Your Tutorial Learning Experience
We offer a great deal of support and guidance. Before you start, you will receive guidance on how to prepare for your research project and practical information about your course of study. We will also run an information session before your first tutorial to complete your preparations and answer any questions you may have. The Academic Director will provide ongoing support and guidance throughout your tutorial project. In addition, regular meetings with your tutor allow progress to be very closely monitored and, if necessary, for additional support to be put in place.
You can expect to undertake 10-20 hours per week of independent study for each tutorial.
The tutorial system will be academically challenging but, in the words of our students, ‘exceptionally rewarding’. You will be expected to undertake self-directed preparatory work before each session and then to take an active part in your tutorials. Different disciplines work in different ways, but all tutors will set work to be done in advance of your tutorial. In the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences you will most likely be asked to produce short essays and, for example, write literary reviews or legal commentaries; whereas in Science and Engineering you may well be given problem sets. Your tutor will guide your research by providing suggested readings and offering an array of special topics to pursue, all to support and direct your work. In addition, they will give you direct, individual help on how to organise your ideas into a persuasive argument. Due to the personalised nature of tutorials, it is very important that you are well-prepared and willing to engage with your tutor in discussion.
Resources
Your tutor will provide readings or direct you to freely available e-resources and you’re likely to be able to access resources through your home institution’s libraries.
Only fully matriculated students are permitted remote access to the Bodleian or Exeter College libraries, so this is not something we can arrange.
Assessment and Credit
The Oxford Tutorial and the Tailored Oxford Tutorial
You will be assessed on the pieces of work you produce for each tutorial. Your tutor will give you a grade (and feedback) for each piece of work with your final grade being an accumulated average of all marks.
The Independent Research Tutorial
You will be assessed on your final research essay or paper.
On successful completion of your tutorial, you will receive a transcript showing a grade expressed as a grade-% and a letter equivalent, together with grading guidance notes.
While tutorials have been designed to be credit-bearing and we will assist you to transfer credit home, Exeter College does not operate a credit system and ultimately the calculation of credit will be decided by your home university. As a guide, our tutorials usually receive 3-4 US credits or 7.5 ECTS credits.
Please click on the link for a copy of the Exeter College Online Tutorial Programme Syllabus 2023:4
