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Teaching

Modules are delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials and directed learning. Lectures introduce you to the relevant historiography and/or political research/data and identify appropriate learning materials. Seminars encourage you to discuss their views on topics introduced in lectures, supplemented by the additional research they have undertaken.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least four occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of the course.

The History with Politics work project module offers students the opportunity to gain work experience with a range of local employers including the George Marshall Medical Museum, Mercian Regimental Museum, the Commandery, Hartlebury Castle, Worcestershire Yeomanry Museum and the Archive and Archaeology Service at the Hive. Moreover, the Politics team enjoys links with local councillors, MPs, and parties. In the past, students have gained valuable work experience across a range of political parties and campaigns.

Modules are delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials and directed learning. Lectures introduce you to the relevant historiography and/or political research/data and identify appropriate learning materials. Seminars encourage syou to discuss their views on topics introduced in lectures, supplemented by the additional research you have undertaken.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least four occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of the course.

Contact time

Modules normally involve three contact hours of teaching per week. Thus at Levels 4 and 5 total weekly contact time is a maximum of 12 hours and 9 hours at Level 6.  

The nature of the weekly class contact time will depend upon the teaching strategies of the optional modules chosen. Typically, however, students could expect to experience:

• 8 hours lectures/workshops
• 4 hours seminars 

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 25 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve directed reading in preparation for the following week's seminars and independent researching and writing upcoming assessments.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources (e-books, e-journals, historical/political databases, etc.).

Duration

3 years full-time; 4-6 years part-time

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration. Please note that whilst we try to be as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week; and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a highly qualified and experienced teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. Most teaching is directly related to the research and publications of the lecturers. Moreover, 66% of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification and are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

Assessment

The History with Politics course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment takes a variety of forms - essays, document analyses, oral presentations, book, article and film reviews, portfolios, examinations, research proposals, projects, reports, discussion papers, and a dissertation. Assessments are carefully devised to provide students with the opportunity to practise and improve a range of skills in written and oral communication, research and analysis, and presentation.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

• 3 document analyses
• 3 essays
• 1 article summary
• 1 examination
• 1 discussion paper
• 1 portfolio
• 2 reports  

Year 2

• 3 essays
• 1 political discourse analysis
• 1 book review
• 1 document analysis
• 1 examinations
• 2 presentations
• 1 research proposal
• 2 reports
• 1 blog entry  

Year 3

• 1 dissertation
• 5 essays
• 1 political discourse analysis
• 1 seminar presentation
• 1 article review
• 3 document analyses 
• 1 blog post
• 1 examination 

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments. You will also receive feedback on draft chapters of your dissertation. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please