Section: Studying at the Graduate School
The Graduate School brings together the research and scholarly interests of staff and postgraduate students in an academically challenging, but friendly, environment. We currently offer over twenty degrees, and we have an increasing range of research training courses designed to equip all postgraduate researchers to a common standard of attainment in social and political research methods and data analysis.
The Graduate School Office has a team of administrative and clerical staff who look after the administration of all of our postgraduate degrees. The Office is an accessible point of personal contact for new enquiries and for existing students. We also have a Graduate Computer Lab, Reading Room, Common Room and printing and photocopying facilities. The School Computing Officer is also available to help with computing and IT problems. Most academic staff have offices in the same building and are available for informal consultation during weekly office hours, or by appointment through email request.
Informal social events take place at the start of each year to welcome new students, at the end of the semester and after graduations. Postgraduates also organise occasional School-wide events, with support from the Graduate School Office. This session we are planning a ceilidh to mark the end of the academic year. Each subject and centre also hosts a range of events to welcome postgraduates and to mark dates in the academic calendar.
Our degrees are usually available on either a full-time or a part-time basis. In the case of a part-time MSc, the normal programme of six courses plus a dissertation is taken over two years, instead of one. Each course is usually structured around two hours per week of class contact, and students are expected to study independently to prepare material for seminars, workshops and assessed coursework. For further details, please contact the relevant MSc Programme Director or (for the PhD) the relevant Postgraduate Adviser.
The Graduate School welcomes enquiries from applicants with disabilities, and invites people to contact us and the University Disability Office as early as possible in the application process to discuss their requirements. The University’s aim is to create an environment which enables disabled students to participate fully in the mainstream of university life. We try to achieve this through flexible methods of teaching and assessment, and by progressively improving access to buildings and technology.
The Disability Office website offers a general guide to facilities for disabled students. More detailed information on access to specific courses and on facilities for people with specific impairments can be provided on request. Please do not hesitate to contact the Disability Office if you would like to know more about any aspect of provision.
Where necessary, the University Disability Office Adviser will prepare a learning profile which outlines any recommended adjustments. The Graduate School has a Coordinator of Adjustments (the Deputy Director, Dr. Kate Orton Johnson). With your agreement, your Learning Profile will be electronically circulated to the Coordinator of Adjustments, who then approves some or all of its recommendations and produces an Adjustment Schedule. This is then electronically circulated to those concerned with the administration of your courses (Course Conveners and Course Secretaries), your Programme Director or Supervisor, and yourself. Most adjustments (e.g. provision of lecture outlines, permission to record lectures) are handled routinely between the disabled student and the relevant Course Convener. If non-standard adjustments are needed that are not covered by routine procedures, these can be arranged through the intervention of the Coordinator of Adjustments.
All postgraduate researchers at the University are able to take advantage of the wide-ranging programme of transferable, employment-related and generic research skills offered by the Transkills team.
The Graduate School also works closely with the team to produce a customised induction event each October for new postgraduate researchers to introduce them to the practicalities of PhD planning and to make them aware of the generic requirements for progression from Year One to Year Two of their degree.
For full details and the latest information on the wide variety of training opportunities open to you please visit http://www.postgrad.ed.ac.uk/pgskills/hss/
This page was published on 9 September 2008