Film Studies BA (Hons)

Teaching

The two main forms of teaching on the Film Studies programme are the lecture and the seminar class. Lectures typically run 45-50 minutes each, and expose the student to a consistent argument constructed by the lecturer either introducing the student to key theoretical debates or applications of theory to a body of cinema texts. Seminars, which tend to be 2-hours in length, enable students to discuss the theoretical principles and applications made in the lecture. Seminars may feature small -group discussion, further application of theory to different films, or other research-led projects as befits the topic and the cohort of students. While lectures tend to be rather formal in structure and organisation, seminars can be more loosely structured and tailored to the specific students on a given module in any given year.  

In addition, meetings with Personal Academic Tutors are scheduled on at least four occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course. 

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip them for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement.  A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and also the Personal Academic Tutoring system enables students to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will help them to flourish and be successful.  

Contact time

In a typical week, students will have around 12 contact hours of teaching.  The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year there is normally slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.   

Typically, class contact time will be structured around: 

• 1-hour lectures, per module per week 
• 2-hour seminars, per module per week 

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, students are expected to undertake around 24 hours of personal self-study per week.  Typically, this will involve reading articles or chapters, and of course, watching the assigned films.  

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.   

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessment which is graded and counts towards the overall module grade.

While not exclusively, the primary form of assessment is the written essay. Essay lengths tend to run between 1000-words (at Level 4) through to 2000- and 3000-wordessays (at Level 6). This focus on essay-writing helps prepare students to write their 10,000-word dissertation topics. Beyond formal essay writing, students will also encounter other forms of assessment across all three levels, including group presentations, portfolios, oral presentations, learning logs, and data reports. Taken collectively, these different assessment forms enable students to achieve and demonstrate the learning outcomes. There are no examinations on the Film Studies course.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

• Essays x 7
• Portfolio x 1
• Research reports x 3

Year 2

• Essays x 8
• Portfolio x 1
• Group Presentation x 1
• Report x 1

Year 3

• Essays x 9
• Portfolio x 2
• Presentation x 1

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Teaching Staff

All teaching staff on the Film Studies course have PhDs in their field (or are working on their PhDs), and are research active to facilitate research-led teaching. Therefore, students will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The teaching team are research-active specialists in film theory, have doctoral qualifications, and HEA accreditation. Please see details of the current staff team in the School of Humanities at our website.   

Programme Specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.