Graduate Study

Graduate students in Philosophy at Waikato form a friendly group that acts co-operatively rather than competitively. They have excellent access to staff and are highly valued for their contribution to the programme's intellectual life.

Philosophy at the University of Waikato, located within the School of Social Sciences, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, has eight academic staff. Students may enrol for the following graduate degrees: Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours), Graduate Diploma in Applied Ethics, Master of Arts and Master of Social Sciences. Philosophy is also offered for the higher degrees Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy.

Philosophy is currently located on the top floor of I Block. Graduate students can be provided with desk space in shared offices, computer facilities, and some free course-related printing and photocopying. Honours/Masters students, MPhil and DPhil students are eligible for part-time employment as tutors. A Graduate Adviser is available to advise students on their programme of study and to discuss progress. All research students (PHIL594, MPhil and PhD) are required to present a seminar during the course of their enrolment.

Graduate Successes
Masters graduates from Philosophy have recently achieved notable successes in gaining employment and admission to further study. In recent years graduates of our programmes have gained employment with New Zealand Treasury, A.C.C., Boston Consulting (International Management Consultants), Transit New Zealand, the New Zealand Immigration Service, Computer Industry and as University Lecturers. Others have won scholarships for further study at universities in the U.S.A., Canada and the U.K.

Graduate Student Facilities
Graduate and postgraduate students in Philosophy can be provided with desk space in shared offices. Each graduate office has a computer, use of which is shared. Graduate students may print drafts and final versions of their essays and seminar presentations on the faculty laser printer depending on the volume. Graduate students are also entitled to some free photocopying of course-related articles. There are tea and coffee making facilities, and students are encouraged to talk Philosophy with each other and with lecturers in the social space.

Paid Work for Graduate Students
Each year a number of graduate and postgraduate students are employed to tutor in 100 level and some 200 level papers. Students may be employed as sessional assistants, teaching two or more tutorial groups. Sessional assistants are paid an hourly rate of between $14 and $16 per hour (depending on qualifications and experience) for teaching and preparation time, and for time spent marking.

Planning Graduate Study
Students should begin planning graduate study, and discussing it with academic staff, well before the start of their first graduate year. For instance, it may be desirable to shape a third-year undergraduate programme in preparation for graduate study. In some departments graduate papers have specific Level 3 papers as prerequisites. Students who intend to proceed to graduate study should discuss with the graduate adviser in their intended major subject, or with other academic staff in the subject, early in their undergraduate degree.

Students should make definite arrangements for graduate study towards the end of their final undergraduate year. They should approach the graduate adviser of their intended major subject, or other academic staff in the subject, to discuss their programme and arrange any research supervision. Large programmes have formal procedures for this planning process: forms that must be completed in consultation with academic staff, and deadlines by which they must be submitted.

Agreeing on a graduate programme by December allows students to use the summer before their graduate year profitably, in reading and research. Academic staff teaching individual papers can furnish students with reading lists for the summer recess.

Graduate Advisers
Each major subject designates one or more staff as its graduate adviser(s). The graduate advisers have several functions. They help students plan the later stages of their undergraduate study so that they will be well prepared for graduate work. Towards the end of the year preceding students' graduate enrolment, graduate advisers help them apply for graduate study and select a programme of study. Towards the end of the year preceding students' intended commencement of any research project, dissertation or thesis, the graduate adviser and intended supervisor may help the student with their application to undertake this project. The graduate adviser is also available to discuss students' progress with graduate study and advise them on any problem which may be hampering their progress.

The nature of graduate study
At graduate level students begin to enjoy the fruits of intellectual independence. they learn to engage critically with scholarship in specialized areas of their major subject, and to produce their own independent research work. Where undergraduate study relies heavily on secondary summaries provided by lecturers and texts, graduate students begin to produce their own accounts of their field of study. To succeed at this level students need to be highly motivated, hard working, and willing to take an active role both in class and on paper.

The standards of work expected of graduate students reflect this expectation of intellectual independence. In general, to gain good grades in a graduate level paper, students must demonstrate that they are conversant with major theories, key debates and bodies of research in the course topic area possess a high level of critical awareness of research design and techniques can assume various theoretical positions and use these to critique other positions and arguments can read beyond minimum course requirements and are able to find relevant resources independently using library systems and other resources can write in a scholarly manner using an accepted method of referencing.

To gain A grades, however, graduate students need to do a little more:
begin to generate original arguments, research topics and questions, to locate these within scholarly debate in the literature of the topic area, and to suggest ways of researching these topics and questions produce work of a quality approaching that of work published in refereed journals.

