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Undergraduate Teaching Office

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The School's Undergraduate Teaching Office is located in the Chrystal Macmillan Building (ground floor), George Square. We deal with all enquiries from 1st and 2nd year students concerning their programmes and courses in Politics, Social Anthropology, Social Policy, Sociology, Social Work, Canadian Studies, Science/Technology Studies, and South Asian Studies. 

Via the menu on the right these pages provide basic information about regulations and procedures in the SPS and about current course offerings and timetabling.

The 'trimmed-down' 1st and 2nd year handbook will direct you to basic information about how things are done in SPS.

The 2011-2012 handbook offers basic information including:

• An outline of the year 1 and year 2 programmes
• Contact details and staff roles in the Undergraduate Teaching Office
• Further information about guidance that is available on the SPS Undergraduate Teaching Office web pages

In addition, you should regard the extensive web pages accessed through the menu on the right as the primary source of detailed information.  We strongly encourage you to familiarise yourself with our web pages, and consult them in the first instance whenever you have questions about rules, regulations and procedures in SPS.

For further information on Year 1 and 2 courses and activities in your subject area(s), please follow the links under 'Subject and Centre Specific Information'. 
 

The basic programme for years 1 and 2

Students normally take 120 credits each year, and most courses taken in SPS are 20 credits, and one semester long (although there are some 40 credit year-long courses you may take, especially outside of SSPS).  You will normally take six semester-length courses in each of Years 1 and 2, or the equivalent.

Required courses: In each of Politics, Social Anthropology, Social Policy and Sociology there are three required sequential semester-length core courses, taken in the Autumn and Spring of Year 1, and in the Autumn of Year 2. In the second semester of Year 2, there are two interdisciplinary semester-length courses: Social and Political Theory 2 and Social and Political Enquiry 2. Both of these are required for students going on to nearly all single or combined (‘joint’) honours programmes involving these subjects.  Thus there are minimally five (3 + 2) required courses in preparation for honours.  Students doing joint degrees must fulfill all requirements in both their subjects.  For instance a student doing Sociology and Politics would take 3 + 3 + 2 = 8 required courses. Sustainable Development has four required courses (2 in year 1 and 2 in year 2). In addition, students studying for this degree will be asked to focus their studies by choosing two sets of courses, each set adding up to 40 credits, from two additional subject disciplines. A list of approved subject areas is provided in the Degree Programme Table. For SPS subject disciplines, there are 40 required credits in 1st year and 20 in second year, plus one of the two 20-credit Schoolwide 2nd year courses.

Exceptions to this format:
•    Social Work has six required courses (4 in year 1 and 2 in year 2), including Social and Political Enquiry 2, but excluding Social and Political Theory 2.  
•    Because of requirements in their joint subjects, only one of the two School interdisciplinary courses is required for students taking: Philosophy and Politics; and Modern European Languages (Spanish) and Politics.
•    Students enrolled in International Relations have a fourth required course in their Subject, International Law (IR) (LAWS08110), offered in the School of Law, and taken in Year 1/Semester 1.  This makes a total of six required courses for that single honours degree.
•    Sustainable Development MA students who are taking one SPS discipline and one non-SPS discipline are only required to take one of the two 20-credit Schoolwide 2nd year courses.

Please Note: students enrolled in International Relations have a fourth required course in their Subject, International Law (IR) (LAWS08110), offered in the School of Law.  This makes a total of six required courses for that single honours degree.

Exemptions from interdisciplinary courses: As a programme aiming toward a professional qualification, Social Work has a somewhat different curriculum, and its students are only required to take Social and Political Enquiry 2.  Because of requirements in their joint subjects, only one of the courses is required for students taking Philosophy and Politics, and Modern European Languages (Spanish) and Politics.

Progression to honours

Students who pass all their courses (240 credits) and achieve a final mark of 50% or better in all their required second year courses, at the first sitting, are entitled to proceed to honours.