A.1 The Purpose of this Handbook
A.2 An Overview of Graduate Programmes
A.3 Framework for Graduate Learning
A.4 Definitions and Abbreviations

 

A.1 The Purpose of this Handbook

The object of postgraduate education is to move the student towards the position of being able to operate as an autonomous scholar. The purpose of this handbook is to facilitate that. It aims to provide graduate students with a framework for planning their self-development, and faculty members with information that will help them to give effective advice and support.

Graduate students are asked to take primary responsibility throughout their student careers for ensuring that they are aware of all course requirements, work on a realistic timetable to meet those requirements, identify what they need to know and what skills they need to acquire to further their academic development, take advantage of opportunities to acquire that knowledge and those skills, and monitor and seek feedback on their own progress.

They will be supported in these efforts by:

• the University and Faculty, who are responsible for providing appropriate facilities, and course frameworks;
• the Faculty Graduate Office, which is responsible for providing information about facilities, course frameworks and timetables;
• the convenors of degree programmes and of individual papers, who are responsible for providing information and support about specific requirements;
• supervisors, who are responsible for providing general guidance and support to help students plot their own course of development as graduates, and who have special responsibility for advising students about academic writing and especially dissertations.

University, faculty and colleges also offer certain forms of advice and support in relation to funding, housing and personal welfare issues. For further information about the roles of these various bodies and people, see Section D. Administrative framework.

 

A.2 An Overview of Graduate Programmes in History

(For full details of each degree programme see Section B. Information about Degree Programmes.)

The Faculty’s postgraduate students divide into four groups:

1. Students taking a taught master’s programme of one or two years, leading to a degree of M.St. , M.Sc. or M.Phil. These degrees are for students who have not yet obtained a master’s degree and wish to deepen their knowledge of a period or type of history. (Naturally, those reading for one of our inter-disciplinary master’s degrees in Late Antique, Byzantine, and Medieval Studies may develop their competence in another subject than History.) They may be taken as stand-alone degrees, but can also lead on to future research.
2. Advanced research students, who will normally already have completed a course of postgraduate training relevant to their field of study. The advanced research degrees of M.Litt. and D.Phil. are awarded on the basis of a thesis and viva only. Advanced research students progress through two or three stages, divided by assessment points, before their final thesis examination:
   (i)   they undergo an initial period devoted to training and the exploration of their intended project;
   (ii)  the ‘transfer of status’ process determines whether they continue to be registered as M.Litt. or D.Phil. students;
   (iii) D.Phil. students are required to undergo a further assessment, ‘confirmation of status’, within three years.
   These assessments must be completed before they may submit their theses.
3. Visiting students. Some students registered for postgraduate degree courses at other institutions come to study for one, two, or at the utmost three terms in Oxford:
   (a) ‘Recognised Students’ are admitted by the Faculty, who assigns them a supervisor. They are not formally members of colleges, and cannot be entered for an Oxford degree, but they have the same access to seminars, classes and facilities as other research students.
   (b) Registered ‘Visiting Students’ are admitted by colleges. The college may find them a supervisor; they are members of colleges; otherwise like Recognised Students.

The table below sets out the various normal stages of progression towards completion of a doctorate for students entering Oxford postgraduate work by any of the available routes, and successfully applying for admission or transfer at each stage.  

For further information on progression requirements and procedures for advanced research students, see Research programmes.

 

A.3 Framework for Graduate Learning: Structures and Expectations

A.3.1 Supervision, training and other forms of teaching

(a) All postgraduate students are assigned a supervisor (or in some cases two co-supervisors). The supervisor’s primary responsibility is to advise the student on the programme of work necessary to complete a dissertation or thesis. To this end, the supervisor should maintain a general overview over the student’s studies and academic development. Supervisors should help their students to identify and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to complete the dissertation or thesis, and to further their aims for further study or employment, insofar as these build upon the programme of graduate study.

(b) All graduates are encouraged to identify and prioritise their own training needs, and to consider how and on what timetable these might best be met. The checklist below has been devised to assist students in this process. You should aim to discuss your training plan with your supervisors regularly, especially at the start of the academic year (with an emphasis on work to be done or classes to be attended during the year) and during Trinity Term (with an emphasis on work to be done over the summer). Research students completing their probationary period who wish to be inducted into teaching on the faculty plan will need to discuss this with their supervisors and return the appropriate form early in the summer vacation (see the teaching induction scheme).

The checklist may help students not only to identify and find ways of addressing training needs, but also to report on both needs and achievements. In Michaelmas Term 2008 the University introduced an on-line Graduate Supervision System (GSS) which gives all students enroled on graduate programmes each term the opportunity to report on their learning experience and training needs. Using the system is easy and intuitive, and we hope students will find that stopping for a few minutes and taking stock of what they have achieved in a termly cycle will help them to stay focused. The Humanities Division has published a short on-line guide with suggestions how the system could be most fruitfully used. – Research students are also asked to summarize training needs and training taken in their transfer and confirmation applications (relevant questions are set out on the standard university forms). Increasingly British funding bodies also ask for such reports. – If you have training needs not covered by the checklist, or not well provided by the means indicated, please discuss with your supervisor and alert the Graduate Office. 

