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Teaching
MPhil students meet for a weekly hour-long text-seminar throughout the first two terms of the course. The text-seminar focuses on a sequence of literary texts (studied in translation), including key Latin and vernacular texts from all the fields within Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic studies, as well as a group of earlier works that provided the intellectual background to the medieval world.
Alongside this core seminar, students are expected to attend the two courses they have chosen to pursue from among the selection of linguistic/literary and historical subjects offered in the Department. These courses are taught through a varying combination of lectures, classes, and seminars. In this way, a significant proportion of this MPhil's taught element is tailored to each student's individual needs, hence the possible variation in weekly hours of seminars, classes, and lectures.
| One to one supervision | Normally about eight hours per year. The °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï publishes an annual which sets out the University’s expectations regarding supervision. |
|---|---|
| Seminars & classes | Between three and five hours per week. |
| Lectures | Between one and two hours per week. |
| Literature Reviews | The first assessed element of the programme is a Review of Scholarship essay, effectively a literature review for the projected MPhil dissertation. The reading and planning for that essay are undertaken during the first term under the guidance of the MPhil supervisor, and written feedback is supplied to each student after the essays have been examined. |
| Posters and Presentations | In the third term, as they approach the date for submitting their dissertation, all MPhil students give a 20-minute presentation on their dissertation topic to the MPhil Research Forum, attended by their fellow students and MPhil supervisors. |
| Taught/Research Balance | Equal Taught/Research |
Feedback
Students receive written feedback on all elements of the course, including independent reports from the two examiners of the MPhil dissertation.
Assessment
Thesis / Dissertation
The MPhil dissertation (between 10,000 and 15,000 words) makes up 50% of the total mark for the course and is submitted in the last week of the third term (mid-June). Students are required to submit a dissertation title, with an abstract, by the mid-point of the second term (February).
Essays
At the end of the first term of the course (December), students are required to submit a 5,000-word Review of Scholarship essay, intended as a survey and assessment of scholarship on the topic of the projected MPhil dissertation. The mark for the Review of Scholarship essay constitutes 10% of the overall MPhil grade.
Over four days in the first week of the third term (April), students write a 3,000-word take-home essay on a broad topic chosen from a selection. The student must draw on at least three of the works of literature discussed during the MPhil text-seminar, which runs throughout the first two terms of the course. The mark for the take-home essay makes up 10% of the overall mark.
Written examination
Students are required to take two three-hour written examinations that assess knowledge and skills acquired during the first two terms of the academic year in two courses chosen from among those taught in the Department. Courses on offer include Anglo-Saxon history, Scandinavian history, Brittonic and Gaelic history, Old English, Old Norse, Medieval Welsh, Medieval Irish, Insular Latin, and palaeography, most of which can be pursued at beginner, intermediate or advanced levels; Germanic philology, Celtic philology, and textual criticism are further options for students with the appropriate prior knowledge. Each written examination is worth 15% of the total MPhil mark and is assessed independently by two examiners.
