Literature and Languages
Current Undergraduates
Expectations
Students who put a sincere effort into their studies tend to get more out of their time at University — not only in terms of grades and degree results, but in terms of the satisfactions of learning: challenging yourself, stimulating your interest, and fulfilling your potential.
Coming to class without having done the set reading, or unprepared to contribute to tutorial discussion, shows a lack of scholarly commitment which detracts not only from your own learning, but from that of your fellow students. Students in the Department of English Studies have a great deal of choice about their pathway through the degree, and are expected to take a matching level of responsibility for their own work.
Attendance
Tutorial and seminar teaching is designed to give students experience in guided reading and, week by week, to monitor their understanding and their preparation for specific topics. These communicative skills include the ability to formulate a point of view and to present, develop, illustrate and defend it orally. Listening to and taking part in the discussion of current critical issues in this way is a vital part of university learning. The ability to work co-operatively with others is another feature of the seminar experience along with the need to listen sensitively. More formally, students may have the opportunity to make oral presentations to the class, either individually or as part of a small team, and this is an excellent transferable skill for future employment.
This is why attendance at tutorials is ‘prescribed’ and why students who are absent from more than a third of such classes — for whatever reason — will receive a ‘no grade’ for that module. There are no grounds on which an appeal can be made against this university ruling.
See the Department's Undergraduate Handbook for further details about the regulations and procedures governing attendance, tutorial preparation, and the completion of coursework.