Your first few weeks in Philosophy
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1. The Philosophy Department office and staff members
The Philosophy Office is located within the Department and we are more than happy to help with any queries that you may have. Other support staff details can be found here.
2. Postgraduate Common Room
The Common Room is for your use and contains a number of important notice boards, e.g. the Staff-Student Liaison Committees (SSLC).
3. Personal Tutors
You should meet with your personal tutor during weeks 1-2 of the first term of the academic year. If your Personal Tutor is unable to answer a query about your programme of study, please contact the course convenor or the Philosophy Office.
4. Tabula
Tabula is an easy to use, online administration system designed to support the administration of teaching and learning in academic departments. Please ensure you familiarise yourself with Tabula as you will need it throughout the academic year.
5. Communication with the Department
- Noticeboards for postgraduate students are in the foyer along from the Philosophy Office, please check them regularly during term-time.
- The PA to the Head of Department sends out a weekly newsletter with upcoming events and other Departmental information. If you would like to include anything in the newsletter please contact Clare directly.
- Office Hours are held (normally 2 hours per week during term-time for module convenors and personal tutors) by all teaching staff and are an excellent opportunity to speak one-on-one with your tutors. You do not need an appointment to drop in to see a tutor during office hours. Office hours for the year are normally posted on tutors' doors by the end of week 2 of the autumn term.
- The Department uses your Warwick email account (account ending @warwick.ac.uk) to communicate with you. It is therefore vital that you read messages sent to this account, otherwise you will miss essential registration, essay and examination deadlines, and this may adversely affect your degree results.
6. Modules and Timetables
All students will need to register their module options by no later than Friday 18th October. Once you have registered, you will be able to generate your timetable and where appropriate sign up for Term 1 seminar slots on Tabula. More information on how to use eMR can be found here.
All full-time first year MPhil in Philosophy and full-time first year research students are expected to audit one MA module each term. MA students will follow the required number of modules for their course. Further details of the MA modules running in 2019/20 can be found here.
7. Student Engagement
The Staff-Student Liaison Committee (SSLC) offers essential channels of communication between students and staff. The purpose of the SSLC is to consider any general matters of concern raised by students, and also issues on which the Departmental staff seek student opinion. Students elected as representatives attend the SSLC meetings and departmental committee meetings, to present and represent student views.
The Departmental Graduate Seminar takes place fortnightly on Wednesdays between 4:00 and 6:00pm. The seminar provides an opportunity for all Warwick Philosophy graduate students (and occasionally students from other universities) to present work for feedback from a general philosophy audience. All PhD, MPhil and MA students are strongly encouraged to attend. Faculty members and visiting students are also very welcome.
8. Research Activities in the Department
Please also note that there are various research activities and seminar series held by the Department and its research centres, with talks regularly scheduled on a variety of topics that will be of interest to your studies. We would strongly encourage you to attend as many of these as you are able to in order to fully participate in the breadth of research activity and philosophical discussions that the Department has to offer.
The Department hosts approximately two or three Departmental Colloquium per term on a Wednesday afternoon at 4pm. All research students in particular are expected to attend these events but all postgraduate students are very welcome.
There are also a number of reading and discussion groups that meet regularly during term time which are open to Philosophy graduate students.
9. Study Areas and Facilities
The Philosophy Department has several study rooms which research students may apply for a desk. Each room will have a designated
Research students are eligible to use departmental photocopying and printing facilities for purposes related to their PGR studies only. Any use of the facilities for personal/other reasons will be on an honesty basis at a cost of 4 pence per sheet of paper printed or copied. Those students eligible to use these facilities will be notified of the appropriate codes required to use the photocopier and printer in their induction information.
10. Conference Funding
The Department has made available limited funds to research students (Phd students and MPhil students who have upgraded) who wish to request conference expenses should it be felt that attending or presenting a paper at such an event would be beneficial to their work. This is a competitive scheme and full details can be found here.
11. Library Training
The Library website has useful information which you may find useful in the first few weeks.
12. Language Classes
The University’s Language Centre is located in the Humanities Building, and offers a wide range of courses at every level. Fuller details will be available from the Centre or can be viewed here.
Research students who feel that they will need language school support to complete their studies should discuss registering on language classes with their supervisor in the first instance.