BA Philosophy(For students entering from September 2023 onwards)

Year 2

(Award available for year: Diploma of Higher Education)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year students should have developed to an intermediate level the skills developed at
Level 1, and should have:


a) Further developed their skills of argument assessment and applied those skills to a wider range of philosophical writings
b) Encountered a wider range of primary philosophical texts and interpretations of those texts
c) Acquired a grasp of a wider range of concepts, theories and arguments in philosophy
d) Extended/improved their knowledge of the nature of philosophical thought and methodology
e) Further developed the skill of independent thought, through the ability to see connections between different areas of philosophy, and more effectively articulate and defend their own philosophical view

Transferable (key) skills

a) Students will continue to exercise and receive feedback on their written communication skills, the ability to assess arguments, and the construction and defence of their own view. Engagement with teaching will require them to continue to develop their problem-solving skills, and they will use IT systems comprehensively to engage with teaching and assessment on their modules.

b) Students will further develop their transferrable skills relating to personal responsibility. By this point they should have a good idea of which learning styles suit them, how to manage their time and workload, and an increased self-awareness of individual strengths and weaknesses.

Assessment

Our new research skills module will explicitly tackle the ‘hidden syllabus’ and help to support students in their development of transferrable skills, such as project-management, learning to work effectively, teamwork, and presentation skills. It is designed in such a way as to help students see connections between philosophical subdisciplines (LO e) and will supercharge their learning with respect to particular philosophical topics, arguments and positions through practical exercises every week directed at content derived from philosophical research being done in the School (LOs a - d).

With respect to optional modules, as at level 1, efforts have been made to streamline assessment, and again, this is normally in the form of a coursework essay (but with varied forms of unassessed formative exercises on all modules available, allowing students to make progress with the LOs and skills outside an assessment context.) In addition to the platform provided by the research skills module, the listed transferable skills will be exercised on all modules, and opportunities for explicit discussion and support will continue to be made available by module leaders in office hours and in routine meetings with academic personal tutors.