1. General Information
1.1 Welcome to the School of Medical Sciences
Welcome to your Postgraduate Taught Programme in the School of Medical Sciences within the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester. The University has a worldwide reputation based on high quality teaching and research, and I am sure that your programme will provide a solid foundation for your future career success.
Within the School and the wider Faculty, our goal is to create an environment that allows you to excel and reach your full potential. Offering access to first-class facilities and strong links with regional health-service providers, our postgraduate programmes are designed to meet the diverse needs of all our students. The curriculum of our taught programmes provides the knowledge and skills you will need in your subject area and all our Masters programmes include an opportunity to carry out an independent research project on topics spanning all areas of biomedical research from molecular to experimental biology and clinical medicine. While subject areas cover a broad range, all our taught programmes have two common aims:
- To develop your skills in your chosen field of study
- To enhance your knowledge within the field you have chosen. Whether you are a graduate, professional or have a clinical background, the programmes have been tailored to meet your specific needs.
As a student of the School of Medical Sciences, you will be expected to take responsibility for your degree, within a supportive environment that fosters your development and helps prepare you for your future career. This handbook will be a useful resource as you progress through your programme. It provides programme-specific information that I am sure that you will find helpful throughout your study. If however, you have questions or would like some further advice, please do not hesitate to contact the people listed in this handbook for further information and assistance.
I wish you every success as you embark upon your programme, and in your future career.
Dr Carol Yates
Director of Postgraduate Taught Education
School of Medical Sciences
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health
1.2 Welcome to the MSc in History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Welcome to the University of Manchester. Having chosen the HSTM programme, you will know the key role of science, technology and medicine (STM) in modern life, from global politics to the food on our tables. This programme uses history to explore how STM knowledge and practices emerged, why they hold their current status, and how they shape and are shaped by other human activities.
The HSTM pathway explores not only the past, but the present and future implications of the relationship between STM and wider society. You will take several classes alongside students on our Science Communication programme, learning about dialogues between STM experts and other audiences, from ‘general publics’ to elite policymakers.
Through the taught classes, discussion seminars and assessments on this programme, you will develop your analytical and presentational skills, and by writing a dissertation, you will make an original contribution to HSTM. Those skills will also help you in many fields of work where an understanding of the dynamics of STM and contemporary societies is required. Past graduates have gone on to careers in academic research, publishing, museums, libraries, public policymaking, teaching and industry.
The course should challenge you. It will make you think in new ways about STM and society, and should make you confront strongly held views. And it will demand considerable self-motivation and energy as you engage with other students and your teachers. But we hope you will also find it a richly rewarding and enjoyable experience.
You will find the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine a friendly and supportive environment, and we encourage you to take a full part in the intellectual and social life of the department. More details of CHSTM are given on the following pages. Please drop in to talk with me about any questions or concern you might have over the course of the year. I look forward to seeing you soon!
Dr Duncan Wilson, Programme Director
Senior Lecturer
Staying Safe – Covid-19
Feeling prepared and equipped at the present time inevitably brings thoughts of health and safety. We have followed the advice from Universities UK, Public Health England and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to make sure our campus is a safe and happy environment for you to start your studies.
When arriving on campus, you’ll notice the changes we’ve made to keep everyone safe. For example, our buildings will have clearly marked entry and exit points; we’ll be asking everyone to sanitise or clean their hands immediately on entry; and markings on floors, stairwells and doors will help maintain social distancing.
Read our detailed safety guidance here.
As part of our University’s commitment to keep all staff and students safe we are strongly recommending everyone on campus to download the NHS COVID-19 app
It’s important for everyone to follow the guidelines on campus to keep themselves and others safe. We have faith that all members of our University community will do the right thing. You can politely remind people of the guidelines if they aren’t following them. If you still have concerns, you can report these to our COVID-19 team via Covid-info@manchester.ac.uk
Breaches of COVID-19 guidelines may be subject to University disciplinary action.
Our ‘Staying Safe’ microsite outlines the safety measures that are in place as well as useful information regarding:-
- Face Coverings
- What to do if you, or someone you live with, has COVID-19 symptoms
- How to register with a GP (doctor)
- Keeping yourself and your neighbours safe off campus (incl. local restrictions and consequences for breaking the rules)
- Health and wellbeing support
- Financial Support
Student Frequently Asked Questions is regularly updated online but if you can’t find what you are looking for, please contact your school as soon as possible.
1.3 Points of Contact
| Programme Director | Dr Duncan Wilson 2.24 Simon Building University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL Tel. 0161 275 0561 e-mail: duncan.wilson@manchester.ac.uk |
| Programme Administrator | Annette Haworth Postgraduate Administrator School of Medical Sciences, Coupland 3 Building University of Manchester Manchester M13 9PL Tel: 0161 306 2422 e-mail: hstm.pgt@manchester.ac.uk |
| MSc HSTM Student Representative | To be appointed by students after registration. |
| eLearning support | eLearning support deals with queries relating to Blackboard and online submissions. The easiest way to make contact is by e-mail to the central address, elearning@manchester.ac.uk. Always enter “FBMH eLearning: MSc HSTM” in the email subject header to make sure the request reaches the right team quickly. Further information on FBMH eLearning can be found here. |
| General IT support |
Contact IT Services via the Support Centre, or call the Service Desk on 0161 306 5544 (or internal extension 65544). |
1.5 Introductory Courses
All students are automatically enrolled onto an introductory unit that provides information on health and safety, academic malpractice and academic literacy. Completion instructions for each of these sections are clearly defined within the course. Completion of the academic malpractice and health and safety sections is mandatory for all students. All assessments must be completed as soon as possible after the programme begins, with the academic malpractice assessment completed before the first piece of coursework is submitted. Completion of these assessments is monitored by the School. All students are also strongly advised to complete the academic literacy section.
Academic Success Programme
You’re studying at the University of Manchester – congratulations! Writing and speaking Academic English can be challenging, even for native speakers. Our team of experienced tutors are here to support you, and will help boost your confidence to work independently in English through a series of interactive workshops - freely available to all University of Manchester students.
To find out more, and to register, please go to www.manchester.ac.uk/academicsuccessprogramme
The Academic Writing workshops are delivered via live synchronous video sessions, and offer faculty-specific support covering both the basics and the finer points of good academic writing. The sessions are interactive and encourage small group work to solve problems and edit texts. Our Academic Grammar workshops are also online and open to students from all faculties. They include the fundamentals of good sentence structure as well as more subtle ways of showing nuance and emphasis.
There are also self-study resources available via our Blackboard community – details, and registration, is via the “Online Resources” link.
Should you have further queries, please email academicsuccess@manchester.ac.uk
1.6 Health and Safety
Before you visit the University campus, please take time to read the University’s Health and Safety Policy.
1.7 Communication with Students
Please note that only Blackboard, the University e-learning platform and your allocated student university email address will be used as official communication by University staff. It is your responsibility to ensure that you can access and read email from this source.
Students are required to keep the University informed of any change to their personal circumstances such as change of name or address. Changes can be recorded by the student via their own personal online record. It is also essential to inform the Programme Administrator if you do not intend to return to the next session of the course, if, for example, you are moving away.
1.8 Security
Note that the University of Manchester cannot be held responsible for your personal property, even when you are on campus. Please keep your belongings with you at all times. Items left unattended may be removed and destroyed, or damaged without warning, by University Security Services.
2. Overview of the Programme
2.1 Introduction to CHSTM
Your programme is developed and run by members of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM). CHSTM was founded in 1986 and is the largest research and teaching group of its kind in the UK. Based in the Simon Building on the Brunswick Park site, CHSTM is home to around 15 lecturers and research associates, a PhD student research community, the MSc programmes in HSTM and Science Communication, an undergraduate programme in Biology with Science and Society, and option teaching across the University.
CHSTM’s research and teaching ranges broadly across the sciences, technology, engineering, medicine and healthcare, with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and on the relevance of recent history to present-day policy and understanding. This approach is integrated with our work in science communication studies, looking at how science is described and understood by, and for, non-expert audiences.
All CHSTM staff and students are members of the Division of Medical Education in the School of Medical Sciences (SMS), one of three Schools within the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (FBMH). Our subject coverage ranges significantly beyond these fields, but we benefit from connections with medical colleagues through projects such as the University’s Museum of Medicine and Health.
2.2 Who’s who at CHSTM
The Director of CHSTM is Professor Pratik Chakrabarti.
An up-to-date staff list is available on our website, showing contact details and research profiles for all the teaching staff, and for several researchers who do not teach (but may be available to advise on dissertations and other projects). You’re welcome to contact any member of staff whose research area you’re interested in.
The list of research students is also on our website. As an MSc student, you’ll be assigned a PhD student mentor on arrival. It’s worth getting to know the other PhD students and finding out more about their work, particularly if you think you might be interested in going on to PhD study yourself.
2.3 Programme Aims
The aims of the MSc (taught Master’s), Postgraduate Diploma, and Postgraduate Certificate in History of Science, Technology and Medicine are:
- to provide an introduction to the main issues and themes of the history and historiography of science, technology and medicine within a wider social, cultural and political context, including communication between specialists and non-specialists
- to provide an opportunity and open access to study particular topics of historical and contemporary significance in depth
- to encourage and support the development of analytical skills in understanding the changing form and function of science, technology and medicine in society
- to encourage and support the development of transferable writing and presentational skills of the highest standard, and thereby prepare students for further academic study or employment
- to provide a comprehensive introduction to research methods in the history of science, technology and medicine, science communication, and medical humanities, including libraries, archives, databases and oral history
In addition, the full MSc (taught Master’s) programme aims
- to produce students capable of completing a major piece of individual research and writing in the form of a dissertation, or, optionally on the Medical Humanities award pathways, a portfolio of creative work with scholarly commentary
2.4 Overview of Programme Structure
The MSc programme runs for 12 months full-time, or 24 months part-time, from September to September. It normally includes 45 weeks of full-time tuition, starting with registration in the third week of September. Lectures and seminars are generally given during the scheduled University teaching weeks in September to December and February to May. Please note that some optional course units may occasionally be scheduled outside of normal semester time. Tuition is not normally given over the Christmas, New Year or Easter holiday periods.
Teaching on the standard programme pathway consists entirely of courses delivered by the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. There is also a variant pathway, HSTM with Research Methods, designed for students funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. This variant substitutes 30 credits’ worth of CHSTM classes for methods training courses run by colleagues in the School of Social Sciences.
Contact teaching will consist of lectures, seminars (group discussions usually based on pre-circulated readings) and other activities including site visits. Each course unit will provide access to readings and other relevant materials through the Blackboard learning management system, which is also used for essay and dissertation submission.
The programme concludes with a research component in which students produce a dissertation under supervision. Full-time students normally begin work on the dissertation in January, for submission in early September. Part-time students normally begin work on the dissertation around the end of the first year, for submission in early September at the end of the second year.
The full Master’s programme consists of 180 taught credits, with 120 credits of taught content, usually divided into 15- or 30-credit course units, and the research dissertation counting for 60 credits. 1 credit notionally corresponds to 10 hours’ work (including classroom contact time, reading, writing, etc), so the programme overall should account for 1800 hours’ work over 12 months.
