Learning and teaching
You’ll learn through lectures and seminars, with an increasing emphasis on small group seminar discussion and project work in the second and third years. You’ll also have regular tutorials in which you meet to discuss essays with your tutor, together with a small group of other students. These personal contacts are very important in developing staff-student relations and for getting to know your fellow students.
Depending on its credit value, each module will include 1-2 hours of lectures and 1-hour tutorials per week. This means you’ll have around 10 hours of contact time with your tutors and lecturers each week. You’ll supplement this with independent study which requires an additional 13-26 hours per week.
Our programmes allow for a lot of choice and flexibility in the subjects studied, especially after the core modules of the first and second years, which impart the basic skills and knowledge of philosophical practice (epistemology, metaphysics, history of philosophy, critical thinking). In the second year, you can choose 50 per cent of your modules and in the third year 100 per cent (including a compulsory dissertation on a topic of your choice). Our carefully planned programmes help to develop skills and understanding to allow you to take increasing responsibility for your learning in more specialised seminar-based modules.
All our programmes are based on research-inspired teaching and are designed to offer expertise within a framework that brings out the skills of communication, analysis, information handling and interpretation of evidence which will make you both a desirable employee and informed and critical citizen.
We’re actively engaged in introducing new methods of learning and teaching, including increasing use of interactive computer-based approaches to learning through our virtual learning environment (ELE), where the details of all modules are stored in an easily navigable website. You can access detailed information about modules and learning outcomes and interact through activities such as the discussion forums.
The Student-Staff Liaison Committee gives you the chance to discuss and review the degree programmes, including existing and planned module content, through regular meetings with departmental staff.
Research-inspired teaching
You’ll have the opportunity to work closely with academic staff at the cutting edge of research and academic debate and will benefit from an innovative curriculum informed by leading research. Many staff teach third year options which are linked to their own interests which include the study of transhumanism, philosophical anthropology, the nature of evil, animal rights and the philosophy of emotion.
Academic support
All students have a Personal Tutor who is available for advice and support throughout their studies. There are also a number of services on campus where you can get advice and information, including the Students’ Guild Advice Unit. You can find further information on the Undergraduate website.
