Learning & Teaching

As part of your degree, you will be expected to develop valuable skills including the ability to process significant amounts of information and to communicate effectively orally and on paper. Our teaching methods aim to help you achieve this. There are three basic elements to teaching within the Department. Lectures offer an introduction to a subject and to the major theories and interpretations relating to it. Further, more detailed discussion takes place in the smaller-group seminars, for which you will be expected to engage in some preparatory reading. The third element is the one-to-one tutorial to provide feedback on submitted coursework. The Department is committed to maintaining the individual tutorial as an essential part of its teaching, since it provides an excellent opportunity to monitor student progress and to offer constructive criticism and advice.

Seminar work and coursework are intended to develop your capacity to research, analyse and present an argument clearly and coherently. Modules are assessed through a range of assessment methods, including closed examinations, take-away examinations, project work, document analysis and essays. All of these are designed to help develop your academic skills and to allow us to chart your progress through your three years of study with the Department.