2.5 Programme Pathways
MSc History of Science, Technology and Medicine, full-time
| Credits | |
| Semester 1 | |
|
REQUIRED COURSE UNITS: all of the following
HSTM60511: Major Themes in HSTM HSTM60571: Communicating Ideas in STM HSTM60651: Historiography of STM |
30 15 15 |
| Semester 2 | |
|
OPTIONAL COURSE UNITS: 60 credits from the following HSTM60652: Decolonising History of Science* HSTM60692: Madness and Society* HSTM60702: Making Life: Biological Sciences since 1800* HSTM60682: Technology, identity and society* HSTM60712: Nature and Artifice: A History of Environmental Thought* HSTM60722: Politics of Public Health* HSTM60672: Risk: Science, Society and Culture* HSTM60662: The Nuclear Age* HSTM60732: Placement in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine Subject to approval, students may alternatively take one unit from the above list plus a total of 30 credits from the MSc Science Communication option list and/or an appropriate programme elsewhere in the University. |
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 30
|
| HSTM60632: Dissertation in HSTM | 60 |
| Total credits required for MSc | 180 |
* These units need a minimum of 3 registered students in order to run
MSc History of Science, Technology and Medicine, part-time
| Credits | |
| Semester 1 | |
|
REQUIRED COURSE UNIT:
HSTM60511: Major Themes in HSTM |
30 |
| Semester 2 | |
|
OPTIONAL COURSE UNIT: 30 credits from the following
HSTM60652: Decolonising History of Science* HSTM60692: Madness and Society* HSTM60702: Making Life: Biological Sciences since 1800* HSTM60682: Technology, identity and society* HSTM60712: Nature and Artifice: A History of Environmental Thought* HSTM60722: Politics of Public Health* HSTM60672: Risk: Science, Society and Culture* HSTM60662: The Nuclear Age* HSTM60732: Placement in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine |
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 30 |
| Semester 3 | |
|
REQUIRED COURSE UNITS: both of the following
HSTM60571: Communicating Ideas in STM HSTM60651: Historiography of STM |
15 15 |
| Semester 4 | |
|
OPTIONAL COURSE UNIT
Students will normally take 30 credits from the units listed for Semester 2. Subject to approval, students may alternatively take a total of 30 credits from the MSc Science Communication option list and/or an appropriate programme elsewhere in the University. |
30 |
| HSTM60632: Dissertation in HSTM | 60 |
| Total credits required for MSc | 180 |
* These units need a minimum of 3 registered students in order to run
MSc History of Science, Technology and Medicine with Research Methods, full-time
| Credits | |
| Semester 1 | |
|
REQUIRED COURSE UNITS: all of the following
HSTM60511: Major Themes in HSTM HSTM60571: Communicating Ideas in STM HSTM60651: Historiography of STM SOCS70511: Introduction to Quantitative Methods |
30 15 15 15 |
| Semester 2 | |
|
OPTIONAL COURSE UNITS: 30 credits from the following
HSTM60652: Decolonising History of Science* HSTM60692: Madness and Society* HSTM60702: Making Life: Biological Sciences since 1800* HSTM60682: Technology, identity and society* HSTM60712: Nature and Artifice: A History of Environmental Thought* HSTM60722: Politics of Public Health* HSTM60672: Risk: Science, Society and Culture* HSTM60662: The Nuclear Age* HSTM60732: Placement in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine Plus a total of 15 credits of qualitative research methods units from the selection offered by the School of Social Sciences. |
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 30 |
| HSTM60632: Dissertation in HSTM | 60 |
| Total credits required for MSc | 180 |
* These units need a minimum of 3 registered students in order to run
MSc History of Science, Technology and Medicine with Research Methods, part-time
| Credits | |
| Semester 1 | |
|
REQUIRED COURSE UNIT:
HSTM60511: Major Themes in HSTM |
30 |
| Semester 2 | |
|
OPTIONAL COURSE UNIT: 30 credits from the following
HSTM60652: Decolonising History of Science* HSTM60692: Madness and Society* HSTM60702: Making Life: Biological Sciences since 1800* HSTM60682: Technology, identity and society* HSTM60712: Nature and Artifice: A History of Environmental Thought* HSTM60722: Politics of Public Health* HSTM60672: Risk: Science, Society and Culture* HSTM60662: The Nuclear Age* HSTM60732: Placement in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine |
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 30 |
| Semester 3 | |
|
REQUIRED COURSE UNITS: all of the following
HSTM60571: Communicating Ideas in STM HSTM60651: Historiography of STM SOCS70511: Introduction to Quantitative Methods |
15 15 15 |
| Semester 4 | |
|
OPTIONAL COURSE UNITS
A total of 15 credits of qualitative research methods units from the selection offered by the School of Social Sciences. |
15 |
| HSTM60632: Dissertation in HSTM | 60 |
| Total credits required for MSc | 180 |
* These units need a minimum of 3 registered students in order to run
Postgraduate Diploma awards
Each MSc pathway has a corresponding Postgraduate Diploma award pathway. The course content in each case is equivalent to the taught component (Semesters 1 and 2 full-time, or Semesters 1 to 4 part-time) of the MSc, totalling 120 credits of study over 30 weeks of full-time tuition. It runs for 9 months in the case of a full-time student.
A student who initially registered for the MSc, but whose performance on the taught component does not meet the requirements for progression to a research dissertation, may exit the programme with a PG Diploma instead, provided the requirements for Diploma are met.
The Postgraduate Diploma on the “with Research Methods” pathways is only available as an exit award for an intending MSc who does not meet the requirements. The other pathways allow entry with the intention of taking a PG Diploma.
Postgraduate Certificate awards
Each pathway except the “with Research Methods” pathways has a corresponding PG Certificate award pathway, totalling 60 credits of study over 15 weeks of full-time tuition.
For full-time study, the course content is equivalent to Semester 1 of the relevant MSc programme.
For part-time study, the course content will typically be equivalent to that of Semesters 1 and 2 of the MSc. By special arrangement and with the approval of the Programme Director, a student who has undergone interruption may be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate on completion of an appropriate 60 credits from across the course (typically, Semester 1 plus Semester 3 of the MSc pathway).
2.6 Course Units
A full list of CHSTM postgraduate course units appears below, including units not normally offered on this programme, which can occasionally be taken by special arrangement: contact the Programme Director for details.
Full details of these course units will be provided in the unit outline documents available on Blackboard, or are available from the unit co-ordinators.
| MSc HSTM | |||
| Unit Code | Title | Unit Lead | Co-Lead |
| HSTM60511 | Major Themes in history of science, technology and medicine | Duncan Wilson | Pratik Chakrabarti |
| HSTM60571 | Communicating ideas in science, technology and medicine | Harriet Palfreyman | |
| HSTM60651 | Historiography of science, technology and medicine | Simone Turchetti | |
| HSTM60652 | Decolonising History of Science | Pratik Chakrabarti | |
| HSTM60692 | Madness and Society | Carsten Timmermann | |
| HSTM60702 | Making Life: Biological Sciences since 1800 | Duncan Wilson | |
| HSTM60682 | Technology, identity and society | James Sumner | |
| HSTM60712 | Nature and Artifice: A History of Environmental Thought | Vladimir Janković | |
| HSTM60722 | Politics of Public Health | Pratik Chakrabarti | Ian Burney |
| HSTM60672 | Risk: Science, Society and Culture | Elizabeth Toom | |
| HSTM60662 | The Nuclear Age | Simone Turchetti | |
| HSTM60732 | Placement in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine | Duncan Wilson | |
| HSTM60632 | Dissertation | Programme Director assigns supervisors | |
| MSc Sci Comm | |||
| Unit Code | Title | Unit Lead | Co-Lead |
| HSTM60011 | Introduction to Contemporary Science and Medicine | Elizabeth Toon | James Sumner |
| HSTM60632 | Dissertation | Programme Director assigns supervisors | |
| HSTM60561 | Introduction to Science Communication | Elizabeth Toon | Harriet Palfreyman |
| HSTM60571 | Communicating ideas in science, technology and medicine | Harriet Palfreyman | |
| HSTM60032 | Health Communication | Elizabeth Toon | |
| HSTM60582 | Museums, Science Centres and Public Events | James Sumner | Harriet Palfreyman |
| HSTM60592 | Science, Government & Public Policy | Kate Barker | Simone Turchetti |
| HSTM60602 | Science, Media and Journalism | Elizabeth Toon | Harriet Palfreyman |
| HSTM60622 | Science Communication Mentored Project | Elizabeth Toon | |
HSTM60511 Major themes in history of science, technology and medicine
Brief description
This course surveys the modern history of science, technology and medicine (HSTM), by exploring key issues and themes that have shaped their development, social relations and cultural significance, from roughly the seventeenth century to the present. Analysing these key issues in HSTM introduces students to major historiographical concerns such as relations between professionals and the broader public, the role of STM in nation building, how expertise is both established and contested, the nature and significance of controversies, colonialism and its legacies, and relations between local studies and the ‘big picture’.
The course is structured around three contact hours per week. These are divided into:
- one hour lecture on a specific theme in HSTM
- two hour seminar discussion of relevant readings
This is a team-taught course drawing on staff research interests, so the exact content may vary. However, it will generally include the following: –
- What is HSTM?
- Fashioning expertise and the ‘scientific persona’
- Science, Medicine and Gender
- Sites and Institutions
- Politics and the Nation State
- Science and Religion
- Biomedical Science and the Public
- Race
- Epidemics and Public Health
- Information Technology and Society
- Environmental Crisis
Aims
The unit aims to:
- introduce the key themes and issues in the historical development of science, technology and medicine from the early modern period to the present
- provide an integrated survey of the theoretical and historiographical approaches used in the study of the development of modern STM
- stimulate critical and informed judgment on the development of modern scientific, technological and medical knowledge
- give students a good grasp of the common features and contrasts between the history of science, history of technology and the history of medicine
- enable students to develop and practice the skills of historical research and writing.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 short response to primary and secondary literature, 1000 words: 20%
2 essays, 2000 words each: 2 x 40%
Indicative reading list
A comprehensive reading list is distributed at the beginning of the course. Useful introductory reading includes:
- Peter J Bowler and Iwan Rhys Morus, Making Modern Science: a historical survey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2005.
- Patricia Fara, Science: a four thousand year history. Oxford: OUP 2009.
- John Pickstone, Ways of Knowing: a new history of science, technology and medicine. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2000.
- Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. London: Fontana 1999.
HSTM60571 Communicating ideas in science, technology and medicine
Brief description
This assessed unit has two main roles: to provide guidance and experience in writing and oral presentation (supplementing the more basic coverage provided on zero-credit skills units), and to introduce students to a variety of approaches to research. The unit is required on the three MSc pathways in History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Medical Humanities, and Science Communication, and the case coverage will be drawn from across the disciplinary approaches covered by these programmes, with an emphasis on shared themes of expertise and communication.
The research skills element will draw on the experience and current work of local staff and research students, with sessions focusing on the application of theoretical approaches (for instance, reading for gender; the user/patient turn in history of technology/medicine; the heritage validity debate and its relevance to public presentation) and research practices (such as oral history interviewing or working with material artefacts). The communication element will focus particularly on writing and preparing talks/presentations as a developmental and iterative process, and on the need to consider and engage with multiple audiences with different priorities and preconceptions.
The exact content of the course will vary from year to year, but is likely to include some or all of the following:
Research methods
- Framing a research question
- Investigating sources and evidence
- Using visual sources
- Working with popular and fictional media
- Oral history
- Gender, identity and authority
- Geographies of knowledge
- Research ethics
Communication skills
- Writing and editing as an iterative process
- Writing for specific audiences and formats
- Oral presentation
- Engaging with public audiences
- Broadcast communication
Aims
The unit aims to:
- introduce students to key research methodologies relating to history, policy and communication in science, technology and medicine
- enable students to analyse critically key methods and techniques used by researchers
- provide students with practical insights into research and writing, through the experience of current researchers
- build awareness and skill in adapting writing and oral presentation style and technique to different audiences and formats
- develop skills in the use of material objects as sources of evidence and tools for public communication
- develop skills in drafting and editing of texts
- develop skills in oral presentation.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
One coursework assignment based on a research finding relevant to the student’s core programme/pathway: two summaries of the same material prepared for different audiences, 1500 to 2000 words total: 50%
One coursework literature review, up to 1500 words: 50%
Indicative reading list
A comprehensive reading list is distributed at the beginning of the course. Useful introductory reading includes:
- Wayne C Booth et al, The craft of research. Third edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
- William Cronon et al, “Learning to do historical research”, online at [www.williamcronon.net/researching/].
