Assessment

Students are required to:

• attend lectures and tutorials;
• participate in class discussion;
• complete satisfactorily such written work and examinations as may be prescribed.

The Department follows Academic Board and Faculty of Arts guidelines in awarding a determined percentage of each grade. The Department may scale marks in order to fit these grade guidelines.

The History Department favours 'deep learning' over 'shallow learning'. In other words, we are more interested in evidence that students have made conceptual developments in their ways of understanding and interpreting the world than in their familiarity with 'facts', figures and dates. Original and thoughtful argument is valued more highly than polished regurgitations of lectures or set reading. Evidence of a thoughtful response to the conceptual framework of any individual unit is valued more highly than pre-existing skills of, for example, debate and expression. Students are encouraged to explore areas of particular interest to themselves, and will be rewarded for initiative and ingenuity in discovering relevant material.

An idea that cannot be expressed clearly probably has not been understood clearly. We therefore value evidence of logical, coherent thought, argument and expression in essays.

While recognising that the political and ethical values of students vary widely, the Department does not reward or condone unreasoned polemic or racism or sexism.

The Department of History requires satisfactory class attendance as part of participation in a unit of study. Attendance below 80% of the tutorials without written evidence of illness or misadventure will be penalized with loss of marks; attendance at less than 50% of the tutorials, regardless of the reasons for the absences, will result in the student being deemed not to have participated in the unit of study.