Two new portals
Both are live, and both take work that currently runs through your inbox. This page describes what each does and what changes for you. If something is wrong, say so this week rather than in October — it is far cheaper to change now.
Where to find them
You do not need to keep these links. Both portals sit on the faculty dashboard, which is the one address worth bookmarking.
The Defense Portal
The problem it solves: a student books a defense slot first, and the committee gets assembled afterwards. We just saw why that is backwards — a slot was held by someone who was not ready, and it showed as full to everyone else until it was released by hand.
Nobody books until the people who have to attend have said when they can come.
How a submission moves
The submission deadlines are enforced, not advisory
The Supervisor Nomination Portal
This one is for researchers finishing Year 1, and it exists so the handoff from a Year 1 supervisor to the Years 2 and 3 supervisor feels managed by GCAS rather than improvised by the student.
It is open — no gate, no unlock. Researchers are simply told to start filling it in as they come to the end of their Year 1 assignments, which is when the thinking is most useful anyway. Their side of it is at gcas.ie/supervisor-nomination if you want to see what they see.
What you are actually judging on each nominee: the doctorate and where it is from, publications in the candidate’s real area rather than an adjacent one, prior doctoral supervision or credible readiness for it, no conflict of any kind, and a willingness to commit for two to three years. A supervisor is a two-to-three-year relationship rather than a two-hour appearance, which is why ten days per nominee is right for an ask of that size.
Who else can see these
| Queue | Who can act |
|---|---|
| MA submissions | Filippo, Francisco, Florian, Barry, Jamie, Creston |
| PhD submissions | Jamie, Fernando, Creston |
| Nominations | Jamie, Fernando, Creston |
| Read-only, all three | Viktoria and Mehtap, since they will be asked where a dissertation is |
One consequence worth knowing: Fernando sees all PhD submissions and nominations, not only the Natural Sciences ones.
If a portal bounces you to the student dashboard, it is not broken.
Access is keyed to the address on your WordPress account, which is not always the address you email from. Say so and it is a one-minute fix.
Have a look at both and say what is wrong with them. You are the ones who will live in these daily, so your objections are worth more than mine.