- Howard S Becker, Tricks of the trade: how to think about your research while you’re doing it. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
- Susan M Pearce, Museums, objects and collections: a cultural study. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1992.
- Sylvan Barnet et al, A short guide to college writing. Fifth edition. New York: Pearson Longman, 2013.
HSTM60651 Historiography of science, technology and medicine
Brief description
The exact content of the course will vary from year to year, but is likely to include some or all of the following:
- Introduction to HSTM historiography. Why does it matter?
- “Internal” and “external” accounts
- Idealism and materialism in HSTM
- Sociology of scientific knowledge, ANT and social construction
- Gender and sexuality in science, technology and medicine
- Borders, geography of knowledge and transnational approaches
- Controversies and their role in HSTM historiography
- Interdisciplinary approaches: ethnography, anthropology, and linguistics
- Politics of knowledge: self-reflexive appraisal of HSTM historiography and its origins.
Aims
The unit aims to:
- introduce students to key methods and sources in the history of science, technology and medicine (HSTM) and science and technology studies (STS);
- give students an understanding of changing historical, philosophical and sociological approaches to the understanding of HSTM and STS;
- enable students to analyse critically key methods and techniques used by researchers;
- give students the skills and knowledge to produce critical writing of scholarly books and articles that reveal and assess approaches, methods and techniques
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
One historiographic critique of a short HSTM article, 800 words: 30%
One essay reviewing the literature or presenting an argument on a particular historiographic problem or approach, 1500 to 2000 words: 70%
Indicative reading list
A comprehensive reading list is distributed at the beginning of the course. Useful introductory reading includes:
- Helge Kragh, An Introduction to the Historiography of Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)
- Ronald Doel and Thomas Soderqvist, eds, The Historiography of Contemporary Science, Technology and Medicine: Writing Recent Science (London: Routledge, 2006)
- Jan Golinski, Making Natural Knowledge: Constructivism and the History of Science, 2nd ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)
- Ludmilla Jordanova, Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine Between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989)
- James A Secord, “Knowledge in transit”, Isis 95 (2004): 654-672
HSTM60652 Decolonizing History of Science
Brief description
Decolonization has emerged as an important theme in contemporary intellectual and political debates. The discussions have focussed on how the colonial past that remains hidden within European intellectual traditions and institutions needs to be acknowledged. Such discussions have been important in history of science as well. The focus here has been on the need to deconstruct science as a Western/European discipline and to acknowledge the non-western and non-European contributions to it.
Efforts at developing non-European perspectives in the history of science have been as old as the discipline itself. Historians have debated about various phrases, frames and concepts such as, ‘global’, ‘colonial’, ‘circulation’ and ‘translational’ to incorporate non-European voices and contributions to modern science. Yet, history of science continues to be a Eurocentric discipline. These efforts have either failed to provide a viable alternative or have remained asides of the main narrative of science’s history, which has continued to focus on European savants, institutions, and historical and epistemological moments.
This unit will critically explore the complex relationship between European science and non-western societies and cultures that often drive these debates of decolonization. It will examine the nature of the contributions from various cultures within European science and the subsequent erasure of these. It will explore, why despite this global heritage, science remains a European discipline and what would be the modes of deconstructing that predominant narrative.
The module will be taught across six two-hour seminars, each drawing on three to four required readings and focussing on a particular topic and time-period.
Aims
This unit aims to:
- To introduce students to debates on whether science is predominantly a European discipline.
- Introduce the global history of science and its historiographical debates.
- Explore the links between imperialism and the global expansion of European science.
- Debate the various alternative frames that have been suggested to explain the global heritage of science.
- Highlight the limits of writing Global histories of science in decolonizing the history of science.
- Explore how science can be truly decolonized.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- Eve Vincent and Timothy Neale, ed., Unstable relations: Indigenous people and environmentalism in contemporary Australia (Crawley, WA: UWA Publishing, 2016).
- Bonneuil, Christophe, ‘Development as Experiment: Science and State Building in Late Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, 1930-1970’, Osiris, Vol. 15, (2000), pp. 258-281
- Chakrabarti, Pratik, Western Science in Modern India; Metropolitan Methods, Colonial Practices, 2004.
- Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. London: Tavistock Publications, 1970, chapter 5.
- Fan, Fa-ti “The global turn in the history of science.” East Asian Science, Technology and Society 6, no. 2 (2012): 249-258
- Montgomery, Scott L. Science in Translation: Movements of Knowledge through Cultures and Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
- Nandy, Ashis, Science, Hegemony and Violence: A Requiem for Modernity. Tokyo, Japan: New York: United Nations University, 1988.
- Finlay, R, ‘China, the West, and World History in Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilization in China’, Journal of World History, 2000
- Raj, Kapil, Relocating Modern Science: Circulation and the Construction of Scientific Knowledge in South Asia and Europe, 17th-19th Centuries (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2006)
- Rodrigo Arocena and Peter Senker, ‘Technology, Inequality, and Underdevelopment: The Case of Latin America, Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 28, (2003), pp. 15-33
- Scott, James C. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1998.
- Elshakry, Marwa. “When Science Became Western: Historiographical Reflections.” Isis 101.1 (2010): 98–109
- George Sarton, The History of Science and the New Humanism (New York: Holt, 1931)
HSTM60662 The Nuclear Age
Brief description
From the detonation of the first nuclear weapons over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear weapons, nuclear energy and the culture surrounding them have shaped our lives and the world in which we live. Nuclearism transformed international military, political and economic relationships. It also transformed popular culture and social life: art, literature and film as well as politics and military doctrine have all reflected and embodied the traumas of nuclear culture. This course explores the origins and development of nuclearism and nuclear culture from the wartime Manhattan Project to the 2011 accident at Fukushima Daiichi and the current debate about the renewal of Britain’s nuclear deterrent. It focuses especially on the uses of nuclear weapons as political and diplomacy device in the post-WW2 global affairs – including the politics of deterrence and the initiatives for nuclear disarmament. It also encompasses an examination of the role of nuclear weapons in shaping post-war society and culture – including the envisioning of nuclear war, of protection against nuclear weapons and socio-technical imaginaries such as “nuclear winter”. As we face claims of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, the ongoing threat of nuclear terrorism and a potential energy crisis for which some argue nuclear power is the only sustainable solution, the course also asks if history offers any help in understanding our present nuclear predicaments.
Aims
This unit aims:
- To provide an introduction to the history and politics of nuclear weapons and to the culture of the nuclear age, starting from the atomic bombing in Japan and ending with the present days concerns about the uses of atomic energy and weaponry.
- To explore the interactions of science, technology, politics, gender and cultural production in the nuclear world.
- To examine and assess the impact of the nuclear age on human affairs.
- To consider the various theories available in explaining nuclear weapons in the context of HSTM studies and the study of international relations and global affairs.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 word written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- G DeGroot, The Bomb: A History of Hell on Earth (Pimlico, 2005) [UML 623.45119/DEG].
- J Newhouse, The Nuclear Age. From Hiroshima to Star Wars (Michael Joseph, 1989) [UML 355.43/N43].
- M Mandelbaum, The Nuclear Revolution. International Politics Before and After Hiroshima (Cambridge UP, 1981) [UML 341.67/M61].
- L Freedman, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy (Macmillan, 3rd edition 2003) [UML and HD 355.43/F46].
- J.L. Gaddis, We Now Know. Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford, 1997) [UML 327/G79].
- M.J. Hogan (ed.), Hiroshima in History and Memory (Cambridge University Press, 1996) [UML 940.97144/H11].
- S Weart, Nuclear Fear: A History of Images (Harvard University Press, 1988) [UML 621.039/W8].
- J Isaacs and T. Downing, Cold War (Bantam Press, 1998) [UML HD 909/I7].
HSTM60672 Risk: Science, Society and Culture
Brief description
This course considers how ideas, understandings, and practices around risk have become essential to modern science, technology and medicine, and thus human life. It begins by considering how mathematical and statistical thinking were employed in economics, and how quantified understandings of risk have been deployed by experts to explain, guide and interpret human fates in the natural and social world. Drawing on history and sociology of STM and science and technology studies, we begin in the late eighteenth century and continue up to the present day.
As this is a specialist unit, the exact coverage will vary from year to year depending on staff availability and current debates in the field.
Aims
This unit aims to
- introduce students to the history of ideas about, understandings of, and practices regarding risk, especially as they have been conditioned by science, technology and medicine.
- develop understanding of how and why past experts have assessed risks and how everyday people have conceptualised risk and scientific thinking about it in their own lives
- encourage students to consider both expert conceptions of risk and lay experiences of risk in broader historical, sociological and anthropological contexts
- promote appreciation of how science, technology and medicine have interacted to produce risk thinking as a feature of modern life
- develop students’ skills in analysing and discussing primary and secondary literature relating to the history of risk in science, technology and medicine
- enhance students’ research and essay-writing skills, and provide suitable grounding for dissertation research into history of science, technology and medicine; science and health communication; history; sociology; and health sciences.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 word written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- Allan et al., eds. Environmental Risks and the Media (2000)
- R Aronowitz, “The Converged Experience of Risk and Disease” Milbank Quarterly 2009
- U Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (1992)
- A Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (1990)
- I Hacking, The Taming of Chance (1990)
- S Hilgartner, Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama (2000)
- A Irwin, “Risk, Science and Public Communication: Third order thinking”, in Trench, B & Bucchi, M (eds.), Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology (2008)
- SL Jain, Injury: The Politics of Product Design and Safety Law in the US (2006)
- I Lowy, Preventive Strikes: Women, Precancer, and Prophylactic Surgery (2010)
- G Markowitz and D Rosner, Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution (2002)
- C Novas and N Rose, “Genetic risk and the birth of the somatic individual,” Economy and Society 2000
- P Slovic, ‘Perception of Risk,’ Science (1987)
HSTM60682 Technology, Identity and Society
Brief description
This course addresses the history of technological development and its relationship with identity in human societies, in a variety of forms, from technological modernity as a rallying point for political nationalists, to fears of technology as an unstoppable force erasing basic human values, to the interpretation of former industrial sites and their legacies as a platform for community engagement. It pays special attention to how technology has been represented, both factually and fancifully, and how people have responded to these representations over time and in a variety of situations around the world. Coverage begins in the late nineteenth century, as the classic myth of the heroic “inventor” was being forged, and continues up to the present day.
As this is a specialist near-research unit, the exact coverage will vary from year to year depending on staff availability and current debates in the field.
Aims
This unit aims to
- introduce students to the interplay between technological development and identity within communities and social orders, from the late nineteenth century to the present day
- develop understanding of the infrastructural role of technology, including the power relations and value judgments embedded in ‘neutral’ or ‘inevitable’ developments
- encourage students to assess futurological predictions, fantasies, hopes and fears in terms of their influence on interpretations, definitions of options, and policy decisions in real-world technological change
- promote appreciation of the influence of everyday, unglamorous and ‘invisible’ technologies alongside prestigious and deliberately striking ‘high technology’, and of the fact that technological development and applications are global phenomena, whose manifestations in the global South have historically been under-explored
- develop students’ skills in analysing and discussing primary and secondary literature relating to the history of technology and its representations
- enhance students’ research and essay-writing skills, and provide suitable grounding for dissertation research into the history of technology.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 word written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- James C Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
- Martha Lampland and Susan Leigh Star, eds, Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.
