Undergraduate Handbook (BA Development Studies and...)
Department of Development Studies Undergraduate Handbook
Development Studies at SOAS
The Joint Honours BA in Development Studies at SOAS was established in 1991 to provide challenging and innovative teaching in the field of development studies. The joint honours structure allows students considerable flexibility in developing their own specific degree content. The BA in Development Studies offered at SOAS is multidisciplinary and grounds the study of social, political and economic changes in the developing world with a thorough understanding of specific environmental, historical and cultural contexts. Through the study of problems of development, students acquire analytical skills as well as learning how to make connections between the global and the local, how to present materials and ideas effectively and how to develop a critical and non-Eurocentric attitude to the understanding of development. The structure of the syllabuses and teaching methods reflect these priorities.
By the end of their final year, students will have developed an understanding of the international context, the social, political and economic conditions of the developing world, and an in-depth knowledge of a social science discipline in addition to a regional specialisation of their choice. There are opportunities for employment within the development field in development planning and in government and non-governmental organisations for those graduates with the necessary experience. Other career paths include journalism, the civil service, banking, social services and education. Excellent opportunities exist for those graduates interested in specialising further through postgraduate studies, not only in development studies, but also in economics, politics, social anthropology, law, geography, history and languages.
Degree Structure
Student Guidelines
The key requirements relating to your degree are summarised below. For detailed information on any of these requirements, please see Part 2 of the Undergraduate Regulations for the current year, available at http://www.soas.ac.uk/registry/degreeregulations/. For any clarification, please contact the Faculty Office.
BLE (Moodle)
BLE, run on Moodle, is a virtual learning environment which is used to make reading lists and other course information available online. Log-on to http://ble.soas.ac.uk. For further information about BLE, contact ble@soas.ac.uk. During the busy registration period, all students will have access to all courses within their registered departments. From the second week of term, students will only have access to courses they are registered for. If you don’t have access to any of your courses on BLE, there is likely to be a problem with your registration. In this case, please contact the faculty office as soon as possible.
Attendance
Students must attend all required teaching sessions. If, you exceptionally miss a tutorial because you are ill or for another unavoidable reason, you need to fill out a form at the Faculty Office to explain your absence. Students who persistently fail to meet the attendance requirement without supplying evidence of good cause may be withdrawn from the course.
Assessments
Please note that you must undertake all elements of assessment and examination prescribed for each course you are taking and must submit sufficient work for each assessment to enable it to be assessed or examined.
Marking criteria can be found at http://www.soas.ac.uk/lawsocialsciences/ug-marking-guidelines/
Submission of assignments
Please refer to the course handouts for information on coursework. You should bear in mind:
- Word count: The word limit prescribed for each piece of assessed coursework is a maximum. There are penalties for over-length coursework detailed in the UG regulations.
- Method of submission: All Development Studies assignments are to be submitted online via Moodle, please see the online instructions for details. If students encounter any technical problems whilst trying to submit their work they should email devstud@soas.ac.uk with the assignment attached. If students take any courses outside of the department they should check the relevant handbook to confirm which method of submission that department requires.
- Cover sheet: The front page of the essay should have on it the student's full name, student number, name of course, course code, name of marker, assignment number (e.g. 1 for the first assignment, etc.), date of deadline, essay title and word count.
- Receiving marks: Students will be notified by the faculty officer once the marks have become available online.
- Additional guidance: If you have concerns or would like advice on how to improve, you are welcome to contact tutors and course convenors in their office hours with reasonable requests for further feedback. Given the careful assessment arrangements, coursework will not be remarked and appeals against the academic judgment of markers will not be accepted. In very unusual circumstances (detailed in the UG Regulations, e.g. administrative error or other form of irregularity), the School will consider representations from candidates.
- Late submission of coursework: All students should plan their time so that they are able to meet coursework deadlines. Penalties are automatically imposed for each day that an assignment is overdue. If, in exceptional circumstances, you are unable to meet a course deadline and wish to request that the Examination Sub-Board waive or reduce the penalty for late submission, you must complete a Late Submission Request Form from the Faculty Office (http://www.soas.ac.uk/lawsocialsciences/currentstudents/forms/). You should submit this without delay to the Faculty Office (Room 251), along with supporting evidence (e.g. letter from a medical practitioner or counsellor, supporting letter from a lecturer or tutor). All information provided will be handled sensitively and confidentially. You must then submit your coursework as soon as possible thereafter. All these applications will be considered by the Examination Sub-board which will determine if there is acceptable evidence of ‘good cause’ for the late submission (see UG Regulations for details) and if some or all the penalty points may be remitted. Please note that individual staff members have no powers to grant extensions or to waive the penalty. If you are generally struggling to meet deadlines, despite your best efforts to organise your time effectively, this is something that you should discuss and seek advice from teaching staff or Welfare Tutor.
Failure to meet the attendance and coursework requirements stated above
Each case will be reviewed to decide what further action should be taken. The School may withdraw permission to take examinations or terminate the degree programme of student who fail to meet the attendance and coursework requirements.
Unseen written exams
Information on exams for specific courses is available in the course handbooks; please read and see the convenor/tutors with any queries. Past exam questions are available at http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/resources/exams/.
Plagiarism
All work submitted for your degree must incorporate your own ideas and judgements, in your own words. The presentation of other people's thoughts or words as though they were your own must be avoided. Direct quotations and summaries of other people’s ideas and judgements must be clearly identified, by use of quotation marks and references. If you draw on your own previous written work submitted for this degree or other qualifications this must be clearly stated and approved in advance. If you are in any doubt about what is permissible, consult your tutor. Plagiarism is an academic offence and may be severely penalised (see the UG Regulations for further information or the School Plagiarism Statement).
Key contacts
For faculty contacts see http://www.soas.ac.uk/lawsocialsciences/keystaff/
For department contacts see http://www.soas.ac.uk/development/staff/
N.B. For Welfare and Year Tutor information see http://www.soas.ac.uk/development/staff/welfaretutor/
For Registry contacts see http://www.soas.ac.uk/registry/
For Student Services contacts (Welfare, Counselling, Disabilities, and Mental Health and Wellbeing) see http://www.soas.ac.uk/studentservices/contact/.
N.B. For information on making appointments and drop-in times, see http://www.soas.ac.uk/studentservices/appointment/.
For Library contacts and information see http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/devstudies/
For Careers contacts and information see http://www.soas.ac.uk/careers/about/
The Academic Development Directorate (ADD) provides learning support, offering resources and workshops. See http://www.soas.ac.uk/add/ for details.
For information on IT, including email, computer labs, printing and scanning, see http://www.soas.ac.uk/itsupport/studentguide/
Key dates
For terms and other key dates see http://www.soas.ac.uk/about/keydates/.
For events at SOAS see http://www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/ and http://www.soas.ac.uk/careers/events/.
Key locations
For a map of the SOAS’ campus, please see http://www.soas.ac.uk/visitors/location/maps/.
Teaching at SOAS takes place on different sites. For more information on how to find rooms, see http://www.soas.ac.uk/timetable/teaching-and-meeting-rooms/finding/.
The timetable can be found at http://www.soas.ac.uk/timetable/.
