INFORMATION FOR CURRENT STUDENTS

At UCL, depending on the degree you are studying, you will learn through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, classes, laboratory work, and project work, and these are described in more detail below. These approaches are designed to teach you to think critically, analytically and creatively, to apply and adapt principles learned from one situation to another, to express yourself clearly and concisely, to argue coherently and logically, and to develop your own interests and aspirations as your knowledge of the subject grows.

The amount of formal teaching through lectures, tutorials and other means will account for, on average, about 15 hours per week. Students following a degree in the arts and humanities and in social and historical sciences may well find that their official contact time with academic staff is less than this whereas science and engineering students may be timetabled for 20 or more hours.

• Lectures

Students take a series of lecture courses which normally run in parallel, and may last one term or run for the whole of the academic year. Associated with each lecture course are seminars, tutorials and, possibly, laboratory classes which draw upon, analyse, illustrate or amplify the topics covered in the lectures. Lecture sizes can vary from 20 to 300 in the first year, but as the degree progresses and more options become available, the lecture size will fall considerably.

• Seminars & Tutorials

Seminars and tutorials are on the whole a lot smaller than lectures, and in some departments tuition is still available on a one-to-one basis. Students are normally expected to prepare work in advance for seminars and tutorials and this can take the form of researching a topic for discussion (including possibly leading that discussion), by writing essays which are marked and discussed, or by solving set problems in science and engineering. Lectures, seminars and tutorials are normally one hour in length while laboratory classes usually last between two and three hours.

• Independent Study

In addition students are expected to spend a considerable amount of time on directed private study towards their work in seminars, tutorials or laboratory work, or in reading and researching topics around their main studies.

At the end of your degree we expect you to have developed skills including leadership, teamwork, self-reliance, good communication and project management. These will have been fostered both from the way you have been taught at UCL and from the other opportunities available. For example, structured work placements exist within several degrees, such as Pharmacology and Biochemistry, and vacation placements are often available in Law and the Engineering disciplines.You can find more information about the kinds of skills you should develop during your degree, and opportunities to build on your skills, on the Key Skills webpage.

• Peer-Assisted Learning

Some departments have developed a Peer-Assisted Learning programme whereby second-year students are trained to facilitate the learning of first-year courses. Other departments new students have set up transition programmes, which include peer mentors, to help new students adjust to the challenges of university life.

• Moodle

Moodle is a virtual learning environment that many different UCL departments are using. As a UCL student you will use this regularly to find out information about your course, view hand outs and lecture slides as well as to submit work.

The Pre-enrolment Moodle site is designed by UCL students for new students to offer information and advice about living in London and studying at UCL. If you have not yet been issued with a UCL username and password, you can still log on to Moodle as a guest. Please follow this link to log on to Moodle.

•  Information Services Division (ISD)

PCs are provided for use by all students in open-access cluster rooms on campus and in student residences. Over 100 software packages for teaching, learning and general purpose use are available. Students’ own PCs and laptops may be connected to the network through sockets and wireless connections on campus and in residential study bedrooms. Many departments also have computers cluster rooms for their own students. IT training courses are available for students with minimal computing experience as well as for those with more experience who wish to develop their skills further.

(See Information Systems).

UCL Library Services has a comprehensive website full of guides on its collections and how to use them so we won’t repeat everything here: instead, this page is an introduction for first years who want to know how to make the most of the wealth of resources available in both print and digital format.

The two largest library sites are the Main and Science Libraries, although there are a number of other libraries in and around the Gower Street campus and further afield. The full list of library sites gives you a guide to all the libraries, with details of their collections and locations.

To find out the full range of services available from UCL Library Services you can go on a library tour, drop into a site and collect one of the range of leaflets about how to use the services, or visit their website. Here you will find a lot of information, including:

• A set of printable leaflets about how to use the library
• eUCLid, the UCL online library catalogue, where you can search for items, reserve books, check your borrowing record and renew your loans: very handy if you can’t get into the library.
• A Getting Help page to guide you on everything from joining the library and using the catalogue to finding a book and using electronic journals.
• Specific help with your subjects and contact details for subject librarians.
• Library information skills training, both in classes and online through Moodle.

Tips for using the library

• Go on a library tour when you get the opportunity.
• When you go on the tour, you will probably hear a lot of information and wonder how you’ll ever remember it all. The key is to remember these things so that you can find the extra information later:- how to become a member of the library (for many of you this will happen as part of your student registration)- where the printed Library Guides are kept- where the Enquiry Desks are – very helpful people to know!- where to borrow and return books
• Avoid overdue fines! Not all items have the same loan period, so take careful note of the due date of your items and return or renew them on time.
• Take time to explore the eUCLid online catalogue to find the locations of books and journals.Learn how to use online databases of journal articles which identify what has been published in your subject area across many Journals.
• While the library often has multiple copies of core readings, some of which can be reserved for specific time slots during the day, there are times (eg right before an assignment is due) when some items are very much in demand. If you leave it to the last minute to get the book you want, you may find someone else has the same idea. So start your research early and always have a list of back-up titles.
• The library subscribes to many full text electronic journals but older volumes may be available in hard-copy only so check the eUCLid catalogue for details

UCL holds important and diverse collections used extensively for undergraduate teaching including:

• The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
• The College Art Collection
• The Grant Museum of Zoology
• The Geological Sciences Collection
• The Science Collection
• Institute of Archaeology Collection