Erasmus Mundus Funding Category A deadline: 17 December 2010

Erasmus Mundus Funding Category B deadline: 29 April 2011

IMESS Bursary deadline: 29 April 2011

Non-scholarship deadline: 29 April 2011

Visiting Scholars deadline: 31 January 2011

 

 

 

IMESS Student Handbook

Studying at UCL

For most Masters students studying at UCL is quite different from their experience in their home/undergraduate universities. Your experience of the academic approach employed in another country and/or institution forms a significant part of your personal and professional development. We hope that reading this section might help prepare you for some of the differences!

The UCL Calendar

UCL operates over three ‘terms’ – an autumn term; a spring term and a summer term. The summer term is primarily for revision and exams and the main teaching takes place in the autumn and spring terms. You can find the academic calendar on the SSEES website.

Study and Assessment Methods

One of the main differences between studying in the UK and at your home university is that, while you will receive a course outline and reading lists, there is a much greater expectation that students at UCL will read around their subjects independently and be ready to apply their research through participation in small group classes (or seminars). In addition, the emphasis in class discussions, class presentations and essay writing is NOT on regurgitating information given to you in the course but instead on using that information and the knowledge acquired from your independent reading to demonstrate understanding in particular contexts.

Students who demonstrate the capacity, in their assessments, to apply learning critically and logically to particular issues do better than those simply reproducing facts or quotes or figures learned by heart.

Reading

You will normally be issued with a reading list at the start of each course and in some cases you will be given weekly reading tasks. Where you are not given specific weekly reading, the expectation is that you will pursue your own reading around the topic. This approach helps you to become more independent in your academic thinking and research.

Coursework

All courses have elements of coursework in the form of written assignments and essays, short exercises and literature reviews. This coursework may be non-assessed or assessed. If it is non-assessed, it will not form part of your final course mark, whereas assessed coursework will. In both cases, the coursework will be marked and you will receive feedback. Submission of the coursework, whether assessed or not, is compulsory and failure to complete coursework may result in your not receiving a mark for that course. Your Course Tutor will explain the teaching and assessment arrangements when the course starts.

Examinations

The UCL examination period is during the third term of the year. Students must be in attendance at the college during this period.

Timetable

A main timetable will be posted on the Graduate Notice Board at the start of the academic year. You must check carefully to ensure that there are no problems with timetable clashes. If there are clashes, go at once to the Graduate Studies Administrator.

Student Feedback

Towards the end of each course, questionnaires are distributed to all students for you to submit (anonymously) your opinions about course content, tuition and library provision during the academic year. The results are collated and monitored by the Graduate Tutor, the IMESS Programme Director and the Heads of Department. Additionally, there is an End of Programme Questionnaire covering both years of IMESS that you will be asked to submit towards the end of the second year. The End of Programme Questionnaires, including a section on the library, are submitted to the Graduate Administrator and monitored by the Graduate Tutor. This helps us to keep the academic provision at SSEES constantly under review, and ensure that we maintain our high standards. For this reason, both questionnaires are taken very seriously and are considered to be an integral part of the teaching/learning process for both staff and students. Your co-operation in completing these questionnaires is appreciated. The findings are discussed by the IMESS Programme Committee, SSEES Graduate Teaching Committee, Teaching Committee and the Staff-Student Consultative Committee, and a summary of the reports are posted on the SSEES web-site. Section G of the Academic Manual can be consulted for further details about this process.

Attendance

Attendance at all lectures and classes is compulsory. The Graduate Studies Administrator collects records of attendance maintained by the course tutors. Failure to attend regularly will result in the Programme Director being informed, who in turn will call you in for an interview in order to identify any personal or academic problems you may be having.

Absences

If you are ill and cannot come to a scheduled class, you must arrange a telephone message to the Graduate Studies Administrator, who will inform the appropriate tutors. If leaving a message on voicemail, please state clearly:

- your name and IMESS study track

- the name of any member of staff whose class you will miss

- the reason for your absence.

You must ring separately for each day you are away. If illness prevents you from attending for more than a week, you must get a doctor’s sickness certificate explaining the absence. If you need to be away for a special reason or for longer than one week, you must get permission in advance from the Programme Director.

Research Centres and Related Activities

Most forms of collective research are run through the School’s Centres. You should look out for notices or notes in your pigeon hole when the Centre or Centres whose concerns most relate to your area of studies are organising an occasion. Such occasions range from weekly informal seminars to colloquia with prominent personalities or international conferences or study days. You are encouraged to become involved in the Centres as soon as you have found your way around SSEES and the Directors of the Centres will always welcome a visit from you. To avoid interfering with teaching and research, please check their office hours first.

Conferences, Seminars and Events

Information concerning larger events such as Study Days and Conferences, as well the regular seminar series organised in the Centres and Departments, can be found on notice boards around SSEES and in the weekly information sheet available from the Director’s Assistant (Room 409). You can also check events on the SSEES calendar. All Masters students are welcome and strongly encouraged to attend, free of charge, any of the School’s conferences, seminars or study days; such events provide a valuable opportunity for you to debate with some of the leading experts in their fields.

