BA Philosophy(For students entering from September 2023 onwards)

Year 3

(Award available for year: Bachelor of Arts)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the programme students should have:


a) Acquired an advanced appreciation of philosophical analysis and so developed the skill of more independent analysis and construction of arguments
b) The ability to understand and critically engage (through advanced analysis) with the writings of some major philosophers in both contemporary theory and the history of philosophy
c) The ability to specialise and so apply their knowledge of philosophical concepts, theories and arguments to a more focused range of topics in their chosen area in which they can demonstrate advanced understanding and analysis
d) The ability to evidence and articulate informed reflection on their own lives and place in the world
e) The ability to identify and reflect on the presuppositions of specific disciplines and practices, such as art, politics, the physical, life and social sciences, as part of more focused study
f) The ability to apply their more advanced understanding of philosophical concepts and methodologies to their own views, thus developing those views to a higher level of sophistication

Transferable (key) skills

a) By now students will be in a strong position to finesse their written communication skills, their ability to assess arguments, and the construction and defence of their own view, based on considerable feedback they will have received in the lower levels on their academic work. Their ongoing engagement with teaching will further require them to continue to develop their problem-solving skills, and they will continue to use IT systems comprehensively to engage with teaching and assessment on their modules.

b) Students will also be in a strong position at this point to work on their transferrable skills relating to personal responsibility. They will have developed a well-evidenced idea of their individual learning style, they will have a good deal of experience in managing their own time and workload, and a good level of self-awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses.

Assessment

In line with university principles, all final year students complete a final year research project in the School – either an ‘integrated’ project, that provides the additional support of a scaffolding module, an ‘independent’ project or a project based around a placement with an external organisation, applying their subject knowledge in a real-world context. This allows students the opportunity to work closely with a supervisor to achieve the 6 LOs at this level in different ways, depending on their individual learning style and needs. The final year project is also a chance to work intensively on their transferrable employability skills (such as problem solving, communication skills, and IT skills) and their skills relating to personal responsibility.


With respect to optional modules, as in the lower levels, efforts have been made to streamline assessment so that we are only assessing LOs once on each module. Again, as at lower levels this is normally in the form of a coursework essay. In addition to the platform provided by the final year project, the listed transferable skills will be exercised on all modules, and opportunities for explicit discussion and support will be made available by module leaders in office hours and in routine meetings with academic personal tutors.