Graduate School of Humanities

Faculty of Humanities

Tutorials
Research MA students can take three types of tutorials:
1. Literature tutorial
2. Archive tutorial
3. Internship or research tutorial

Literature Tutorial
Literature tutorials are intensive, intellectually stimulating seminars on topics in which the tutor
is an expert. Tutorials are usually initiated by members of staff, but may also be proposed by
students, provided they can find a suitable supervisor. Together with the core courses and the
electives, tutorials help prepare students for the task of writing a research MA thesis and/or help
students explore a new field in depth. More so than in core courses and electives, the vast
majority of the work is to be done by the students themselves. Students may in principle take
tutorials in all departments of the Faculty of Humanities provided that they can demonstrate
sufficient background of the subject at hand and there are places available.

Archive Tutorial
Archive tutorials constitute opportunities for students to investigate a corpus of material, either
from a digital source or from a “real” archive, under the supervision of the tutor. The tutorial is
task-oriented, charging the student with the responsibility of identifying the potential research
value of a particular corpus in relation to particular questions and issues that are defined by the
tutor and the student. As in the case of the literature tutorial, the work is chiefly conducted by
the student and not the tutor. The tutorial is designed to strengthen the research skills of the
student in how to deal with primary sources. Students may in principle take tutorials in all
departments of the Faculty of Humanities provided that they can demonstrate sufficient
background of the subject at hand and there are places available.

Internship or Research Tutorial

Internship tutorials have to be research-related and should be, as much as possible, in line with
the specific research interest of the student.

Within a research internship the student participates within existing research projects in the
university in order to develop professional research skills. Students gain a general knowledge
and broad understanding of how academic research projects function. Under the guidance of a
supervisor the student will conduct a well-defined part of the project’s research (e.g. archival
research, data-analysis, methodology training, etc). He/ she will be trained in processing and
communicating research results to his fellow researchers. He/she can take a part in the
organisation of conferences, colloquiums, seminars, etc.

As long as the internship is research-based, the student can also do an internship in cultural
institutions such as museums, archives, media institutions, performing arts institutions etc.
Within this practical internship with research component, the intern gains a general knowledge
and broad understanding of how a particular cultural institution functions. Under the guidance of
a supervisor, the intern participates in the on-going research of the institution, completes specific
projects or portions of larger institutional research-initiatives.

The content and length (6 ECTS credits or 12 ECTS credits) of the tutorial depends on the
demands of the research project or cultural institution.

The following goes for all three types of tutorials, unless otherwise specified:

Tutors responsibility
The tutor’s responsibilities are:
• To make at start clear arrangements at the start about the details and workload of the
tutorial;
• To make clear at the start which end product is expected, how this will be assessed, and
if the student will receive a grade of a pass/fail;
• To help focus the student’s research topic;
• To guide the student to relevant literature, films, TV-programmes, websites, archives or
other pertinent sources of information or potential corpora for research;
• To give feedback on intermediate reports by students on the sources studied;
• To comment on and mark the final paper.

Extra in case of an external internship:

the programme director’s responsibilities are:
• To discuss the workload and content of the internship with the institution involved and
the student;
• To make sure and internship agreement is signed (see appendix A).

Student’s responsibility
• To approach a prospective tutor before the semester starts;
• To make clear arrangements about the details and workload of the tutorial;
• To prepare the agreed upon work before each tutorial meeting;
• To write a final paper (or other end-product mutually agreed upon by tutor and student)
before the end of the semester.

Extra in case of an external internship

• To find a suitable institution for the internship tutorial;
• To discuss content and workload of the internship tutorial with both the programme
director and the institution;
• To make sure and internship agreement is signed (see appendix A).

Registration
Students are to contact the tutor whose tutorial they want to take by mailing him/her.
There is no enrolment for tutorials via SIS- the Student information System.
The deadline for contacting the tutor is Monday 12:00 before the first week of the semester. If a
tutor receives too many requests he/she may ask the student to hand in a motivation letter.
Admission is at the tutor’s discretion, and there is no ‘waiting list’ system for the next year.

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Format of a tutorial
Although tutorials are bound to differ because of the nature of the materials to be studied and
because tutors have their own preferred mode of working, the following ‘blueprint’ specifies the
prototypical modus operandi of a tutorial.
• A tutorial consists of four to six meetings lasting between 30-90 minutes (depending on
the nature of the activities and the number of participants) each.
• Students hand in or mail short reports to the tutor about the agreed reading material (or
viewing, or other activity agreed upon in advance) before each tutorial. These reports are
the starting point for the discussions during the tutorial.
• The amount of reading to be done for the tutorial is at least 800 pages – or an equivalent
task, to be agreed upon in advance by tutor and student.
• The final report or paper is 15-20 pages long . A 6 ECTS credits Tutorial paper should
typically be 2500-3000 words, a 12 ECTS credits tutorial paper should typically be
5000-6000 words).
• The tutor always discusses the final paper, after grading it, with the student.

Grading and credits

If a tutor is not satisfied by the work done by the student and cannot give a sufficient mark (6.0
or higher) for the final paper at the end of the semester, the student has one opportunity to
redeem this deficiency. Tutor and student mutually agree on the moment the revised version of
this paper is to be handed in, but this usually is no later than one month after the insufficient first
version was returned. If the tutor is still not satisfied after this revised version, the student will
receive no course credits, and will have to do another tutorial.
Please note that a tutorial is not necessarily on offer each year, due for instance to a tutor’s
sabbatical leave.

Number of students
A tutorial will typically have between one and five students, although slightly larger groups
(with a maximum of 9) do sometimes occur. Students are encouraged to find at least one other
student a tutorial, as small group discussions benefit all involved. If a tutorial has less than five
students enrolled in the same research master’s, students from other research MA’s may join a
tutorial, at the discretion of the tutor. Whether there are ‘vacancies’ in a specific tutorial will
usually be clear very briefly before the beginning of a semester.

Timetables
In principle a tutorial begins in the first week of a semester and ends before the semester has
ended. Tutorials are offered once a year, so students should check in which semester a tutorial
they wish to take is scheduled. Time slots for tutorials are determined by the tutor, in
consultation with the students that have successfully applied for the tutorial.

Study material and Costs

Will vary

Exam
Assignments, research tasks, and final paper

Credits
6 ECTS credits equal a workload of 168 hours. 12 ECTS credits equal a workload of 336 hours.

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