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Annual Report 1997: Undergraduate School 1996-1997


Review by the Director

Role of the Undergraduate School

The Undergraduate School is run by a member of the academic staff serving as Director (currently Dr Tim Bayliss-Smith), and more importantly by a full-time Secretary (Mrs Veronica Forbes) who manages the work of the School and its office on a day-to-day basis. The School organises the Department's teaching programme for the Geographical Tripos, including the timetable, coursework, visiting lecturers, and the production of the Course Guide. The teaching programme is discussed and approved by the academic staff at the annual Teaching Meeting, which is chaired by the Director and takes place during the Easter Term.

There is also an Undergraduate School Committee which serves as a link between staff and students, and holds meetings every term. The undergraduate representation on this committee was enlarged in 1997 to a total of five members. One person represents each year group (Part IA, Part IB, Part II), one person is the Faculty Board student representative, and one is a committee member of the Cambridge University Geographical Society.

Changes in the Tripos

In one sense 1996-97 was a year of consolidation as there were no changes which took effect during the year in the structure of the Geographical Tripos. However, a number of future reforms were discussed many of which were approved at staff meetings. The approved reforms will begin to take effect in 1997-98 and in the following year, 1998-99. The changes (in addition to those reported last year) include a streamlining in the Part II teaching programme, involving a reduction in the number of papers offered from (in effect) 22 to 15, a decision to require students to take only four rather than five of these papers, and an agreement to require that students in future should submit a somewhat more substantial dissertation in their final year, with a minimum of 8,000 and a maximum of 10,000 words.

These changes can be seen as part of a general shift that has occurred throughout the Geographical Tripos towards placing more weight on the submitted course work and therefore rather less weight on the written examination papers. In each part of the Tripos the submitted work will amount in future to a significant proportion of the total marks:

Part IA
Four submitted practical exercises each 2000 words in length
22% of the total
Part IB
Three submitted practical exercises each 2000 words in length, and one 4000 word Open Book essay
25% of the total
Part II
One 10,000 word dissertation
25% of the total

The changes do involve an extra burden for staff in terms of teaching, examining and administration. However we believe the reforms are worthwhile because of the gain for students in terms of the quality and diversity of the course that we offer, and in terms also of the fairness of the examination outcome.

Residential field classes

A pattern has now become established whereby one of the three Part IB projects that each student has to submit for Tripos assessment derives from work carried out by that student during a residential field class in the Easter vacation. Residential field classes have a very long history in the Department, but until the 1980s most destinations were within Britain and attendance was optional. In the 1980s, partly for reasons of cost, most classes began to be held abroad, and since 1995 we have made participation in these classes compulsory for all Part IB students. Some part of the work done by the undergraduates on the field class must be written up by them on an individual basis, and becomes an exercise submitted in the Easter Term for Tripos assessment.

These changes have been popular among the undergraduates, and we believe their effects have also been very positive in educational terms, althought the added burden for the teaching staff is not insignificant. To make numbers in each group more manageable, three trips are run each Easter vacation. Each field class therefore consists of 30-35 students and usually three staff members. The students are allocated to one of three destinations, which since 1995 have been as follows:
1.
2.
3
Easter vacation 1995:
Algarve
Crete
Netherlands
Easter vacation 1996:
Algarve
Crete
Mallorca
Easter vacation 1997:
Aeolian Islands, Italy
SE Spain
Malta

Each field class covers a range of topics in physical and human geography, and aims to teach whatever skills are necessary for carrying out a particular field investigation, ranging from topographic surveying to questionnaire design. It is hoped that some of the skills transferred will help to prepare the student so that he or she can successfully carry out a similar but larger-scale investigation for the Part II dissertation.

The Part II dissertation

The compulsory dissertation is, like residential fieldwork, a very long-established feature of the Geographical Tripos. Because of the structural reforms agreed during 1997, the third-year dissertation will in future be given even more prominence than hitherto in the overall asessment of Part II. It is an opportunity for each student to carry out an independent investigation based on geographical ideas and methods acquired during the course of the Tripos. The Department imposes very little constraint on either the topic chosen or the location of the study, other than restrictions that are felt to be desirable on grounds of the intellectual merits of the project, its feasibility, logistics, and questions of safety.

Many undergraduates in recent years have chosen to locate their dissertation outside the UK, using it as an opportunity to extend their experience of overseas travel. These overseas dissertations are often in Europe or the USA but in some cases they involve travel to very far-flung destinations. To quantify this trend we have analysed the dissertation topics of 386 Part II candidates over the four years 1994-97. The results show that a majority (55%) choose to do their work outside the UK, often elsewhere in Europe (12%) or in North America (11%). A substantial number (30%) opt to travel to less developed countries particularly in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, where they carry out dissertations mainly in the fields of contemporary human geography and environment and development (see the Figure overleaf).

Teaching is provided in the first two years of the Tripos which prepares students for the dissertation by helping them to acquire skills in research design, data analysis and report presentation, including IT skills and computing. In addition the Part IB field classes (see above) provide some further hands-on training. The dissertation itself, however, is unsupervised although students receive help from Directors of Studies to formulate an initial proposal and they are urged to seek specific technical assistance where appropriate. In view of the widespread nature of both topics and destinations, we believe our policy of non-supervision is both realistic and fair. In any event the Tripos examiners generally comment that the final outcome is of an acceptable standard even in research terms, and that in many cases the results are even excellent. It was pleasing to note that in 1997 one student, Laura Coates (F), was awarded a national prize (the Historical Geography Research Group and Cambridge University Press Dissertation Prize) for her dissertation entitled "A Monstrous Regiment: the Historical Geography of the Women's Suffrage Movement".

Dr T.P. Bayliss-Smith
Director, Undergraduate School

Geographical Tripos Statistics 1996-1997

Distribution of Tripos Results by Class
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993

PART IA
1
6
7%
5
5%
3
3%
5
5%
7
8%
2.1
48
57%
53
58%
56
58%
51
55%
39
47%
2.2
30
36%
34
37%
36
37%
34
37%
32
39%
3
0
0%
0
0%
2
2%
2
2%
5
6%
Ordinary
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Total
84
92
97
92
83

PART IB
1
10
11%
4
4%
5
6%
7
9%
7
7%
2.1
57
63%
60
61%
59
68%
50
61%
62
59%
2.2
21
23%
31
32%
23
26%
23
28%
36
34%
3
2
2%
3
3%
0
0%
2
2%
0
0%
Ordinary
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Total
90
98
87
82
105

PART II
1
15
15%
12
14%
11
13%
11
10%
7
9%
2.1
64
63%
57
65%
56
68%
71
68%
51
65%
2.2
20
20%
16
18%
16
19%
23
22%
20
25%
3
2
2%
3
3%
0
0%
0
0%
1
1%
Ordinary
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Total
101
88
83
105
79

Gender Breakdown of Tripos Results 1997

Gender
1
2.1
2.2
3

PART IA
Female
3
7%
25
56%
17
38%
0
0%
Male
3
8%
23
59%
13
33%
0
0%
Total
6
7%
48
57%
30
36%
0
0%

PART IB
Female
6
13%
32
67%
9
19%
1
2%
Male
4
10%
25
60%
12
29%
1
2%
Total
10
11%
57
63%
21
23%
2
2%

PART II
Female
8
14%
36
64%
12
21%
0
0%
Male
7
16%
28
62%
8
18%
2
4%
Total
15
15%
64
63%
20
20%
2
2%