School of the Arts

Welcome to the School of the Arts (STA). We hope that this year will prove a rewarding and enjoyable academic experience. This Handbook aims to give you the information you need in order to get the most out of your studies in the School. Please read it carefully, and bookmark it so that you can refer to it throughout the year. The information in this book is intended to help you, and you are also expected to be aware of its contents. Teaching and administrative staff will work according to the procedures described here, and you will not be allowed to claim that you were unaware of the regulations, penalties, and so forth, that are set out in these pages. If you find any of the information in this book unclear, please do not hesitate to ask for guidance from any member of staff.

The School is responsible for delivering a range of foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in English, Drama, Liberal Arts, Modern Languages, Comparative Literature, Film Studies, and Linguistics. The teaching staff are grouped into six departments, according to the subjects they teach: Modern Languages and Comparative Literature (including Liberal Arts), English, Drama, Linguistics, Film Studies, and the Language Centre. But members of staff co-operate across departments. Overall responsibility for the School rests with the Head of School, who works together with the Heads of the Departments and other senior officers of the School.

Informed by the University's Education Strategy, the School aims to ensure that the programmes of study offered by the various departments of the School:

  • reflect disciplinary innovation and current research in their design
  • promote student awareness about the relationship between research, teaching and learning
  • expose students to a range of historical, theoretical and methodological approaches to the subject(s) in question
  • foster independent learning and a critical, reflective approach to their learning process
  • encourage students to learn how to learn
  • encourage students to take responsibility for their learning process
  • foster student development of self-discipline, self-motivation and self-direction
  • encourage intellectual independence and creativity
  • emphasise transferable cognitive, intellectual, argumentation, communication, practical, organisational and personal development skills
  • incorporate writing-intensive modules or include 'Thinking Writing' teaching, learning and assessment strategies in courses where appropriate
  • incorporate the notion of level and progression in connection with: intellectual difficulty; factual and conceptual understanding; development of written and oral communication (in English and in target languages when applicable); research, analytical and problem-solving skills; managing of their own learning process
  • incorporate a variety of assessment methods aimed at reflecting the sense of progression and range of skills acquired as well as a range of different learning styles and the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the students
  • incorporate the use of new technologies into the teaching, learning and assessment process where appropriate
  • prepare graduates to enter a range of professional careers including further academic study