- Christine MacLeod, Heroes of Invention: Technology, Liberalism and British Identity, 1750-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- David Edgerton, The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900. London: Profile, 2006.
- Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave. New York: Basic Books, 1983.
- Ruth Oldenziel and Karin Zachmann, eds., Cold War Kitchen: Americanization, Technology and European Users. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2009.
- Mark Edmonds, “When they come to model Heaven: Big Science and the monumental in post-war Britain,” Antiquity 84 (2010), 774-795.
- Bryan C Taylor and Brian Freer, “Containing the nuclear past: the politics of history and heritage at the Hanford Plutonium Works,” Journal of Organizational Change Management 15 (2002), 563-588.
- C Dianne Martin, “The myth of the awesome thinking machine”, Communications of the ACM 36 (1993), 120-133.
- Eden Medina, Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2011.
- Amanda Rees and Iwan Rhys Morus, eds, Osiris volume 34, “Presenting Futures Past”, 2019.
HSTM60692 Madness and Society in the Modern Age
Brief description
This unit explores the history of mental illness from the late eighteenth century to the present. It examines how insanity has been understood, treated, and represented within larger social, cultural, and intellectual frameworks; it will also relate changing ideas about and approaches to mental illness, health, and functioning to larger questions in the history of the medical and biological sciences. Our focus will be on developments in Britain, but with frequent reference to developments in Continental Europe and in North America. Topics include: the rise of the asylum in the 19th century; scientific and popular understandings of mental illness since 1800; race and gender in relation to mental illness; biological and surgical therapies; the relationship of psychiatry to the rest of medicine; discourses around mental health since the Second World War and the decline of the asylum.
Aims
This unit aims to:
- provide students with an overview of the major changes in the understanding, management and meaning of mental illness from 1800 to the present;
- help students to develop an understanding of how these changes have been understood and explained by historians and social scientists;
- locate these changes in their broader social, cultural, intellectual, and political contexts;
- consider how this history has shaped contemporary debates regarding mental health, psychiatry, and neuroscience;
- develop facility in analysing and discussing relevant secondary literature and locating primary sources on the history of mental illness.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 word written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- Andrew Scull, Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity, from the Bible to Freud, from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine (London: Thames & Hudson, 2015). [Scull is one of the best-known historians in this field, and this is his latest book. You can also pick up any of his older books — there are quite a few of them]
- Edward Shorter, A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac (Chichester: Wiley, 1997). [Note the title: this is a history of psychiatry rather than of mental illness. Shorter is a great believer in progress through science, an idea that has been challenged by some critical historians of madness. That said, this is a very useful book]
- F Bynum, Roy Porter, and Michael Shepherd, eds., The Anatomy of Madness: Essays in the History of Psychiatry, Volumes 1-3 (London: Routledge, 2004). [Available as e-books through the University Library, this is a classic collection of essays originally published in 1985, providing useful introductions to many of the issues we touch on in this unit. Take a look at the table of contents when you start thinking about your essay]
- Greg Eghigian, ed., The Routledge History of Madness and Mental Health, Routledge Histories (New York: Routledge, 2017). [This more recent collection is also available online, and chapters provide useful starting points for essays]
HSTM60702 Making Life: Biological Sciences since 1800
Brief description
This unit explores the radical changes in the character of the biological sciences over the last two centuries. Students taking this module will explore the development of key concepts and theories since 1800, will analyse how sites and institutions both shape and are shaped by biological sciences, and will consider how this history has shaped contemporary debates regarding issues such as genetic engineering and CRISPR. Our geographical focus will be on developments in Britain and Continental Europe, but with frequent reference where relevant to North America.
Aims
This unit aims to:
- provide students with insight into major trends in the history of biological sciences since 1800, such as the emergence of evolutionary thinking in the nineteenth century; the rise of laboratory-based specialisms around 1900; the increasing connections between biological science and medicine; and the dominance of genetics and molecular approaches after 1945;
- help students develop an understanding of how these changes have been understood and explained by historians and social scientists;
- locate these changes in their broader social, cultural, intellectual and political contexts;
- encourage critical reflection on the importance of sites, materials and institutions in the history of biological sciences;
- allow students to develop skills in analysing and discussing relevant secondary literature and locating primary sources relating to major issues in the history of biological sciences (see unit description below for examples).
- enhance students’ research and essay-writing skills, and provide suitable grounding for dissertation research into the history of the biological sciences.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 word written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- Lynn K. Nyhart, Biology Takes Form: Animal Morphology and the German Universities, 1800-1842 (University of Chicago Press, 1995).
- Peter Bowler and Iwan Rhys Morus, ‘The New Biology’, in Making Modern Science (Cambridge University Press, 2005) pp. 165-88.
- Pietro Corsi, ‘Before Darwin: Transformist Concepts in European Natural History’, Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 38 (2005) pp, 67-83.
- Peter Bowler: Evolution: The History of an Idea (University of California Press, 2003).
- Hannah Landecker, ‘New Times for Biology: Ross Harrison and the Development of Cellular Life In Vitro’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Vol. 33 (2002) pp. 667-93.
- Robert E. Kohler, The Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life (University of Chicago Press, 1994).
- Harry Marks, The Progress of Experiment: Science and Therapeutic Reform in the United States, 1900–1990 (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
- Ilana Lowy, ‘Trustworthy Knowledge and Desperate Patients: Clinical Tests for Drugs from Cancer to AIDS’, in Margaret Lock and Alberto Cambrosio (eds), Living and Working with the New Medical Technologies: Intersections of Inquiry (Cambridge University Press, 2000) pp. 49-81.
- Gregg Mitmann, The State of Nature: Ecology, Community and American Social Thought, 1900-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 1992).
HSTM60712 Nature and Artifice: Environmental Sciences since 1800
Brief description
Nature and Artifice explores the rising institutional spread and dominance of environmental sciences in the last two centuries. Using a selection of representative primary and secondary readings, the unit will investigate the emergence of environmental models of scientific research, introduce key concepts, and provide a focused analysis of the scientific, cultural and policy ramification of the research, especially the last fifty years and in the context of the politics of environmentalism, including the contemporary issues such as energy use, pollution, environmental justice and globalization of research.
Aims
This unit aims to:
- present students with a history of key environmental sciences and environmental thinking since ca 1900; introduce origins of the environmental worldview; provide theoretical and social context for the emergence of environmental knowledge; articulate the rise of global scales in environmental thinking; problematize the notion of the ‘Anthropocene’;
- explore key specific issues in environmental science in historical context: e.g. pollution, ecosystem thinking, conservation, disaster thinking, protection, risk, sustainability development, climate and ocean change, plastic, slow violence etc
- assist students in understanding the changing problematic of environmental issues in relation to the changing social and economic circumstances; explain the methodological problems and solution to understanding the past and contemporary notions of environment
- introduce the policy relevance of environmental knowledge with emphasis on qualitative, quantitative and modelling approaches
- facilitate the analysis of key case studies of environmental issues/disasters
- allow students to develop skills in analysing and discussing relevant secondary literature and locating primary sources relating to environmental themes and sciences
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 word written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- John Sheail, An Environmental History of Twentieth-Century Britain (Basingstoke, 2002).
- Ramachundra Guha, Environmentalism: A Global History (Longmann, 2000)
- Marco Armerio, A History of Environmentalism: Local Struggles, Global Histories (Bloomsbury, 2014)
- Anna Bramwell, Ecology in the 20th century: a history (Yale University Press, 1989).
- Ulrich Beck, Towards a New Modernity (Sage, 1986).
- Deborah Lupton, Risk (Routledge, 1999).
- Aaron Wildavski Risk and Culture (University of California Press, 1983)
- Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (University of Minnesota Press, 2014)
- S Le Menager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century (Oxford University Press, 2014).
HSTM60722 Politics of Public Health
Brief description
On the eve of the UK general elections of 2019, the chief executive of the NHS, Chris Hopson made an appeal to all the political parties urging them not to politicize the NHS during the election campaign. Taking a cue from this, the unit will explore the question of politics inherent in the history of modern public health. It will explore how historically access to or even the lack of health and welfare facilities have been defined by political processes and choices. Accessing various historical and contemporary cases, this unit will establish that public health was and continues to be politically defined. This will help students interested in public health to appreciate that even the future questions of public health might depend on political processes.
Aims
This unit aims to:
- Introduce students to the idea that access to public health has been politically determined over time and across geographical locations.
- Understand the role and nature of politics in public health provision, whether in terms of grassroots movements, state initiatives, or individual initiatives.
- Examine the various political contexts which defined the emergence of modern public health.
- Explore various global cases, from Britain to China, of the political imperative in the establishment and running of public health
- Initiate discussion how the future of global and local public health similarly depends on political choices and deliberate on what those choices ought to be.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
1 x 3,000 word written assignment on course themes
Indicative reading list
- Cummins I. The Impact of Austerity on Mental Health Service Provision: A UK Perspective. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15(6):1145. Published 2018 Jun 1. doi:10.3390/ijerph15061145
- Ryan, Frances. Crippled : Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People. London ;: Verso, 2019
- Szreter, Simon. “Rethinking McKeown: the Relationship between Public Health and Social Change.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 92, no. 5, 2002, pp. 722–5.
- Colgrove, James. “The McKeown Thesis: a Historical Controversy and Its Enduring Influence.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 92, no. 5, 2002, pp. 725–9.
- Stewart, John. The Battle for Health: a Political History of the Socialist Medical Association, 1930-51.
- Murray, David Stark. Why a National Health Service? : the Part Played by the Socialist Medical Association. London, Pemberton Books, 1971
- Ziersch, A M, and F E Baum. “Involvement in Civil Society Groups: Is It Good for Your Health?” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 58, no. 6, 2004, p. 493.
- Marmot, Michael. “Fair Society Healthy Lives.” Inequalities in Health. Oxford University Press, 2013
HSTM60732 Placement in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Brief description
Students will spend a minimum of twenty days working with a placement organisation, undertaking tasks to meet a set of objectives which will be negotiated beforehand by the placement organisation and placement organiser (also module lead) at CHSTM.
Placements will be allocated on the basis of student selection, following their description in the unit handbook that will be distributed mid-way through semester one. Training will be provided before the placement commences and students will also be assigned a designated work place supervisor within the placement organisation, who will provide mentoring and feedback. The module lead or another member of CHSTM staff (i.e. someone with relevant expertise or links to the placement organisation) will act as the placement tutor and will schedule two mandatory one-to-one meetings during the course of the unit: one to check the student has started their placement and knows what they are doing; the other to discuss preparing the essay reflecting on their placement. These meetings will support monitoring and feedback on progress as well as on the development of assessment objectives. Students will also be encouraged to attend two lectures run by the Institute of Cultural Practice (ICP), on writing reflective placement reports.
During their placement students will be required to record their experience through a log, in which they record all activities undertaken for the project. Placement providers will be asked to provide a brief and informal evaluation of the placement student on completion. Both the log and evaluation will act as an aide memoir for markers, however, and students will be assessed on the quality of their written plan, presentation and reflective essay (see Section 6 below), not their performance during the placement.
Aims
The unit aims to provide:
- direct experience of a professional working environment through a placement with an outside organisation from the heritage, charitable or policymaking sectors.
