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#Post#: 40--------------------------------------------------
New Regulations
DIR By: CaseyEnos
Date: May 12, 2012, 11:17 am
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So, what does everybody think about the new regulations? Anyone
else planning to transfer to the new program?
#Post#: 41--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Regulations
DIR By: waveletter
Date: May 13, 2012, 10:11 am
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Hi Casey & all:
It looks like there is some relief from the 3 hour exams on the
Level 4 and 5 courses, but the advanced courses are still 3 hour
ordeals. So, that's probably easier to deal with. I think it
allows a student to pick up several courses (say 3 or 4) in one
year without having to get just blasted by exams in May.
I like the Dissertation. You can really specialize on this one,
but I wonder if you'd be allowed to pick a topic freely or
whether the topic you pick is confined to the areas covered by
the regular Level 4,5,6 courses.
I haven't done the Historical Ethics yet, so it looks like I'd
have to go through the Introduction to Philosophy course. That
might not be bad, maybe fun. Still, I'm reading that if you
transfer, you still just get 1-to-1 credit for Old Regs courses.
It adds two more courses to what you have to do, in other words.
Also, there's still a loss of some of the richness of the Old
Programme, no Phil of Maths, no Post-Aristotelian, no
Frege-Russell-Wittgenstein, etc. But maybe you could do this in
the Dissertation.
Eh, my feelings are mixed to negative about it, just from where
I'm at in the Old Programme. For someone new to the BA, or just
starting period, it looks like a nice, but vanilla, BA
Programme. What do you think? Thanks for pointing this out to
us, Casey! --Ron
#Post#: 42--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Regulations
DIR By: CaseyEnos
Date: May 13, 2012, 6:14 pm
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I'm excited about the chance to do a dissertation, but I am a
little bummed as well that they cut some of the classes they
did, "Philosophy of Science" was one I was really looking
forward to....
#Post#: 64--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Regulations
DIR By: waveletter
Date: July 11, 2012, 8:25 pm
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Hello everyone:
Don't know if you've been checking in on the UoL Philosophy
website, but there's a new, fairly long news post from the
department there. It seems that they are abandoning the red and
yellow Grayling books as course guides. There is going to be an
individual online guide for each course, except Intro to Phil,
which has its own book and you get it when you register. There
don't seem to be any of these new course guides posted yet. They
are supposed to trickle out over the summer. Just a heads-up.
--Ron
#Post#: 68--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Regulations
DIR By: CaseyEnos
Date: July 12, 2012, 8:40 pm
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Hey, has anyone got the e-mail telling them if they are eligible
for the new regs yet?
#Post#: 71--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Regulations
DIR By: Hongkonger
Date: July 15, 2012, 7:44 pm
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Long time no see! It seems that many are interested in
transferring to New Regulations...
Casey Enos, as far as I know, individual student will soon get
noticed whether they are eligible, I haven't got noticed yet...
have you read the PSR2012-2013 where there is some information
on page 34-35 about the eligibility... Philosophy of Science
was cut, but I am also disappointed about the subject
Continental Philosophy that the syllabus only involves the main
doctrines of only 3 Philosophers (Hegel, Schopenhauer and
Nietzsche), previously it also includes Husserl and Heidegger
and I've planned to answer the exam questions of them!
waveletter, you haven't done Historical Ethics yet? me too...
but the PSR said that we don't need to do Introduction to
Philosophy if we have done Historical Ethics, Epistemology and
Logic. I have the following idea. Plan A: What if we continue
to register in the coming year with Old Regulations and do the
Historical Ethics together with 1 or 2 (or even 3) other courses
first, and then apply to transfer to New Regulations the next
year? Plan B: the same as you've mentioned - do Introduction
to Philosophy straightforward. What do you think? Which one is
better? I completed only 2 courses - Epistemology and Logic,
how far are you from finishing the entire programme? I've
started working on Historical Ethics and find it pretty easy, I
think you find it easy too, and I regret that I didn't take
this course together with Epistemology and Logic last year! If
I had, I could simply apply to transfer this year and didn't
have to think so much! But I guess I may choose Plan B at last.
By the way, how are you guys' exam result? I am happy with
mine, thank God!!
#Post#: 72--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Regulations
DIR By: waveletter
Date: July 16, 2012, 10:28 pm
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Hi Tim:
No, I haven't done the Historical Ethics yet! I'm ethics averse.
No, really, I started to study it last year along with
Aristotle, but I found that the Metaphysics module was more
appropriate to study along with The Philosopher. The stuff on
substance from Metaphysics helped me with Aristotle's conceptual
development from the Categories to Metaphysics Z. So, I put off
doing the Ethics 1. I guess I'm stuck with that now. I've
finished the other four "Level 4 courses" for the Old
Regulations though.
Today I got an email--not really personally addressed to me,
like Prof. Guttenplan intimated--but a general encouragement to
switch over to the New Regs. Actually, it wound up in my Spam
folder, so if you haven't seen it, you might want to peek into
your junk email directory and see if it got redirected there.
Is your Plan A allowed? For some reason, maybe just false
intuition, I had thought that you had to make a choice this
year. One attraction of the New Regs might be that one could
pick up a topic from a module that had been dropped, like the
20th century phenomenologists, or philosophy of mathematics, for
example. So, I don't really know. I haven't received my marks
yet for Ari and Metaphys this last spring. That might affect
things. If I do go New Regs, it will probably be with your Plan
B. I've finished three years now and have two to go (Old). I
guess it will take me three if I switch to New. If I elect to go
Plan B, I'll probably just bite the bullet and take three
modules--one being the little Intro--in my first year as a
Newbie.