Conferences are an integral part of the school’s research programme, providing a forum in which to exchange ideas with academics, students, business people, journalists and those employed in implementing government policy. Some are one-day proceedings, such as a series of Study Days (recent ones have included Bulgaria and the Baltic) which encompass papers in all disciplines relating to the country under focus, or various background briefings and workshops, often on recent events such as elections. Some conferences are major international events. Recent examples include: ‘Censorship as a Creative Force? Central Europe, 1944-1989’ (2008); ‘Queering Central and Eastern Europe: National Features of Sexual Identities (2008); Slovakia 15 Years On’ (2008); ‘Tilsit and the Baltic in 1807: Copenhagen – Warsaw – Sveaborg’ (2007); ‘ Resistance, Rebellion and Revolution in Central Europe: Commemorating 1956’ (2006); ‘The Relaunch of the Soviet Project, 1945-1964’ (2006); ‘Revolt but no Rising? 1956 in Poland’ (2006); ‘Towards the SSEES Centenary: Ideas and Issues into the Next Decade’ (2005).

SSEES graduate conferences take place in alternate years. These are organised by the research students themselves, and have been very successful in attracting high-calibre international participation by graduates from Eastern and Western Europe and other parts of the world, as well as corporate and government sponsorship.

There is a regular flow of academics and politicians from these areas who are willing to participate in open discussions at the School, and these occasions offer unique opportunities for students to develop contacts. Students are always welcome free of charge at these events where they can help to furnish a lively atmosphere for debate about historical and contemporary issues with their academic peers and teachers. They are also often employed to help with the organisation of conferences and of public lectures and presentations.

Throughout the autumn and spring terms the School’s research centres run weekly or fortnightly lunchtime and early-evening seminars, which graduate students are encouraged to attend. These normally comprise the presentation of a paper followed by informal discussion. Recent seminar series have included: ‘After the Thaw, before Glasnost: Artists and the Soviet State during Late Socialism’; ‘Ethnic Minorities and Post-Communism’; ‘Picturing Russia: Images of Land and People in Russian History and Culture’; ‘Personalities of the Right in Central and Eastern European History’; ‘Controversies in Polish History’; ‘Researching East European and Russian History’; ‘Integration and Disintegration in Albania’; and ‘Spatial Economic Restructuring in Poland’.

Throughout the year academic staff arrange for occasional lectures to be given, often by scholars, writers or representatives of the media visiting the school from abroad.

A – Z: Some helpful terminology

Class/Tutorial/Seminar: These are typically small group sessions and might be referenced with any or all of the above names. Typically, the role of the student in these sessions is much more proactive, requiring anything from presentations, to discussions, to group work to role-play.

NB: the term ‘classes’ in the UK always refers to this small-scale interactive learning style and not to ‘lectures’, as for example in the U.S.

Class teacher: The class teacher may differ from the lecturer and may be a postgraduate research student with expertise in a particular area.

College: When you hear people refer to the ‘college’ they are normally referring to UCL as a whole.

Course: This is the term we use to describe a particular option or module regardless of its length or value in ECTS

Course units: Course (or module) units are the unit by which UCL measures its credits. Your academic year at UCL consists of courses to the value of 60 ECTS (equivalent to 150 UCL units). At SSEES courses take one of 4 values: (i) there are some zero-weighted courses that are compulsory but on which you are not formally assessed; (ii) there are 4 ECTS (10 UCL credits) courses which normally run over 5 weeks; (iii) there are 8 ECTS (20 UCL credits) courses which normally run over 10 weeks; (iv) there are 16 ECTS (40 UCL credits) courses which normally run over 20 weeks.

Graduate Studies Administrator: The Graduate Studies Administrator is based in room 341, and will be able to advise you on course availability, timings and locations and is available between 10.00 and 4.00 every day except Wednesdays, when she is available between 10.00 and 1.00.

Lectures: Lectures refer to that part of the course in which it is typical for the lecturer to play the predominant role. Attendance at lectures is compulsory for all students. Not all courses at SSEES are lecture based.

Lecturer: The lecturer is normally a full-time member of the academic staff involved in teaching and research and will have been involved in designing and monitoring the course.

Module: The terminology used by the PORTICO system (see entry below) to describe any stand-alone course. In other words, a module or course can be worth different ECTS/credit values.

Moodle: This is the name of a virtual learning environment.

Office Hours: These are the hours during which academics make themselves available to you, should you wish to discuss your work with them. Office hours, held in the academic’s office, are detailed on department notice boards and are often listed in individual course handouts.

PORTICO: The name of the UCL Student Information Service, containing your name, address, etc., and the means through which you register your module choices and receive your examination results. You will have access to PORTICO once registered formally at UCL.

Reading week: This is a week during the autumn and spring terms in which no teaching is scheduled. Students are expected to use this week to read and research their current subjects in order to broaden their knowledge of the material covered in each course.

School or Department: Outside of SSEES you may hear SSEES referred to as a ‘department’. Within SSEES, however, you will hear it referred to as the ‘school’. Don’t let this confuse you; within SSEES we refer to our 4 sub-departments (Social Sciences, History, Russian and East European Languages and Culture) as ‘departments’.

Seminar: See ‘Class’.

Term: The UCL academic year is divided into 3 terms: an autumn term (12 weeks), a spring term (11 weeks) and a summer examination term (7 weeks). The equivalent terminology for these, in your undergraduate university, might be ‘semester’.

Tutorial: See ‘Class’.

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