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POSTGRADUATE COURSES
- General Information
Who may attend
Courses are available to all students
who are accepted and registered for the Politics postgraduate
programmes. Your selection of courses would need to be
approved by your programme convenor at registration time.
Courses are also available to Honours and Masters
students registered for other postgraduate programmes
within UCT.
Qualified occasional students may
also apply for entry into courses, subject to the entry
requirements of particular courses. These may be
local applicants who wish to register for single, "once-off" courses, or
Semester Study Abroad students who want to do one or more courses
with us
during their semester at UCT. Provision is made for this in
the application form. The term used is "Occasional
Postgraduate", and the application code is SSHZ02. Semester
Study Abroad students apply under the codes SSHZ91 or 2, depending
on whether they are studying in the first or second semesters.
Study-abroad students who are in their 4th year
of undergraduate study may be permitted to enrol for our
postgraduate courses at the discretion of the course convenor,
provided the class is not over-subscribed.
Please note that in
instances where classes are heavily subscribed, it is departmental
policy to give Politics degree programme students preference.
2-Year Cycle
Departmental
courses are offered on a 2-year cycle.
While some courses
(usually cores) repeat every year,
there are some that will only be held every alternate year.
Other courses may only be held occasionally, depending on lecturer
availability.
For an idea of our course cycle, see
here.
Duration of courses
Courses take place over one semester and comprise
typically a series of 2- to 3-hour seminars once a week over the
course of 10 to 12 weeks
(total duration per course is 24 hours). Some are taught in "block" format
over a shorter period - although this is the
exception, not the norm.
Assessment
Marks assessment is through the submission of a
major assignment and/or examination, and may also include marks for
participation, presentations, reports, tests or minor assignments.
4000- and
5000-level courses:
FAQ: Must Honours students take only 4000-level
courses and Masters only 5000-level courses?
There is a degree
of flexibility when it comes to this. Subject to the
entry requirements of individual courses and the requirements of the
programme for which they are enrolled, Honours students may take a
maximum of two 5000-level courses (the remainder should be at
4000-level) and Masters students may take a maximum of two
4000-level courses (the remainder should be at 5000-level).
Minimum
enrolment numbers
Except for the designated and compulsory programme
core courses all core electives and elective options are offered
conditional on a minimum number of students registering for the
course.
Core Courses, Core Electives,
Approved Electives - explanation
This information is applicable for students who are registered
for a specific degree programme.
In order
to provide for a general grounding in particular areas of concentration
some courses are designated as programme core courses or
core electives. These typically function as courses which
provide a general orientation or survey of core disciplinary areas
at a relatively advanced level. Other courses are available as
elective options, and may include more specialised or interdisciplinary
courses.
Typically, the coursework component of a programme
(at both Honours and Masters level) comprises 4
courses - of which there must be at least one
core course and the remainder from the
approved electives/cores.
For
specific information pertaining to your programme's core course,
core elective and elective option requirements, see the individual
programme listings.
External Courses - other departments;
other universities
Students who are registered for a Politics
degree programme may also elect to take approved courses offered by other cognate departments [Historical Studies,
Sociology etc].
Details of these courses may be found on other departments’ websites.
Programme students may have the option,
upon motivation with the programme convenor and after faculty
approval, to take up to two courses in the
Politics
departments of the University of Stellenbosch and the
University of the Western
Cape. Details of their courses may be
found on these departments’ websites.
Timetabling/scheduling
and distance learning
No evening classes
Provisional timetables for our courses are made
available towards the end of the previous year and are confirmed by
the start of each semester - sometimes in
consultation with students. Seminars are
set during normal day-time hours (i.e. no evening classes).
Some classes run from 4 to 6pm.
Distance learning
The department does not offer distance
learning/courses via correspondence.
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