows PCs and printers with the exception of the small Faraday cage next to the Wormhole . All printing is charged to your own ITS printing account.
The Gauss House also has a large number of core text books available, and other books of interest.
Use of these communal spaces for Autumn 2020 is currently subject to risk assessment.
To maintain health and safety requirements, the student kitchen is currently closed.
Please treat all the communal areas with respect, ensuring that they are left clean and tidy after your use.
- Careers and Employability
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The department has a dedicated employability officer, Emma Hallat, who sits in-house with contact office hours for students.
Emma looks after placements, site visits, employer talks, mock interviews as well as getting employers in the curriculum.
Students' Responsibilities
- Your Learning
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Students have the responsibility for their own learning, just as faculty have the responsibility to provide teaching. Studying for a degree should be regarded as occupying as much time as a full-time job: around 40 hours per week. You should make sure that you do enough work each week to keep up with all your modules. This includes submitting all the work set for each module, whether assessed or not.
- Attendance
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Attendance at lectures and workshops is an important part of the learning process. Attendance records are kept, and your attendance is monitored. During Autumn 2020, attendance will largely be ‘virtual’ and monitored via online activity.
If your attendance drops below a certain level for a sustained period of time, you may be invited to the School Student Progress Committee (which has the authority to restrict future registrations).
- Absence and Illness
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If you know in advance that you are going to miss a session where attendance is recorded please let the School Office know (mps@sussex.ac.uk). If you can't tell us in advance, please let us know as soon as possible thereafter. You don't need to send a separate notification for each session. One notification per day is sufficient. (If you know that you'll be absent for multiple days then one notification for the period is fine, but please send a follow up email when you are back to normal attendance.)
If you'd rather not disclose the reason(s) why you are absent, to mps@sussex.ac.uk that's absolutely fine. However, if you end up not being able to attend for a week or more, please let the Director of Student Experience (DoSE) know the reason why. They will be better able to direct you to specialised support on or off campus (DoSE@mps.sussex.ac.uk). All communications with the DoSE are confidential.
Once you are back to normal attendance, make sure you catch-up on the lectures and other work you've missed as soon as possible. Mostly you'll be able to do that using the resources available on Canvas, but we also suggest you contact your module convenors during their office hours if you have missed two or more sessions.
- Exceptional Circumstances
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If you believe that your late or non-submission of assessed work, or absence from a test/examination, is due to medical or other acceptable mitigating circumstances, you can submit an Exceptional Circumstances claim (EC)
This should be done as early as possible as you must start the claim with 7 days of the assessment deadline.
Start the claim from your Sussex Direct pages by going to the "Study" tab and then "Exceptional circumstances".
Medical certificates or other relevant evidence must be obtained. Such certificates must be signed by a doctor, nurse or other professional person (self-certification will not be accepted).
The following common problems will not be accepted as an exceptional circumstance:
- Transport delays, either to public or private transport.
- Postal delays.
- Failure of a third party, such as a typist or messenger, to complete tasks
- Failure of computers, floppy disks, printers, photocopiers or binders.
Further guidance on Exceptional circumstance claims can be found on the Student Life Centre pages.
- Health and Safety
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All members of the University are responsible for ensuring their health and safety. You should familiarise yourself with the fire exits when in lecture theatres, seminar rooms, halls of residence and student study spaces.
First aid assistance is required - who do I call?
For all first aid emergencies dial 3333 from an internal phone on campus, or 01273 873333.
This call will go through to the University Security Office, who will alert the University’s First Aiders immediately and call for an ambulance if needed. It is important that you call 3333 rather than 999: calling 3333 results in our on-campus first-response team being where they need to be within minutes, as they are based on campus with intimate knowledge of the campus layout. If an ambulance is required, security will lead them in a "follow-me" car to ensure that an ambulance gets to exactly where they need to be as quickly as possible. Phoning 999 may lead to delays as the paramedics may not be familiar with the layout of campus.
Fire procedures
If you notice a fire, sound the nearest alarm, and get yourself to safety. If you can, call 01273 873333 to notify the Security Office. If you notice anything is unsafe, please notify a member of staff, and we will arrange for someone to look into it.
General health & safety guidelines
- All students should refer to the MPS Health and Safety Handbook for details of what to do in an emergency and general health and safety information.
- Students studying in labs will undergo a lab safety session before they begin.
- Students must observe health & safety rules in the communal areas of the Pevensey 2/3 complex (e.g. Do not leave any cooking unattended in the kitchen!)
Harassment or sexual violence
If you have experienced harassment or sexual violence, guidance is available on how to get support and help in an emergency:
Students studying in labs will undergo a lab safety session before they begin.
Students Participation
- Students' Union and Student Reps
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Information on the Students’ Union can be found on the University of Sussex Student’ Union website
Nominations and voting to be a Student representative can be done through this web site. Student reps are democratically elected to represent their peers. They enable a useful and effective communication link between staff and students. They provide helpful feedback to staff on modules and courses; raise concerns in a constructive manner; give feedback to other students on why particular decisions are made; and can help to pre-empt concerns becoming serious issues.
Student reps take part in the Departmental Joint Committee and the School Student Experience Group.
Elected student reps are trained and supported by both the University and the Students' Union staff team. Posters displaying the dates for nominations and voting will be displayed throughout the Department and the University, please look out for posters.
Student reps also attend the Department’s Board of Study which looks at the curriculum matters.
- Departmental Joint Committee (DJC)
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This committee meets every term to discuss issues local to the department of study. The committee membership is made up of the elected student reps, and every year a student member is appointed as the Chair of the Committee. They meet to consider feedback on modules as well as any other source of concern to students. The Senior Tutor and Head of Department are members and take advice from the DJC (Physics) and MSSC (Maths).
- School Student Experience Group (SSEG)
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This committee meets termly and brings together the student reps from both Mathematics and Physics & Astronomy. The membership includes the Head of School, Heads of Department, School Directors of Teaching and Learning and Student Experience, and Senior Tutors. This committee considers issues common to all the undergraduate and postgraduate students.
- Student Societies
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There are a multitude of societies at Sussex, related to sport, leisure and common interests. The Student Union's societies webpages contain more details on the University-wide societies.
In the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, there are two societies:
- QSoc – Physics and Astronomy students
- SUMS – Sussex University Mathematics Society
The societies organise social events, trips and talks. Look out for more information.
Department of Physics and Astronomy
School Office, 3A20 Pevensey 2 Building, University of Sussex, Falmer Campus, Brighton BN1 9QH