Information for New and Current Students

This page is aimed at new and current students. It contains information that we consider essential and we hope that you will find it helpful.

New Students
Module Registration
Assessment
The Dissertation
The UCL Graduate School
Research Student Log
Online Research Training

WELCOME MEETING, 28TH SEPTEMBER 2009, 2PM.
ROOM G3, 16-18 GORDON SQAURE

We will be holding an informal welcome meeting for all new students on the above date and time. Please come along!

New Students

There are a number of administrative tasks that must be completed at the start of your programme which we have summarised below in order to help you ensure that you do not miss anything vital.

University Enrolment
This is your first task. You will not be able to do anything else until you have completed this process. Full details are available on the Joining UCL pages.

Information Services
Once you have enrolled, you must register with UCL Information Services in order to obtain your computer user ID and password. You will need these in order to access any UCL IT facilities, including your UCL email account, which will be used for all university communication. You will also need your ID and password to log into Portico, which is another essential tool (see below for further details).

An induction session has been booked for Thursday 1st October at 11am in the AV Hill Lecture Theatre (online map: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps/ucl-maps/map2_hi_res).
This will last approximately 30 minutes and will cover the following topics:

How to register for central UCL computing services
UCL email
Cluster rooms
Printing
Network access in Halls and through Roamnet
Portico access
Helpdesk
Training and elearning opportunities

Further details on Information Services can be found here.

Portico
Portico is UCL’s student information service and you will need it for the following:

• To maintain your contact details – this is the only record that is kept of your details, so it is very important to make sure that they are correct. Otherwise you may miss important information that is sent out both by your department and by central services such as Registry or the library.
• To check and update your financial situation such as for payment of tuition fees
• To officially sign up for your courses, known as Module Registration (MA students only - further information on this below).
• To re-enrol (for students on courses longer than one year)
• To check assessment results

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Module Registration (MA students only)

There are guidelines within Portico which you should consult for technical instructions. Below you will find the departmental rules on choosing your courses:

1. You must decide whether you wish to follow the Taught or the Research pathway. This will influence your module selections.

2. All MA programmes consist of 180 credits and you must register for exactly this number of credits.

3. Refer to the relevent section of the CES website to check the rules for individual programmes:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ces/programmes/index.htm

4. If you are studying part-time, the 180 credits should be split over two years. You may divide them up however you wish but you must register for the dissertation in your second year.

5. Optional courses are chosen from the departments which make up the Faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social and Historical Sciences. It is your responsibilitity to investigate what is on offer in the departments you are interested in during the first week of term. You should first of all check departmental websites, as much information is displayed this way. If you cannot find exactly what you need, we recommend contacting the departments either via email or in person.

For a full list of departments, please go to:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ces/programmes/options.htm

You should be aware that some departments are more popular than others and that normally they will give priority to their own students. Some may not make all their courses available to students from other departments and the CES is unfortunately not able to influence decisions on such matters, although we will, of course, do whatever we can to facilitate if necessary.

6. You must choose your modules for both terms at the start of the academic year.

7. You will normally have two weeks to finalise your choices and register them in Portico. You will be informed of the specific deadline by Registry. Once this deadline has passed, changes are not normally be possible.

There will be a supported Student Module Registration session on Thursday 1st October between 10am and 1pm in Chadwick 0.4 - Public Cluster room.
(online map: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps/ucl-maps/map2_hi_res)

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Assessment (MA Students only)

There is a lot of essential information on this subject. We have therefore put together a downloadable Assessment Guide.

Assessment Guide 2008 - 2009

Assessment Guide 2009 - 2010

Assessed Essay coversheet

Assessed Essay front page template

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The Dissertation (MA Students only)

Preparing for the Dissertation

During Term II
You must start giving your dissertation topic some serious thought during Term II. You should start approaching potential supervisors with ideas for your dissertation as soon as possible. Your supervisor should be a member of academic staff in one of the departments which make up the Faculties of Arts and Humanities or Social and Historical Sciences. If you need assistance either with selecting a topic or with locating an appropriate supervisor, please contact the Graduate Tutor . The Dissertation Form, with an agreed working title and the signature of your first supervisor (and second if the dissertation needs input from two supervisors) should be submitted by 1st March 2010.

Abstract
An abstract of your project, not exceeding 150 words, should be submitted (as an email attachment) to the CES Administrator on 4th May 2010. The abstract should outline the scope of the project, its aims and research question.

Presentation day
The presentation day will take place on Thursday 3rd June 2010 and will follow a conference format, with students assigned to panels. Some of the sessions will run in parallel. The timetable will be put together and sent out by the end of May. The presentation, and attendance throughout the day, are compulsory parts of the MA dissertation module.

Presentations should:

-give a clear outline of the topic and of the research question

-introduce and explain the topic to those who are not necessarily experts in that field

-state why this research question is significant

-outline the methodological approach

The presentation day will follow a conference format, with students assigned to panels. Some of the sessions will run in parallel.

For information on submission procedures and deadlines, please consult the Assessment Guide (above)

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UCL Graduate School

This is an excellent resource for Graduate students. They will be running an introductory session at the beginning of term - please visit their website for further details: http://www.grad.ucl.ac.uk/comp/welcome.html

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Research Student Log (MPhil / PhD Students only)

This is mandatory for research degrees and is available at:
https://researchlog.grad.ucl.ac.uk/

You are strongly urged to log into it as soon as possible after starting your studies (you will need your UCL ID and password). Further information and guidance on how to use it are available online.

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Online Research Training

The Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies hosts a website called PORT, which includes (amongst other things) tutorials on anything from how to build a bibliography to organizing conferences, language resources, video clips offering advice on interdisciplinarity, vivas and job interviews

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This page last modified 21 September, 2009 by Rachel Anderson .