Graduate Papers
The role of staff teaching graduate level papers is to help students attain intellectual independence in the context of their academic/ professional community. Ways of achieving this vary according to the preference and teaching style of lecturers and the needs of students. Some prefer formal lectures, although in general smaller class sizes and students' level of knowledge of the subject make this approach less appropriate than at undergraduate level.

In many graduate papers a substantial proportion of teaching time is devoted to class discussion of set readings. It is also common for graduate students to be expected to run some classes or parts of classes themselves. A frequent requirement is for students to present one or more seminars in a paper. These may take the form of a prepared paper similar to a conference paper, or discussion of work in progress, or a student may set readings for the class and then lead discussion of these readings.

The normal word limit for work in a graduate paper is a maximum of 7500 words. The last day for submission of graduate work for assessment is normally not later than two weeks after the last day of the semester in which the paper is taught.

Students should note that the BSocSc(Hons) and MSocSc regulations require a C pass in all papers credited towards the degree. Where a student fails a paper, this paper may be repeated once only. Unless the paper is passed on the second attempt, a failing grade means that the student fails the degree as a whole. Graduate students may, however, withdraw from papers at any point* before the end of the paper, students who think they are going to fail a paper should consider withdrawing. *Please contact Fees Office at the Gateway for detail information.

Supervision
Dissertations and theses are the students' own research work, but are developed under the supervision of one or more academic staff. In many cases one staff member will be the sole supervisor; alternatively there may be a main supervisor, with others involved as secondary supervisors for their knowledge of a specialist area of the research, or for their experience in the supervision process. Another arrangement is for two or more staff to act as equal co-supervisors. As well as being assessed by a supervisor, Masters theses are sent out for external assessment by a scholar at another university. MPhil and DPhil theses are sent to two or more external assessors.

The supervision begins with a discussion between student and potential supervisor(s) to agree on a topic and the form the research will take. These initial meetings should be held before the end of teaching in the academic year preceding the year of enrolment for the research project, dissertation or thesis. The student may develop, under the lecturer's guidance, a reading list or other tasks to prepare for the project over the summer before formal enrolment.

Once the project is formally under way, there should be regular supervisory meetings to discuss progress (fortnightly is a common frequency for dissertation or thesis supervision meetings). Once writing up of the project begins, the supervisor provides feedback on written drafts of the work. The final draft of a thesis should be approved by the main supervisor before it is bound. Supervision involves balancing two priorities: students' need to develop their own reading and research, and to express the results of this process in their own words; and supervisors' responsibility to ensure that students are aware of the range of sources and publications in the topic area, and that students' work meets current standards of research and scholarly debate in the subject.

In practice this means that students need to read, write and plan for themselves in the lead-up to supervisory meetings, and then take seriously the criticisms and suggestions made by their supervisors - rejecting them only if they can meet the objection with arguments which persuade the supervisor around to the student's point of view. In many cases the supervisory process takes the form of an ongoing collegial discussion, in which the supervisor may raise various objections. These points may anticipate the sort of objections which the supervisor suspects will be raised by external assessors and other workers in the field. Such criticisms invite students to develop further their methodology and arguments.

Ethical Approval
Human research conducted by staff and students is monitored by the university's Human Research Ethics Committee, supported by school and faculty ethics committees, or in some cases ethical review bodies outside the university. All work with animals is monitored by the University of Waikato Animal Research Ethics Committee. Students undertaking research with human or animal subjects should consult their supervisor(s) about the ethical approval process, and obtain ethical approval where necessary. Failure to do so may result in failure of the project.

Word limits
The word length of a graduate research project will depend to some extent on the type of project. The word limit guidelines for graduate projects are as follows: for a one paper directed research project, 7500 words; for a two paper dissertation, 15000 words; for a four paper thesis 30000 words. The word limit for an MPhil thesis is 50000 words, and for a DPhil thesis, 100000 words. These are upper limits, and for theses in particular it is generally better to write less than the maximum.

Students must submit to the Academic Services Division three copies of any dissertation or thesis, formatted and bound according to University of Waikato requirements. These requirements are set out in the Calendar, and the University Library has produced a Guide to the Presentation of Theses', available from the Library information desk. Some departments have additional requirements on thesis presentation, and students should make sure they are aware of these by consulting their supervisors.

Most sections pay for the production of one of the three copies of each thesis, which is added to the programme's collection after assessment is completed. The final deadline for submission of graduate research projects such as directed studies reports, dissertations and theses, is the fourth Friday of February in the following year (i.e., the fourth Friday of February 2000 for a thesis undertaken in 1999). In exceptional circumstances a limited extension of up to three weeks may be granted by the Dean.

Submission by the end of February deadline is too late, however, for students to be able to graduate in the April graduation ceremonies. Students who wish to have a good chance of graduating in April should submit their research projects by the end of November in the preceding year.

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Resources for Students