- practical experience and understanding of the application of the history of science, technology and medicine (HSTM) outside academia
- enhanced vocational and transferable skills, with the opportunity for students to reflect on their own career development and appreciate the opportunities, constraints and processes of different working environments
- an opportunity to reflect on the dissemination and application of HSTM in a public and/or policy context.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
| Assessment task | Length | Weighting within unit |
|
1. Written plan and 10 minute presentation detailing work to be done on the placement, intended outcomes, and discussion of the historical problem that forms the context for the work.
2. Substantive essay reflecting on the aims and outcomes of the placement, documenting the work done and reflecting on what the student has learnt about the application of HSTM in a public and/or policy context |
1,500 words
4,500 words |
25%
75% |
Indicative reading list
- V. Berridge, ‘History Matters? History’s Role in Health Policy Making’, Medical History, vol. 52 (2008), pp. 311-26
- M. Byrne, Management and the Arts (Oxford: Focal Press, 2009).
- P. Forsyth, How to Write Reports and Proposals (London: Kogan Page, 2006).
- I. Herbert and A. Rothwell, Managing Your Placement: A Skills-Based Approach (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
- L. Jordanova, History in Practice (Second Edition: London: Hodder Education, 2006).
HSTM60632 Dissertation
Brief description
The dissertation allows students to use skills developed across the taught component of the programme in working more independently, under supervision, on an original piece of research.
The focus may (subject to supervisor availability) be on any topic covered by the student’s degree programme pathway. Depending on pathway choices, this may include the following areas:
• history of science, technology and/or medicine (STM) in any period, including the contemporary
• science and technology studies, including sociological and anthropological perspectives
• science policy studies
• innovation studies
• bioethics or medical ethics
• approaches to medicine and healthcare from a variety of disciplinary perspectives in the arts and humanities, including those of art history, classics, religious studies or theology, gender studies, philosophy, and law.
The research may extend a theme or approach addressed in one of the student’s assessed essays from the taught component, but work done towards that essay cannot count again for credit on the dissertation. If there is any overlap in content or coverage with the student’s past work, that work must be cited as a source.
Aims
The unit aims to:
- produce a substantial piece of original research, firmly grounded in the appropriate primary and secondary literature, appropriate to the student’s chosen degree programme and pathway
- present this research clearly and effectively in the form of a dissertation (thesis) following disciplinary conventions on format and structure.
Intended learning outcomes
| Category of outcome | Students should be able to: |
| Knowledge and understanding |
|
| Intellectual skills |
|
| Practical skills |
|
| Transferable skills and personal qualities |
|
Assessment
Dissertation proposal, up to 3000 words (required for progression; no formal credit)
5-minute oral presentation on proposal (required for progression; no formal credit)
Dissertation of 12 000 to 15 000 words, exclusive of bibliography, 100%
Qualitative research methods courses from the School of Social Sciences
Students on “…with Research Methods” pathways take a package delivered by the School of Social Sciences, comprising the 15-credit Introduction to Quantitative Methods plus 15 credits’ worth of qualitative methods training options. Availability varies slightly from year to year, but a typical range of option choice is as follows:
- SOCY60232 Foundational and Advanced Perspectives on Qualitative Research (10 credits)
- SOAN60892 Practising Participant Observation (5 credits)
- POLI60422 Focus Groups for Social Research (5 credits)
- SOCY70722 Narrative Analysis (5 credits)
- SOCY60192 Creative Methods (5 credits)
- SOST60512 Understanding Big Data (5 credits)
All choices must be agreed by the student’s intended PhD supervisor in consultation with the pathway co-ordinator.
The Dissertation
If you are registered for an MSc, perform successfully (i.e. to Pass level or above) on the taught part of the programme, and achieve a satisfactory dissertation proposal and oral presentation, you will be allowed to continue with the research project leading to submission of an MSc dissertation. The purpose of the dissertation/portfolio is to allow you to bring the perspectives of the course to bear on a specific topic of particular interest to you.
Given the limited amount of time available for research and the preparation, you will need to explore potential topics with potential supervisors well in advance. A list of possible topics will be circulated in November.
If you are a full-time student, you should consult with members of staff between November and January and decide on your topic. From February onward you will need to consult with your dissertation supervisor from time to time as your research gets underway, and once coursework is completed in June you should meet frequently with him/her. A complete first draft of your text should be ready by early August, so that you have sufficient time in which to get it into final shape for submission by the due date in September.
Part-time students will follow the same schedule of dissertation milestones as full-timers, during the second year of study, but are strongly encouraged to develop their dissertation ideas as far as possible during the first year, and to consult with the Programme Director and other members of staff about possible projects. Depending on individual circumstances, it may also be necessary to commence research in the summer of the first year.
Some funds are generally available to reimburse appropriately documented research costs. For more information on this, please contact the Programme Administrator. Please be aware that there is a limit on the reimbursement costs available for each student.
Full details of the requirements for the dissertation will be provided in the outline document for the dissertation course unit (HSTM60632), to be distributed early in the course.
2.7
Libraries, museums and research culture
Libraries in Manchester
The chief local resource is the University of Manchester Library, whose main site is a short walk away on the other side of Oxford Road. The UML is the UK’s largest non-legal-deposit library, with more than 4 million printed books and manuscripts. It’s also home to the University Archives.
Apart from the main site, there are ten satellite libraries on various parts of the University campus. You will probably need to use several of these at some point, so it’s worth finding out where they’re located. There’s a map on the University Library website:
http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/locations-and-opening-hours/
The John Rylands Library, Deansgate is the associated Special Collections/Rare Books and Manuscripts facility: it’s in the city centre, some distance from the main site. Deansgate holds many unique archive collections which past students have used for dissertation research. Full details are available at
http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/specialcollections/
Other local libraries worth knowing about:
- Manchester Central Library (“Central Ref”). Main City Council facility, and also home to the main archive services to the city. Important local history collections. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/centrallibrary
- Chetham’s Library. Oldest surviving public library in the English-speaking world, founded 1653. Important early book and manuscript holdings: https://library.chethams.com/
- Portico Library. Historic private subscription library (John Dalton was an early member) with a large nineteenth-century collection: http://www.theportico.org.uk/
Museums
As a student on this course you should, of course, familiarise yourself with all the local museums with an HSTM dimension – not only to learn more about the history, but to see how those museums present it to public audiences.
- Manchester Museum, Oxford Road. Part of the University. Natural history (botany, zoology, geology); anthropology and ethnology; biosciences; local artefacts. Famous collections from excavations in Egypt. http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/
- Science and Industry Museum, Liverpool Road, Castlefield. Close research links with CHSTM. Mainly engineering, physical sciences and communications; strong on transport history, working engines, textiles and the industrial city. Museum site has an interesting history as the former terminus of the world’s first passenger railway. http://msimanchester.org.uk
- People’s History Museum, Left Bank (off Quay Street), Spinningfields. Mainly history of the organised labour movement. Important social dimension for understanding industrial change. http://www.phm.org.uk/
- Imperial War Museum North, Salford Quays. One gallery dedicated to “science, technology and war”. http://north.iwm.org.uk/
CHSTM research seminars
A research seminar is a session at which a researcher gives a lecture-style presentation on his or her current work and takes questions from the audience.
Unlike your course lectures and taught seminars, which will (usually) concentrate on the older and more established research that shapes the field, research seminars feature brand-new (often unfinished) research, and will give you more of an insight into the life of a working researcher. You are welcome to attend any scheduled research seminars, and the Programme Director, Deputy Director, and other Science Communication-affiliated staff will frequently pass along notices of upcoming events and seminars that may be of interest.
CHSTM runs two main seminar series during the teaching semester:
- CHSTM Seminar (fortnightly; Tuesdays, 16.00-17.30, Room 2.57). In normal years, this seminar series takes place in person, but it is likely that it will take place online in Semester 1, on an abbreviated schedule. Our main formal series featuring invited speakers from institutions across Britain and the world, ranging from well-known senior figures to promising younger members of the profession. This is also CHSTM’s main regular social gathering. We usually adjourn for drinks somewhere after the seminar: you are encouraged to come along and meet other students, staff and the speaker.
- Lunchtime Seminar (scheduling to be announced). Organised by PhD students, this is a less formal series featuring shorter work-in-progress reports from CHSTM staff and students, and occasionally grad students from other institutions. In normal years, this seminar series takes place in person, but it is likely that it will take place online in Semester 1, on an abbreviated schedule. You are particularly encouraged to attend these sessions since they will give you not only an overview of the research going on in CHSTM, but also a sense of how to formulate a research question and then answer it. Bring a sandwich, or stay afterwards for lunch with PhD students and the speaker.
CHSTM also runs several more specialised monthly or annual seminars and speaker events. For full details, see the Seminars page on the CHSTM website.
2.8
The wider world of HSTM and Science Communication
If you’re serious about working in a relevant field – for example, as an academic researcher, a museum curator, an engagement professional or a science journalist – you need to find out as much as you can, as early as possible, about the community you will be dealing with. Teaching staff can advise on your individual needs, but here are some starting-points you should know about.
E-mail lists
Still the most common means for circulating information about jobs, studentships, conferences and public events in some fields.
- psci-com is a busy, British-focused list about science communication and public engagement with science. It’s mainly used by practitioners (people who do the actual communication, rather than necessarily studying it). https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=psci-com
- Science-in-Public is the listerv for the Science in Public Network. It primarily deals with issues related to academic science communication. https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=SCIENCE-IN-PUBLIC
- sts-grad is a list for graduate students in Science and Technology Studies (including sociologically based and policy studies, but also some HSTM and Science Communication). http://groups.google.com/group/stsgrad/about
Twitter and Facebook
Twitter is often useful to find out what’s going on in your field at the moment. Follow CHSTM on Twitter @ManCHSTM.
The CHSTM Facebook group rarely carries academic announcements, but is used by some staff, students and alumni to keep in touch. Contact Rob Kirk for access.
The hashtag #scicomm is very active on Twitter. You might also consider following #healthcomm, #scipolicy, #histSTM, #histsci, or #histmed, depending on your interests.
Professional societies and networks
Most academic disciplines have one or more organisations (“learned societies”) which publish journals, organise conferences, and otherwise promote the field. Some specialist trades, such as science writing, have professional bodies to give advice and support, or more loosely organised networks. A few suggestions:
- The PCST Network operates internationally, providing information useful to anyone studying or practising science communication. http://www.upf.edu/pcstacademy/PCST_Network/network.html
- The Science in Public Network is a UK-based society for practitioners and academics to discuss the broad field of science communication. https://scienceinpublic.org/
- The Association of British Science Writers has various resources on its website which may be useful to anyone thinking of a career in science journalism. http://www.absw.org.uk/
- The British Science Association is a learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science, and was known until 2009 as the British Association for the Advancement of Science. It runs the British Science Festival. https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/
- Stempra is a network for people involved in public relations, communications and media work focusing on science and related fields. https://stempra.org.uk/
- The Association for Medical Humanities sponsors an annual conference bringing together academics and practitioners from the UK and Ireland. http://amh.ac.uk/
- The Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research is an interdisciplinary group which acts as a hub for academic researchers in the medical humanities as well as practitioners, artists and others who may wish to collaborate. http://nnmh.org.uk/
- Various student societies at Manchester, including the Medicine in Arts Society, the Psychiatry Society and the Manchester Global Health Society have regular events incorporating the arts and humanities into healthcare and are open to new ideas and suggestions. Please ask the teaching staff and we will put you in touch.
