Course description
Course Content
The programme offers a one or two-year pattern of postgraduate study in the domain of cultural and literary European studies. Students will study up to three of the following disciplines: English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese. Italian is also available at St Andrews and Bergamo.
They will spend one semester in Sheffield, and (for the one-year programme) the other semester in the partner institution appropriate for their discipline of study (for example, students of Portuguese would choose to study Portuguese modules in Lisbon; students of French would choose to study French modules in Perpignan).
Students can choose to spend either semester 1 or semester 2 in Sheffield. Students who continue to the MA will submit a dissertation of 20,000 words, written over the summer and submitted in September. The modules available constitute an enabling framework from which students can tailor their own specialist pathways, with extensive consultation with their tutor and the Programme Co-ordinator. This careful guidance will provide each student with a coherent programme of study; final module choice will be subject to the approval of the Co-ordinator. This flexibility is an essential part of the Mundus programme, and represents its specificity over other MA programmes in European literature. An element of research training will be required, and incorporated through compulsory but non-assessed elements in Sheffield modules.
This one-year, 180-credit masters is, however, just one of two pathways students can choose in the participating institutions. The second, 2-year pathway, consists of study in one institution in semesters 1 and 3 (40 credits); semester 2 in a second institution (80 credits, including a 20-credit dissertation); and semester 4 in a third institution (80 credits, including a 60-credit dissertation). As far as module choice is concerned, semesters 1 and 3, and semesters 2 and 4, are identical.
Core modules
Semester 1:
60 credits in the chosen area of study at the University of Sheffield or in a partner institution, chosen after consultation with the Programme Co-ordinator. A compulsory but non-assessed element of research training is included in the modules.
Semester 2:
60 credits in the chosen area of study in a partner institution, chosen after consultation with the Programme Co-ordinator, or at the University of Sheffield.
A typical pathway would thus be, for a student of French, 60 credits of French at the University of Sheffield, and 60 credits of French modules at Perpignan.
60-credit dissertation (supervised in Sheffield).
An MA student must accumulate 180 credits by successfully completing a combination of modules to the value of 120 credits and a dissertation of 60 credits.
To achieve the award of Postgraduate Diploma, a student must accumulate 120 credits by successfully completing a combination of modules, without proceeding to or completing the dissertation.
In the two-year programme students spend Semesters 1 & 3 in the same institution, Semesters 2 & 4 in two other institutions; and must obtain 40 credits during the first semester, 80 during the second (of which 20 for a First Year Dissertation), 40 during the third and 80 during the fourth (of which 60 for a Final Dissertation).
