Induction Notes for New MA Students

Welcome to all new MA students joining Birkbeck this Autumn!

Please click on the topics below to view key information about your course:

Important dates

• 2012/2013 important dates to be added soon!

Extra-curricular activities

• Birkbeck Philosophical Society:
• Institute of Philosophy (esp. “London Fixtures”)
• If you wish to organise a reading/discussion group please contact the Postgraduate Administrator (office@philosophy.bbk.ac.uk) to book a room and send an announcement

Key contacts

• You will find most information relating to your course in the MA section of this website.
• The Postgraduate Administrator office@philosophy.bbk.ac.uk
• For enrolment enquiries, please contact enrolment@bbk.ac.uk or call 0207 380 3020 (Please note that this is the busiest time of year for Registry.)
• Facebook group for Birkbeck MA Philosophy

How the MA is structured

• All MA students choose four one-term modules for 30 credits each and write a dissertation of ca. 10,000 words.
• Conversion students must take Introduction to Philosophy as two of their four modules. This is a double module of 60 credits.
• MA modules are taught by way of 10 two-hour sessions, which normally consist of a lecture followed by a smaller dedicated seminar. Students are also entitled to a one-to-one tutorial per module taken, at which informal feedback is given on a draft of one of their essays intended ultimately for submission for final assessment.
• Introduction to Philosophy is the only module for which final assessment is a timed exam (3 hours). The exam includes questions from each part of the module: Elementary Symbolic Logic, Epistemology & Methodology, Ethics, Logic & Metaphysics, and Political Philosophy.
• All other modules are assessed by two 2500-word essays for each module (or in the case of The Philosophy of Nietzsche, a single-author based module, students may choose to write a single 5000-word essay).
• Dissertation: Your dissertation should be about 10,000 (and not more than 12,000) words. This word length includes footnotes, but not the bibliography. Students are entitled to a brief initial meeting with their supervisor to settle topic and readings, then no more than TWO rounds of comments.
• Your personal tutor is the M.A. tutor until you’ve been assigned a dissertation supervisor; then the latter takes over.
• Plagiarism: please read and ensure you adhere to the College guidelines on plagiarism
• Grade distinctions: Distinction, Merit, Pass, Fail. (See p. 19 of the Handbook for details.)