- The British Society for the History of Science is the largest body for HSTM in the UK, and welcomes involvement by enthusiastic grad students. The annual Postgraduate Conference provides an excellent way to involve yourself in the community. http://www.bshs.org.uk/
- The Society for the Social History of Medicine is the main history of medicine society in the UK, and likewise organises postgrad-specific as well as general conferences. http://www.sshm.org/
3. Teaching, Learning and Assessment
3.1 Teaching Approaches
Contact time in class will mostly follow one of two formats:
- Lectures consist of a presentation delivered by a single lecturer, usually with slides. You are welcome to ask questions at any time during a lecture.
- Seminars are group discussion sessions, directed by a seminar leader but based on students’ independent contributions. Seminars are generally based on readings (journal articles, book chapters, etc) distributed in advance, sometimes with questions to guide your reading. You should always make notes in preparation for a seminar, and come to the class ready to discuss your views.
As the group sizes on this programme are often small, we will often blend elements of the lecture and seminar formats. Some classes are organised on a more informal basis, and some will be based on particular tasks assigned to students in advance.
Teaching staff are also happy to organise one-to-one meetings to discuss particular questions, including giving advice on essays in progress and feedback on marked essays.
The research dissertation produced in the final months of the Master’s programme will be supported by regular one-to-one meetings with a named supervisor.
3.2 Essay Writing and Assessment
Essay titles
Most courses will ask you to choose from a range of titles or subject areas. Should you wish to frame a different question, you may only do so in consultation with the course co-ordinators. Such essays must meet the stated aims of the relevant unit, and must address a specific question that you have agreed in advance. In agreeing a topic, you should discuss with the co-ordinators any previous relevant work which you may already have done on the subject, bearing in mind the rules on plagiarism (including self-plagiarism).
If you have questions about the preparation of an essay, you should consult with your unit coordinator, or the lecturer responsible for setting the title, at the earliest opportunity. The MSc Programme Director will monitor all essay topics to ensure that guidelines are observed.
Essay format and layout
Detailed guidance on essay-writing will be circulated early in the course. The general requirements are as follows:
- All submissions should be made electronically in .docx (Microsoft Word) file format, unless you have agreed permission to use another format.
- Your name must not appear anywhere in the document (including user details in the electronic version): by policy, all assessment is anonymous wherever this is practically possible.
- Your student ID number, the essay title, and the word count should all be clearly displayed on the first page.
- Your document should be formatted to A4 page size, with page margins of at least 2.5cm
- All pages should be numbered.
- Sources for all specific claims based on other work, including direct quotations and paraphrases, must be clearly attributed with conventional academic referencing. This can follow any of the major established citation guides for either documentary-note citation with footnotes or endnotes (for instance, Chicago A or MHRA) or in-text bracketed (“Harvard”) citation (for instance, Chicago B, MLA or APA). Vancouver (“author-number”) citation is not permitted.
These requirements may occasionally be varied for non-traditional coursework exercises, in which case the unit co-ordinator will provide alternative guidance.
Submission and feedback
Coursework submission is online, through the TurnitinUK interface accessed via the Blackboard learning management system. TurnitinUK provides a receipt for each successful submission. You should always aim to submit well in advance of the deadline, as technical problems are not normally accepted as mitigating circumstances for a late submission.
Essay feedback (written comments and marks) should be returned within fifteen working days (usually, three weeks in term time) of the submission deadline. Feedback is generally provided through the TurnitinUK interface using a feature called GradeMark. If you have any queries about the feedback or would like further information, you are always welcome to set up a meeting with the marker directly.
Please refer to your Blackboard unit spaces for more information regarding coursework and assessment, including submission deadlines: https://my.manchester.ac.uk/
3.3 Postgraduate Taught Degree Regulations for Students
Postgraduate Taught Degree Regulations for Students
Students should familiarise themselves with the degree regulations for Postgraduate Taught Degrees by clicking on this link http://www.regulations.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate-degree-regulations/ or reading the University document here: Introduction to the Postgraduate Degree Regulations for Students
3.4 Guidance for Presentation of Taught Masters Dissertations
The University of Manchester guidance on presentation of taught Masters Dissertations is available at:
Guidance for the presentation of Taught Masters dissertations
The guidance explains the required presentation of the dissertation, and failure to follow the instructions in the guidance may result in the dissertation being rejected by the examiners.
3.5 Turnitin and Plagiarism
Plagiarism and Other Forms of Academic Malpractice
Academic malpractice is any activity - intentional or otherwise - that is likely to undermine the integrity essential to scholarship and research. It includes plagiarism, collusion, fabrication or falsification of results, and anything else that could result in unearned or undeserved credit for those committing it. Academic malpractice can result from a deliberate act of cheating or may be committed unintentionally. Whether intended or not, all incidents of academic malpractice will be treated seriously by the University.
The Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health have designed a learning module to raise your awareness of academic malpractice and how it can occur in general writing during your studies. This resource can be accessed via Blackboard - SMS Introductory Course and must be completed before you submit your first piece of academic writing for assessment.
The University provides workshops and online training via My Learning Essentials
Please refer to the University of Manchester guidance to students on plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice
The full guidance document can be viewed here: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=2870
Academic Malpractice: Procedure for the Handling of Cases can be found at: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=639
Turnitin
The University uses electronic systems for the purposes of detecting plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice and for marking. Such systems include TurnitinUK, the plagiarism detection service used by the University.
As part of the formative and/or summative assessment process, you may be asked to submit electronic versions of your work to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems used by the University (this requirement may be in addition to a requirement to submit a paper copy of your work). If you are asked to do this, you must do so within the required timescales.
The School also reserves the right to submit work handed in by you for formative or summative assessment to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems used by the University.
Please note that when work is submitted to the relevant electronic systems, it may be copied and then stored in a database to allow appropriate checks to be made.
3.6
Mitigating Circumstances
Mitigating circumstances are personal or medical circumstances which are unforeseeable and unpreventable that could have a significant adverse effect on your academic performance. You should only submit a mitigating circumstances application if you consider it serious enough, and the timing critical, to have affected your performance in your assessed work and examinations.
Request for mitigation must be submitted to your programme administrator, in advance of your assessment submission deadline or exam. Requests for mitigation submitted after the assessment or exam (except those requests made as a result of circumstances that have arisen during the course of that assessment period) will not be considered without a credible and compelling explanation as to why the circumstances were not known before the beginning of the assessment period or why you were unable to complete or submit an application prior to the assessment or exam. Please note that not informing the University of circumstances due to personal feelings of embarrassment and pride, or having concerns over the confidential treatment of requests for mitigation, are not considered to be credible and compelling explanations
All mitigating circumstances applications must be supported by independent third party evidence. The type of evidence required will vary according to the nature of the circumstances. Examples of evidence include a doctor or other health professional’s letter, counsellor’s letter, self-certification form signed by your GP or GP’s Medical Practice (for illnesses of 7 days and under only). Please note that it is a University policy that the self-certification form must be signed by a GP; we cannot accept forms which have not been signed by a GP. Please note that if evidence has not been received within 2 weeks of the submission of your form, and you have not contacted them to inform them of any delay, your application will be refused and no further action will be taken.
Please ensure that you password protect or encrypt your mitigating circumstances form and supporting evidence before sending to your programme administrator.
Any requests for mitigation will be considered confidentially by a mitigating circumstances panel or sub-panel. Where a request for mitigation is supported, a recommendation will be made to the exam board for them to decide on the best course of action for the student.
You are advised to consult the following guidance, which directs you to seek advice and support before and whilst submitting a request for mitigation.
Guidance for students is available on the web: A Basic Guide to Mitigating Circumstances.
Please contact your programme administrator for the Mitigating Circumstances Request Form.
For further information about the process and acceptable grounds for mitigation see: Mitigating Circumstances Policy & Procedures: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=4271
Please be advised that any requests need to be submitted 7 days before the pre-arranged Mitigating Circumstances meeting to studentsupport.smspgt@manchester.ac.uk. The dates of Mitigating Circumstances meetings for the 2020/21 academic year are as follows:
- Wednesday 21st October 2020
- Wednesday 25th November 2020
- Wednesday 13th January 2021
- Wednesday 17th February 2021
- Wednesday 17th March 2021
- Wednesday 21st April 2021
- Wednesday 19th May 2021
- Wednesday 16th June 2021
3.7 Late Submission Penalty (Including Dissertation)
Work submitted after the deadline without prior approval will be subject to a late penalty in accordance with the University Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment on Taught Programmes. The penalty applied is 10% of available marks deducted per day/24 hours (from the time of the original or extended deadline), until the assignment is submitted or no marks remain.
Penalties for late submission relate to 24 hours/calendar days, so include weekends and weekdays, as well as bank holidays and University closure days.
The mark awarded for the piece of work will be reduced by:
10% of the available marks deducted if up to 24 hours (1 day) late
20% of the available marks deducted if up to 48 hours (2 days) late
30% of the available marks deducted if up to 72 hours (3 days) late
40% of the available marks deducted if up to 96 hours (4 days) late
50% of the available marks deducted if up to 120 hours (5 days) late
60% of the available marks deducted if up to 144 hours (6 days) late
70% of the available marks deducted if up to 168 hours (7 days) late
80% of the available marks deducted if up to 192 hours (8 days) late
90% of the available marks deducted if up to 216 hours (9 days) late
100% of the available marks deducted if up to 240 hours (10 days) late
If the assessment is submitted within 10 days of the deadline the assessment should be marked and feedback to the student provided. If this mark before the penalty is applied reaches the appropriate pass mark but the applied penalty results in a fail of the assessment, the student should not be required to resit the assessment as the original mark can be taken as the resit mark. Further information and examples can be found in the Policy and associated Guidance documents.
For work submitted more than 10 days late, it is regarded as a non-submission and need not be marked. In this case a mark of zero will be awarded and normal resit regulations will apply.
The sliding scale should only be applied to first-sit submissions. For all referred (resit) assessment, any late submission will automatically receive a mark of zero.
For further information:
Policy on the Submission of Work for Summative Assessment on Taught Programmes
3.8 Policy on word counts for assessed work
The word count specified for each assessed submission, including coursework and research projects, includes all footnotes or endnotes, references in the main text, quotations, captions, chapter or section headings, content lists, text included as part of diagrams, and other apparatus that forms part of the content of the piece. It does not include the main document title or the bibliography/reference list.
The upper limit is an absolute maximum and must not be exceeded (there is no 10% leeway rule or similar).
Assessors will monitor the word count of submitted essays. You should note that different systems often give slightly different automatic word counts. In the event of any query, the word count we will use is the one produced from the submitted .docx version of your essay by Microsoft Word on a campus PC running the standard student Windows image.
If your submission is over the permitted length, penalties will be imposed as follows:
- up to and including 5% over the word limit, 10 marks (percentage points) will be deducted
- each additional 5% (or part thereof) over the word limit, another 10 marks will be deducted
- if the penalty is equal to or greater than the assessed grading, the work will score zero.
For essays significantly below the indicated length, there is no specific numerical penalty scheme – but bear in mind that the indicated length is a guide to the breadth and depth of coverage required, so shorter essays are likely to score lower according to the mark scheme.
Dissertations and other large research projects can, with the supervisor’s approval, be submitted alongside appendices of primary source material (interviews, survey results, etc) if this is necessary to allow the assessors to judge the work. Such appendices do not count towards the word limit. Appendices must include primary source material only, and cannot be used to elaborate or extend the argument.
All judgments on word length and associated penalties will be made in accordance with the University-level Policy on Marking.
3.9 Academic Appeals, Complaints, Conduct and Discipline
Academic Appeals
- Students have a right of appeal against a final decision of an Examination Board, or a progress committee, or a graduate committee or equivalent body which affects their academic status or progress in the University.