Training self-assessment checklist for new graduate students

Copies of this form will be sent out to new students before their arrival, so that the Graduate Office and supervisors have advance notice of students’ training needs.

Training self-assessment checklist for continuing research students

Continuing students are encouraged to complete this form at least once a year, and to send a copy to their supervisors, as a basis for discussion.

Sign up to training sessions and language classes

This booking form gives students an opportunity to advise the Graduate Office of their intention to participate in scheduled training sessions, or to ensure that they are included in mailing lists when classes (particularly language classes) are organized in response to identified needs.

Supervisors may apply for Special Tuition funds to pay for language teaching for a student who has special needs, e.g., for tuition in an unusual language. But we ask supervisors and students to communicate with the Graduate Office before making any such arrangements, since it may be possible to organize provisions for several students who, unknown to each other, have common needs.

 

(c) Other teaching and collaborative academic activity takes place chiefly in: 

• classes – small groups of students meeting on a regular basis to present and discuss assigned work under the guidance of a class convenor;
• tutorials – one or more students meeting on a regular basis to present and discuss assigned work with a tutor;
• lectures – presentations by a lecturer. Graduates may attend undergraduate lectures; lectures specifically for graduates play some part in introductory teaching;
• seminars – groups of students and academics meeting on a regular basis to hear and discuss research presentations by members of the group or visitors. These allow graduates to develop links with the university’s larger research community.

 

A.3.2 General academic expectations and requirements

(a) Pattern of work

All graduate students are expected to apply themselves to academic work on a full-time basis throughout the duration of their course, both during university terms and vacations, except during public holidays and when they take time off for personal holidays (perhaps to a total of six weeks during the year).

Unless they have completed their residence requirements, students are expected to be resident in Oxford during term time. Tutorials, classes and seminars, and formal assessment interviews (for transfer or confirmation of status) will normally be scheduled only during full term or in weeks 0 and 9. During university vacations students are expected to pursue independent study and research. Neither supervisors nor students will necessarily be in Oxford during vacations, but supervision meetings may be arranged if it is mutually convenient.

(b) Required forms of participation

Students on taught master’s courses are required to follow the programme of study specified for their course, and any additional requirements agreed with their supervisor. This usually entails some mix of the following: 

• classes in research methods, theory or historiography
• classes or other training in specific technical skills (e.g., Latin, palaeography, quantitative methods)
• classes or tutorials devoted to the study of a specific topic or topics, usually chosen by the student from among a menu of options
• individually arranged meetings with a research supervisor devoted especially to work on a research dissertation
• attendance at relevant lecture and seminar series

Research students are required, in addition to working on their dissertations or theses, to attend the ‘core seminar’ in their research area; all research students are also strongly encouraged regularly to attend one or more additional research seminars, and to make occasional presentations based on their research.

(c) Other opportunities

There are many opportunities for students to benefit from classes or seminars other than those they are required to attend:  

• students on most taught courses may on application substitute options offered for other courses for those offered in their own course (see Approved papers for details; note that a student choosing an option from another degree course must conform to the regulations of that course in relation to modes of assessment, submission deadlines etc.)
• students (including research students) may choose to audit course-specific classes (implying regular attendance and completion of all work assigned for class meetings): see the Faculty Lecture list for advice as to whether any given class is open to all comers, open if the convenor agrees, or closed.
• students on taught courses are also warmly encouraged to attend research seminars relevant to their fields of research
• students may also organize their own seminars, to discuss work in progress, or to provide a platform for invited speakers (see Graduate-run seminars)

Termly lecture list and details of seminars

For further information on training facilities and opportunities, see Resources and facilities.

 

 

A.4 Definitions and Abbreviations used in the Handbook and at Oxford

 

'Programme' or 'Course'	refers to an overall programme of study leading to a particular degree
Paper	refers to a discrete part of a degree course, taught over one or two terms
Class	small groups of students meeting on a regular basis to present and discuss assigned work under the guidance of a class convenor
Seminar	groups of students and academics meeting on a regular basis to hear and discuss research presentations by members of the group or visitors; these allow graduates to develop links with the university’s larger research community
Tutorial	one or more students meeting on a regular basis to present and discuss assigned work with a tutor
Convenor	member of Faculty responsible for the overall organization of a paper or programme
DGS	Director of Graduate Studies
D.Phil.	Doctor of Philosophy
ESH	Economic and Social History
GAO	Graduate Admissions Office (University)
GJCC	Graduate Joint Consultative Committee
GO	Graduate Office (Faculty)
GSC	Graduate Studies Committee
GSO	Various standard forms are named GSO.1, GSO.2, etc.
HGO	History Graduate Office Various standard forms are named HGO.2, HGO.91, etc.
HSMT	History of Science, Medicine and Technology
HT	Hilary Term (January-March)
Long Vac	Long Vacation (July-September)
MEHRC	Modern European History Research Centre (an organisation)
MLitt	Master of Letters
MPhil	Master of Philosophy
MSc	Master of Science
MSt	Master of Studies
MT	Michaelmas Term (October-December)
OSS	Oxford Student System (central university student record system)
Prob.D.Phil.	Probationer doctoral student
TT	Trinity Term (April-June)