Graduate Studies Committee

The committee shall consist of the Director of Graduate Studies (who shall act as Chairman of the committee), the Chair of the Faculty Board, one representative of each of the six Groups (Medieval History, Early Modern History, Modern History, Commonwealth History, History of Science, and History of the United States) and one representative of Economic and Social History as well as one of History of Art.

Group convenors and the Chichele Professor of Economic History and the Professor of the History of Art, or their substitutes, are requested to include within the minutes of their Trinity Term meetings, or in some other form of report to be returned to the Director of Graduate Studies not later than sixth week of Trinity Term the name of one person who has been nominated and agreed to serve as representative of the group (or corresponding body) on the Graduate Studies Committee from the following Michaelmas Term. Such members of the committee shall normally serve for two years.

The committee shall have power to co-opt up to three additional members, and to invite other members of the Board or of its committees if any agenda item were to make their attendance desirable. Board interviewers and convenors of taught degree programmes may be invited to attend, either individually or as a group, if matters of particular relevance to their function are to be discussed. The minutes of the Committee are submitted to the Faculty Board.

  • the committee shall advise the Board on all matters concerning graduate studies. This shall include reporting to the Board any excessive delay which is brought to its attention in the examination of a student for DPhil or MLitt.
  • the following matters of student progress shall normally be decided by Chair's action:
    1. applications for admission (on the basis of the detailed assessment by interviewer and, where appropriate, prospective supervisor, and their recommendation)
    2. changes of title
    3. changes of supervisor
    4. extensions of time
    5. dispensation from residence
    6. deferred admission (in consultation with the relevant interviewer and prospective supervisor)
    7. changes of status
    8. other 'routine' business that may arise
    9. appointments of examiners
    10. favourable reports of examiners on MLitt and DPhil theses
    11. dispensation of consultation of thesis
    12. investigating on behalf of the Board (with subsequent report to the Board) on receipt of a report of an excessive delay in the examination of a student for DPhil or MLitt, the reason for the delay
  • the full committee shall normally discuss and decide where appropriate the following:
    1. removal from the register of graduate students
    2. examiners' reports for taught courses and recommendations of appropriate action to the Board
    3. the Director of Graduate Studies will draw to the attention of the Graduate Studies Committee the salient points from examiners' reports, and shall report, where appropriate, on issues of teaching provisions to the Undergraduate Studies Committee and on procedural matters to the Examination Sub-Committee, including any recommendations of the Graduate Studies Committee for remedial action
    4. unfavourable reports of examiners on individual theses, provided that the Director of Graduate Studies (or, in his/her absence, a deputy director) in consultation with an ad hoc committee of two members drawn from the Graduate Studies Committee, shall have authority to act on behalf of the Board (with subsequent report to the Board) in respect of examiners' reports on research students received more than three weeks before a meeting of the Board in cases where the examiners recommend the referral back of a thesis for re-submission, provided that the candidate's supervisor shall not be among the two members of the ad hoc committee consulted, and that the ad hoc committee shall not be obliged to act on a report if it seems desirable that the report should be considered by the Graduate Studies Committee or the Faculty Board
    5. policy issues for graduate studies in History
    6. general issues pertaining to graduate studies
    7. the Director of Graduate Studies may from time to time wish to afforce a decision of an individual case by consultation of an ad hoc committee of two members drawn from the Graduate Studies Committee, provided that the candidate's supervisor or any other person directly concerned with the case shall not be among the two members of the ad hoc committee, and that the ad hoc committee shall be entitled to refer the case for consideration by the full Graduate Studies Committee or the Faculty Board
    8. in the event that there is an irreconcilable difference of view between the Director of Graduate Studies and an interviewer about how to deal with a student issue arising in the interviewer's field, which for practical reasons needs to be resolved before the next meeting of the Committee, the DGS shall inform the Regius Professor (or, if the Regius Professor is not a member of the committee or otherwise unavailable to act, the most senior other statutory professor among members of the committee, provided of course that the professor asked to play this role is not the dissenting interviewer). If that professor agrees that the matter needs urgent resolution, s/he shall nominate another member of the committee, the two of them to advise the Director of Graduate Studies. If in the view of the professor, it is necessary to nominate further members of the committee in order to reach an agreed or clear decision, s/he shall make further nominations. A decision agreed between the DGS and these advisors shall determine the matter immediately in question, though any points of policy or principle arising will be subject to review by the Graduate Studies Committee.

In addition to the regular meetings of the Committee on Monday of Second Week of each term, the Director of Graduate Studies is expected to convene an annual meeting of the Board interviewers, normally for a review of the admissions process in Trinity Term, and also an annual meeting of the Course Convenors, normally towards the end of Michaelmas Term when the bulk of examiners' reports for the previous year are available for consideration. Convenors of core graduate seminars may be invited to attend either of those meetings, or to a separate meeting, normally to be held in Hilary Term.

Membership (MT 2008)

 

 

University of Oxford

Faculty of History

Last updated: September 24, 2008