- Students thinking of appealing should first discuss the matter informally with an appropriate member of staff, in order to better understand the reason for the result or decision.
- Should you wish to proceed to a formal appeal, this must be submitted within the timeframe outlined in the Academic Appeals Procedure to the Faculty Appeals and Complaints Team, Room 3.21, Simon Building, University of Manchester, M13 9PL (e-mail: FBMHappealsandcomplaints@manchester.ac.uk).
- The Academic Appeals Procedure (Regulation XIX) and associated documents, including the form on which formal appeals should be submitted, can be found at www.regulations.manchester.ac.uk/academic
Student Complaints
- The University’s Student Complaints Procedure (Regulation XVIII) and associated documents, including a complaints form, can be found at www.regulations.manchester.ac.uk/academic
- The University has separate procedures to address complaints of bullying, harassment, discrimination and/or victimisation - see https://www.reportandsupport.manchester.ac.uk/
- Students thinking of submitting a formal complaint should, in most instances, attempt informal resolution first (see the procedure). Formal complaints should be submitted on the relevant form to Faculty Appeals and Complaints Team, Room 3.21, Simon Building, University of Manchester, M13 9PL (e-mail: fbmhappealsandcomplaints@manchester.ac.uk).
Conduct and Discipline of Students
- General University information on the conduct and discipline of students can be found at www.tlso.manchester.ac.uk/appeals-complaints/conductanddisciplineofstudents/
- Faculty policies for students on communication, social networking. and drugs and alcohol can be found at:
- http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=29039 (Drugs and Alcohol)
- http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=29040 (Social Networking)
- Information on Academic Malpractice and how to avoid it can be found at http://www.regulations.manchester.ac.uk/guidance-to-students-on-plagiarism-and-other-forms-of-academic-malpractice/
- In accordance with the Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment on Taught Programmes, ‘All typed summative assessment, including dissertations, should be submitted online and subjected to plagiarism detection software, where appropriate’.
3.10 Essay Mark Scheme
The following mark scheme is used for essays and short coursework items unless otherwise stated. Mark scheme arrangements for dissertations may differ, and will be listed in the dissertation course unit outline.
90 - 100% Distinction-level performance of the highest possible quality. Exemplary work, highly accurate, innovatively analytical and critical, demonstrating rigorous and insightful judgement, thoroughly original approaches, an innovative and illuminating use of sources, and exemplary execution. Of comparable quality to publishable work. Presentation at or above typical professional standard.
80 - 89% Distinction-level performance of unusually high quality. Excellent work, very accurate, demonstrating highly analytical style and approach with insightful judgement and highly skilled execution, original critical approach and a thoroughly illuminating use of sources. Approaching the standards of publishable work. Excellent presentation.
70 - 79% Distinction-level. Excellent work, accurate, showing clear evidence of comprehensiveness, soundness of judgement, focus, analytical powers, insight, critical depth, skilful execution, and illuminating use of sources. Very good presentation.
60 - 69% Merit-level. Mainly accurate, based on good reading, shows evidence of understanding of the research topic, good structure and relevant conclusions, sound in its judgements and arguments, comprehensive in coverage, effective in its use of sources, well-presented, and exhibiting, especially at the top end, a degree of depth and imagination.
50 - 59% Pass-level. Shows sufficient grasp of the issues and reading of a sufficient range of relevant material. In argument and presentation, demonstrates accuracy, coherence, consistency, some critical and analytical ability, and (where relevant) adequate use of sources, but lacks depth and imagination. Presentation is acceptable for university purposes but not for a wider audience.
40 - 49% Below pass-level. Shows a basic grasp of the issues posed, evidence of reading in relation to them, and coverage of their major aspects. The work may be descriptive in character and will lack the level of analysis and argument required at Master’s level. The presentation of the work will be consistent with conventions. Presentation sufficiently clear for comprehension, but has no other merit.
30 - 39% Significantly below pass-level. Shows an elementary grasp of the issues posed, some evidence of reading in relation to them and some coverage, albeit incomplete, of their major aspects. The work is primarily descriptive but incompletely so or crudely analytical in character, and does not construct a cogent argument. Presentation is barely consistent with conventions.
20 - 29% Very poor work. Does not show even an elementary grasp of the issues, and reading is limited or irrelevant. The work is neither a cogent narrative or descriptive piece nor a structured argument. Presentation may not be consistent with conventions and has no other merit.
0 - 19% Should be reserved for work displaying ignorance of the most basic conventions. Marks below 10 are reserved for totally vacuous submissions (no submission or thoroughly incoherent prose).
3.11 Policy on Marker Assignment and Mark Moderation
Essays and similar coursework on this programme are generally assigned a mark and feedback by a single marker who has teaching responsibilities on the relevant unit, and a knowledge of the specialist literature relating to the title. It is normal for several markers to mark different essay titles on the same unit.
To ensure consistency in scoring between different markers, we follow a process of mark moderation:
- For each unit, a single moderator will review a random sample of coursework at the end of the semester. The moderator must not be a marker on the unit.
- As University regulations require a minimum of 10 scripts to be reviewed, this “sample” will in practice comprise all of the scripts for smaller units. For larger units, it will be 10 scripts including any Fails and an even distribution of scripts from across the available mark ranges.
- The moderator should note any differences in judgment from the marker, but cannot propose to vary individual marks. (Doing so would be procedurally unacceptable because, for larger units where sampling is used, it would involve potentially advantaging/disadvantaging some students over others based on random sample selection.) The moderator’s role is to keep a check on the validity of the marking process and the overall fairness of the marking. The moderator can, if necessary, recommend reconsideration of the whole mark set, and can record any specific points for the external’s attention.
- The External Examiner can, likewise, recommend reconsideration of the whole mark set, and can advise remarking of individual scripts if s/he has scrutinised the whole set. All marks are provisional until confirmed by the External Examiner.
Moderation generally takes place after the end of the teaching semester and following the final return of marks.
This policy applies to essays and similar pieces of coursework. It does not apply to dissertations and other large research-based submissions, which are usually fully double-marked; or to non-text assessments such as oral presentations, for which clear alternative marking arrangements will be notified in advance.
4. Student Progression
4.1 Progression Requirements
Successful completion of 120 credits across Semesters 1 and 2 is required in order for students to be eligible to submit a dissertation project.
4.2 Monitoring Attendance and Wellbeing of Students
The programme director and teaching staff will monitor the work and attendance of students on the programme. This is for your benefit and helps to ensure you are coping with the work. Regular or a pattern of non-attendance and/or engagement will result in you being contacted by the School to meet with your programme director. Following this, further action will be taken if there isn’t a significant improvement in attendance.
For further information see:
Regulation XX Monitoring Attendance and Wellbeing of Students
The University offers a range of advice and support to students experiencing problems with attendance. The A-Z of Services can be found on the MyManchester website. Here you can find a information on a wide range of topics such as library services, disability support and careers advice.
You can also speak to your Programme Director and/or Academic Advisor.
What to do if you are absent
In case of illness you should supply a doctor’s certificate or, if the illness is brief, a self-certification. If you are absent for other reasons then you should write a letter to the Programme Director explaining the circumstances. Medical certificates or letters should be given in person or sent to the Programme Administrator. Whatever your reason for being away, tell your supervisor about it and make any necessary arrangements to catch up with work you have missed.
4.3 Special Permissions
Interruptions to programme and extensions to writing up
It is the expectation of the University that postgraduate taught students pursue their studies on a continuous basis for the stipulated duration of their programme. However, it is recognised that students may encounter personal difficulties or situations which may seriously disrupt or delay their studies. In some cases, an interruption or extension to your programme of study may be the most sensible option.
Students who wish to interrupt the programme or extend to write up the dissertation should initially discuss their plans and reasons with the Programme Director and/or their Academic Advisor.
Students should also provide documentary evidence when appropriate, for example, doctor’s letter, sick note etc.
The forms required for formal application are available from your Programme Administrator.
4.4 Tier 4 Visa Attendance Monitoring Census
The University operates attendance monitoring census points within the academic year in order to confirm the attendance of students holding a Tier 4 Student Visa. This is to ensure the University meets the UKVI statutory requirements as a sponsor of Tier 4 students and its responsibilities in accordance with its Highly Trusted Sponsor status.
If you are a Tier 4 visa holder, you must attend these attendance monitoring census points, in addition to complying with your programme’s attendance requirements.
When are the census points?
In the 2020/21 academic year, the attendance monitoring census points will be during the following periods:
- 26th October - 6th November 2020
- 18th January - 29th January 2021
- 19th May - 9th June 2021
- 12th July - 23rd July 2021
Please note:
- If you are a new student, registration is your first point to confirm your attendance at the University and you will not be required to attend a separate census point in October/November 2020.
- You will receive an e-mail from your programme administrator to confirm when and where you should go to have your attendance confirmed. You must check your University e-mail account regularly. Failure to check your e-mail account is not a valid reason to be absent from a census point.
What if a Tier 4 student cannot attend a census point?
If you cannot attend in person due to a valid reason which includes: illness; placement; field studies; on year abroad; research work; or any other reason connected to your programme of study, you must email your programme administrator to inform us of your absence and your inability to attend in person. In the case of illness, you must provide a copy of a medical certificate. If you are in this position you should report in person to the School as soon as possible after you return to campus.
Students who are recorded as interrupting their studies are not expected to attend during their period of interruption.
What happens if a student does not attend a census point?
The School must be able to confirm your presence to the UKVI by the end of each census point in the academic year. If you do not attend a census point when required by your School and you do not provide a valid explanation for your absence you will be deemed to be “not in attendance”.
Those students identified as “not in attendance” will be reported to the UKVI and the University will cease to sponsor the student’s Tier 4 visa. The Tier 4 visa will then be curtailed and the student must leave the UK within 60 days.
Further information
For more information on Tier 4 visas: https://www.gov.uk/tier-4-general-visa
If you have any concerns about the attendance monitoring census points, or your Tier 4 visa status, please contact visa@manchester.ac.uk
4.5 Withdrawal from the Programme
Students who are considering withdrawing from the programme should discuss this in the first instance with the Programme Director.
If arrangements for withdrawal need to be made, this will be handled by the Programme Administrator, who will manage communication with the Fees and Records Departments and other University bodies as appropriate OR Students may liaise directly with the Programme Administrator who will communicate this information directly to the University Student Services Centre.
5. Student Support and Guidance
5.1 Student Support and Guidance
Student support and guidance within the programme
Support and advice is available to all students both formally and informally from the Programme Directors, the Programme Administrator and research project supervisors.
If you have any queries or would like to discuss any issues at all – academic, administrative, technical or personal – please do not hesitate to get in touch. All personal issues will be dealt with confidentially.
If we are unable to help you directly, we can put you in touch with many of the support services that are available to students of the University through our Student Services Centre. You can approach these services independently, without the involvement of programme staff. Use the A-Z of Student Services Guide as an additional source of information.
Student support for the dissertation
During the research project and writing up of the dissertation, students will have individual support from their research project supervisor and scheduled structured sessions to monitor their progress and provide support, with help being offered if any problems are being encountered. In addition, students are made aware that they have the option of contacting the programme directors at any time if they are experiencing difficulties, whether this is in relation to their project, or indeed, with regard to any other issue of relevance.
Student support from the University
The University offers a range of support and guidance services to students, for example, Student Health Service, Student Union Advice Centre, Student Counselling and Careers Advice. Details of all these services can be obtained from the A-Z of Student Services
Counselling Service
The Counselling Service is available for all students. It is free and consists of a team of professional counsellors. The service provides confidential counselling for anyone who wants help with personal problems affecting their work or well-being.
