The SMART Academic Board (AB) maintains oversight of the joint common standards for supervision through the annual review of DC progress. This is supplemented by feedback and insight into the SMART EMJD by the SMART Doctoral Candidate - Staff Liaison Committee (DC - SLC). A combination of these committees provides a robust monitoring structure that is responsive to candidate feedback and provides the SB with an appropriate oversight of the quality of the joint supervision arrangements.

The AB will be responsible for overseeing quality of supervision and monitoring DC progress. This will be achieved through:

· Six Monthly Progress Reports generated by each DC in collaboration with their supervisors. These reports will record (i) progress in the previous six months, (ii) problems arising and appropriate actions to be taken, including additional training, (iii) aims and objectives for the next six months, and (iv) an evaluation of the quality of the DC’s performance. The reports will be scrutinised each time by two different members of the academic board to ensure that significant problems are identified, investigated and dealt with. These items will be included in the candidate’s Doctoral Record. 

· An Annual Progress Review of each candidate will be undertaken by the AB at the time of the annual workshop, and will be based on an appraisal of the six monthly review reports and the DC’s inputs to the annual workshop (second year: research proposal; third year: presentation of completed research element). These items will be included in the candidate’s Doctoral record.

At the beginning of the Programme DCs are provided with the Doctoral Record: this is an important document including all the main information regarding assessments, publications, participation to conferences, etc. DCs will be required to keep their Doctoral Records up-to-date, adding also their semester reports.

In addition, Assessment Boards at each institution separately monitor and approve assessment marks for modules undertaken by SMART candidates.  The research progress and achievement of each candidate will be monitored also by External Examiners related to member state’s Higher Education quality assurance procedures so that to give further inputs for their improvement research.

Although there are no formal requirements for publication across the partner institutions involved in SMART, DCs will be expected to publish their research, with a minimum of one published / publishable manuscript associated with their year three workshop presentation and one presentation at an international conference.