My marks have so far been in the mid-60s; I don't seem to have
cracked the secret of busting through the 70 ceiling. But,
that's OK. I'm happy with a 2:1. I sent an email asking about
why I couldn't get my grades on July 9th, but it seems they are
just delayed, according to the UoL ombudsman. Maybe it was my
Aristotle paper--I chose to write on substance in Categories,
substance in Metaphysics, and the Sea Battle from On
Interpretation...not the easiest choices, I guess.
Also, I noticed that they have added a bunch of stuff to the VLE
pages--I've actually got the new course description for
Metaphysics. It's under the My Courses category when you go to
the Phil VLE. I haven't compared it to what's in the Yellow Book
(Philosophy 1) yet. It's by Prof. Tim Crane again, though.
Nothing for Aristotle yet. I wonder if these are links that pop
up live for you when you register for a course? Anyway, you
might check there to see if anything's new.
Thanks for your comments Tim, and congratulations on making
great scores on your first exams! --Ron Allen (waveletter)
#Post#: 75--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Regulations
DIR By: waveletter
Date: July 17, 2012, 1:25 am
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Hey Casey, Tim, and all:
Here's the email that I received today:
------------- snip ---------------------
Dear Student
As just announced on the VLE news page, we are launching a
revised version of the BA in Philosophy as from Autumn 2012. It
is a revision based on feedback we have had from students over
the years and brings our programme into line with others in
London and the UK.
My particular reason for writing to you now is that, although
you are registered under the Old Regulations, I would like to
bring the New Regulations BA to your attention, and I think that
you may find it very much in your interest to transfer to the
New Regulations if you are eligible.
I do urge you to look at the new Handbook and the New
Regulations on the VLE, where you will find detailed accounts of
the New Regulations. (Have a close look at Section 11, which
details the regulations governing transfer.) You should note
that if you have passed any courses with a mark of between
35-39% you would, unfortunately, not be eligible to transfer to
the New Regulations. In order to help you in making your
decision about transfer, I should like to bring your attention
to certain general features of the new programme.
Firstly, while the Old Regulations BA involves ten courses, and
the New Regulations twelve, if you look more closely you will
see that this numerical difference does not mean that the there
is any added burden in the New Regulations BA. In fact, the
burden is likely to be somewhat less, and the academic benefit
much greater. What follows below should make clear why this is
so.
Secondly, one of the new courses that we have added is
Introduction to Philosophy. Whereas before this didn't count
towards the BA, it is now a Level 4 BA course. Some of you will
have done this as part of a Diploma, and you will get automatic
credit for it. But even if you haven't done it, we have made it
part of the transfer arrangements that if you have passed three
other Level 4 courses, you will get automatic credit for
Introduction to Philosophy.
Thirdly, the other new course is the Dissertation at Level 6.
This is an essay that you write at home, and you will get email
advice in doing so, both at the planning stage and in respect of
a draft of the essay. A Dissertation element is a standard part
of the internal BA in Birkbeck, and in the UK generally.
Students find that it helps them unify their knowledge of
philosophy, and gives them a perspective on the subject that
cannot be got from merely taking examinations. The arrangements
for direct academic contact and feedback on this project are
something our students have wanted for a long time.
Fourthly, you will see that in the New Regulations BA, all Level
4 and 5 courses are examined by two hour, two question papers,
rather than by three hour examinations. This arrangement mirrors
that of the internal BA in Philosophy at Birkbeck, and it will
be obvious why it lightens the overall examination burden.
Putting these points together - as a philosopher, I expect you
will be able to do - should convince you that transferring to
the New Regulation BA is a wholly good idea.
Finally, whether you do transfer or not, you will benefit from
the fact that we are also completely revising the Subject
Guides. Available online in time for the 2012-13 academic year,
we have retained the syllabuses for each paper, but we have
brought reading materials up to date. We have also endeavored to
make the bulk of the reading materials for each course available
online, either in JSTOR or in the Online Library. So while you
might find it a good idea to purchase a few books, we hope that
the difficulties of getting hold of study materials will be a
thing of the past.
If you are intending to complete the BA programme at the end of
the 2012/13 academic year you should note that it will only be
possible to do so by remaining on the Old Regulations. The first
time that it will be possible to complete the BA programme under
the New Regulations will be at the end of the 2013/14 academic
year as the Dissertation course will first be available from
September 2013.
I do hope you will take up this offer to initiate a transfer
from Old to New Regulations. If you have any questions in
relation to the above information or wish to confirm your
transfer to the New Regulations, please contact the Registration
Office:
HTML http://enquiries.londoninternational.ac.uk
or via the
"ask a question" tab on the student portal.
May I take the opportunity to wish you every success with your
remaining studies.
Samuel Guttenplan
Programme Director in Philosophy
----------------- snip -----------------------
A couple of observations:
1. Prof. Guttenplan says that if you have passed (but no marks
in the 30s) three level 4 courses, you get credit for Intro to
Philosophy.
2. You can enroll for the Dissertation beginning only in Sep
2013, which seems to mean that you could continue Old Regs for
2012/13, but then jump to New Regs for 13/14, per Tim's idea,
and finish under New Regs with a BA in 2014. Why would you do
Tim's idea? Well, because if you had some Level 4 and 5 courses
left over, you could postpone them until your last year and take
them as 2-hour, 2-question exams along with your dissertation
essay. That way, you have no brutal, 3-hour,
I-can't-write-with-a-paralyzed-hand exams in conjunction with
your dissertation. Just benign, 2-hour papers.
I hadn't seen anyone else posting that they received this, so I
thought I'd post my own email in its entirety just in case
you're curious but somehow neglected. Thanks! --Ron
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