The service is open 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday all year round except public holidays.
Occupational Health
The Occupational Health service is a specialised area of medicine concerned with the way in which an individual’s health can affect his or her ability to do a job and to study and conversely how the work environment can affect an individual’s health. Their aim is to promote the physical, mental and social well-being of students and to reduce the incidence of ill-health arising from exposure to work place hazards.
Students Union Advice Centre
The Students Union has advisers who can help with any matter ranging from finances to housing and beyond. On the South Campus, the Advice Centre is on the first floor in the Student Union Building, and is open Monday to Friday, 10.00am to 4.00pm, term time and vacation. There is no need to make an appointment.
Pastoral advisor
On arrival, all students are assigned a pastoral advisor, who will be a member of staff with teaching responsibilities at CHSTM. The pastoral advisor is the recommended first point of contact for general support requests, and can also advise generally on teaching and learning issues. Pastoral advisors may be approached in confidence with any queries, comments or complaints about any aspect of the programme or your experience as a student.
Full-time students will need to organise two short formal meetings with the pastoral advisor in Semester 1, to discuss settling in and your progress on the course, before handing this support role over to the dissertation supervisor in Semester 2. Part-time students will meet the pastoral advisor four times, on a similar basis, in the first and second years. You are welcome to arrange additional meetings as appropriate.
PhD mentor
On arrival, all students are assigned a mentor from among CHSTM’s current PhD students. Mentors can provide general support and advice on campus life, and are, of course, particularly good sources of guidance for students considering going on to PhD research.
5.2
Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS)
The University of Manchester welcomes students with a disability or specific learning difficulties. The University has a Disability Advisory and Support Service, who can supply further information and DASS advisors will be pleased to meet you to discuss you needs. DASS will liaise with your School through the Disability Coordinator to make the necessary arrangements for your support during your time in Manchester.
The DASS office can also provide a copy of the University’s Disability Statement, ‘Opportunities for Students with Additional Support Needs at the University of Manchester’ which sets out the policy and provision for students with a disability.
DASS Contact Details:-
Location: 2nd Floor, University Place
Tel (Disability Service) +44 (0)161 275 7512
Tel (Assessment Centre) +44 (0)161 275 0990
Mobile Number (Text only for d/Deaf students) 07899 658 790
Email (Disability Service) dass@manchester.ac.uk
Email (Assessment Centre) assessments@manchester.ac.uk
School Disability Coordinator Contact Details:-
Email: dc.medicalsciences.pgt@manchester.ac.uk
6. Student Representation and Feedback
6.1 Student Representation and Feedback
Students, in consultation with the Programme Administrator, should arrange an informal election of their Student Representative near the beginning of the academic year. If more than one person is interested in the role, then each candidate is asked to write a short proposal which is circulated to the student body, and an election is held.
The overall responsibilities of the Student Representative are
- to liaise between staff and students about matters of concern
- to provide two-way feedback on programme and teaching quality
- to promote active student involvement in the development of the programme
- to identify student issues and needs on the programme
- to attend programme committee meetings representing the student voice
- to find effective ways to feedback the outcomes of meetings to the student body
- to attend relevant student representative training
- to liaise with other Student Representatives to gain support and ideas
- to become established as a central point for information and guidance for students in the group.
Student representatives are not required to get involved with fellow students’ personal problems, academic difficulties, or individual student allegations of unfair or inappropriate treatment.
Confidentiality is imperative when dealing with student issues. The representative is chosen by fellow students and has their trust, and must maintain it. Any discussion of an individual student’s situation with a third party requires their consent beforehand.
7. Programme Management
7.1 Programme Management and Committee Structure
Programme Management
The programme is managed and operated in accordance with the policies, principles, regulations and procedures of the University of Manchester.
Programme Directors relate to the School and Faculty Postgraduate Teaching Committees on matters relating to admissions, exams, reviews and approval of new programmes and units, quality assurance etc. and policy issues of broad relevance to the Graduate School.
The Programme Committee will meet each semester and consist of the Programme Director, Programme Administrator, Programme Committee members and the unit co-ordinators.
The remit of the committee will be to:
- Oversee the teaching, assessment and examining arrangements;
- Monitor cohort progression including failure rate, withdrawal rate;
- Evaluate the extent to which the learning outcomes are achieved by students;
- Monitor, maintain and enhance standards of all aspects of the programme;
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum and of assessment in relation to programme learning outcomes;
- Evaluate the effectiveness and relevance of the teaching and learning methods employed;
- Review and revise the programme in the light of any relevant Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) benchmarks, any other relevant external and/or professional requirements and developing knowledge in the subject area;
- Receive, consider and respond to feedback from students, employers and external examiners;
- Where the need for change is identified, effect the changes quickly and efficiently;
- Produce an annual action plan via annual monitoring;
- Produce reports for periodic review
- Produce relevant information for an Institutional Audit;
- Review programme documentation, e.g., programme handbooks, programme specifications, promotional literature and programme website;
- Ensure suitable and efficient arrangements are in place for recruitment, admission and induction.
Committee Structure
The Programme Committee acts as a curriculum development team for the Programme. The Programme Committee will report to a School, or Department, or Faculty level committee. The Programme Director is responsible for the management of the programme, and the Programme Committee is established to support the Programme Director in the carrying out of their responsibilities.
7.2 The role of the External Examiner
External Examiners are individuals from another institution or organisation who monitor the assessment processes of the University to ensure fairness and academic standards. They ensure that assessment and examination procedures have been fairly and properly implemented and that decisions have been made after appropriate deliberation. They also ensure that standards of awards and levels of student performance are at least comparable with those in equivalent higher education institutions.
External Examiners’ reports
External Examiners’ reports relating to this programme will be shared with student representatives and details of any actions carried out by the programme team/School in response to the External Examiners’ comments will be discussed. Students should contact their student representatives if they require any further information about External Examiners’ reports or the process for considering them.”
7.3 External Examiner Details
The External Examiner for MSc HSTM is Dr Michael Brown of the School of Humanities, University of Roehampton.
Please note that it is inappropriate for students to make direct contact with External Examiners under any circumstances, in particular with regards to a student’s individual performance in assessments. Other appropriate mechanisms are available for students, including the University’s appeals or complaints procedures and the UMSU Advice Service. In cases where a student does contact an External Examiner directly, External Examiners have been requested not to respond to direct queries. Instead, External Examiners should report the matter to their School contact who will then contact the student to remind them of the other methods available for students. If students have any queries concerning this, they should contact their Programme Office (or equivalent).
8. Learning Resources
8.1 Student Facilities at CHSTM
Office space
Hot desks and networked PCs for MSc students are provided in the CHSTM Postgraduate Room (Simon 2.54), which also houses the PhD students’ desks. The keycode for the office door is available from the Programme Administrator.
Computer facilities, wifi and printing
There is a large PC cluster on the sixth floor (Simon 6.004) which contains 140 PC terminals and is open Monday to Friday, 08.30 to 17.30.
Terminals are also available in the School of Medical Sciences’ main student facilities in the Stopford Building, and in other locations including the University of Manchester Library Main Building.
The IT Services website displays real-time information on cluster PC availability around the University.
Free wifi for student use is provided across the campus. See Wireless service on the IT Services website for more details. The eduroam service is generally more convenient than the University-specific wifi, and you can also use it at many other higher education institutions, in the UK and internationally, with the same login details.
The university has a pull-print system allowing you to send documents to be printed from any networked computer, or your own device, and collect them from any of the Xerox printers in the PC clusters and other locations: see Student printing for details. More specialised printing services are available from the University Print Shop in the Humanities Bridgeford Street building.
CHSTM Library
The CHSTM Library is based in Simon 2.48. It has a large subject-specific collection, and is reserved for the use of CHSTM staff, postgraduates and selected undergraduates. The keycode for the Library door is available from the Programme Administrator.
To make sure that everyone has access to the books they need, the CHSTM Library is reference-only. MSc students must not remove books from the Library at any time. Always remember to re-shelve books correctly after use.
Photocopying
Unfortunately, we can’t provide copying facilities for students within CHSTM. A bank of photocopiers is available at the University of Manchester Library Main Building.
Kitchen
The kitchen (Simon 2.59) is open to students at all times during the day, and contains a kettle and microwave. Please bring your own mug and supply of teabags, coffee, etc. If you use milk, don’t steal other people’s! There is a CHSTM milk-buying rota which you can join.
Nobody is paid to clean this area for us, so make sure you wash up and put away all mugs, dishes etc, and wipe down the surfaces after you use the kitchen.
Receiving mail
Internal correspondence from the University will in most cases be sent electronically, except for a occasional official communications which will be sent on paper to your home address. If you need to use a University mail address for external correspondence (for instance, in relation to research projects), then please give the CHSTM postgraduate office as the mail point – “2.54 Simon Building, Brunswick Street, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PS” – with your own name clearly included, to make sure that the replies are delivered correctly.
8.2 Learning Resources
Libraries
All registered students may become members of the University of Manchester Library on the main campus.
Up-to-date news about the library is available here.
Study skills support
Study skills support is provided as part of the Communicating Ideas course unit and in various optional classes scheduled outside of standard teaching time. There are also two main University initiatives that offer further support:
My Learning Essentials, run by the University Library, offers face-to-face workshops and online resources on a wide variety of study skills.
Methods@Manchester, organised by the School of Social Sciences, provides various resources focusing on social science methods. These may be useful if you are involved in a research project involving interviews, surveys, or quantitative data analysis.
8.3
IT Services and eLearning
IT Services Support Centre online
Details of what IT support is available and how to access it can be found on the FBMH eLearning Support page.
Login to the Support Centre online to log a request, book an appointment for an IT visit, or search the Knowledge Base.
Telephone: +44 (0)161 306 5544 (or extension 65544). Telephone support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In person: Walk-up help and support is available at the Joule Library, Main Library or Alan Gilbert Learning Commons:
Use Support Centre online for support with eLearning, from where you may make a request, or search the Knowledge Base.
For IT and eLearning support visit: https://elearning.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/student/technical-support/
Blackboard
Blackboard, the University's 'virtual learning environment', will be used for online teaching.
What is Blackboard?
Blackboard is a web-based system that complements and builds upon traditional learning methods used at The University of Manchester. By using Blackboard you can
- view course materials and learning resources,
- communicate with lectures and other students,
- collaborate in groups,
- get feedback
- submit assignments
- monitoring your own progress at a time and place of your own convenience.
Training in the use of software
The Faculty eLearning team have produced a short introduction to Blackboard for new students. The recording is hosted in two places: the Video Portal and on YouTube:
The recording is just over seven minutes long and covers most of the commonly used tools in Blackboard.
9. Useful Links
9.1
Academic and Student Support Policies
Academic Support Policies
A full list of University Policies and documents
Academic Appeals (Regulation XIX)
Academic Malpractice: Procedure for the Handling of Cases
Basic Guide to Student Complaints
Conduct and Discipline of Students (Regulations XVII)
General University information on the Conduct and Discipline of Students
Faculty policies for students on Communication and Dress Code, Social Networking and Drugs & Alcohol can be found at:
Information on Academic Malpractice and how to avoid it
Guidance for the Presentation of Taught Masters Dissertations
Guidance to Students on Plagiarism and Other Forms of Academic Malpractice
Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment on Taught Programmes
Policy on Mitigating Circumstances
Mitigating Circumstances Guidance for Students
Policy on Feedback to Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Students
Work and Attendance of Students (Regulation XX)
Blackboard
Students should access Blackboard via My Manchester
Disability Advisory and Support Service
University Language Centre – Study English - Tel: 0161 306 3397
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Staff and Students
Occupational Health Services for Students