TSM Reform - minor subject only to be worth 250 marks?!!!

languagenerd

Hey guys,

I've heard a few rumours about this, can anyone confirm if they're true? Apparently TSM could be reformed so that the minor subject would only be worth 250 credits, whereas the major would be worth 750. It's currently 350-650.

This probably wouldn't affect me as I'm a 3rd year now, but if it's true, it's hugely unfair and illogical. In Pattern B, the minor subject is studied for 3 years (the same length as a full degree elsewhere!) and the major is studied for 4. For the first 3 years, you do equal amounts of work in both subjects, in terms of modules, essays, coursework and exams. Why should the second one only be worth a quarter of the first?! It just doesn't make sense.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if yes, why it's even being considered?

Keela11

yes its true. We were told that it hasn't been passed yet but most likely will be. I is utterly ridiculous. Luckily it won't effect me either but if it was going to it would put me off even doing TSM in the first place

dominiquecruz

Not being smart, but does it make much of a difference? I guess in terms of workload shift there will be more emphasis on final year, but as far as your TSM degree goes it won't really matter if your minor was 250 or 350 marks.

asdfghjz

Would 350-650 not mean half of your third year counts for over a third of your grade? For most courses doesn't third year only count something like 20% in total no?

languagenerd

dominiquecruz wrote: »

Not being smart, but does it make much of a difference? I guess in terms of workload shift there will be more emphasis on final year, but as far as your TSM degree goes it won't really matter if your minor was 250 or 350 marks.

But the minor subject is something we've studied in equal amounts to the major for three years. Same amount of essays, exams, modules, study... and now it's only worth a quarter of the credits, even though in other universities, a full degree is 3 years!

And if we ever needed an academic transcript, 250-750 would make it look like the minor was studied to a way lower level than it actually was.

asdfghjz wrote: »

Would 350-650 not mean half of your third year counts for over a third of your grade? For most courses doesn't third year only count something like 20% in total no?

No, our third year actual counts for 50% of the degree grade at the moment. We carry over 350 credits for the minor and 150 credits for the major into fourth year, and the major counts for 500 more in fourth year.

Sir Ophiuchus

languagenerd wrote: »

And if we ever needed an academic transcript, 250-750 would make it look like the minor was studied to a way lower level than it actually was.

Yeah. They already deliberately mis-weight the ECTS so it doesn't look like TSM students are doing more: in my course, several modules were 10 credits for single honours students and 5 for TSM, just so TSMs would be doing the same 60 credits as the single honours students. It was ridiculous.

Groinshot

I don't even get a minor I spent two years studying mechanics of structures and I don't get anything for it, so no sympathy from me!

languagenerd

Sir Ophiuchus wrote: »

Yeah. They already deliberately mis-weight the ECTS so it doesn't look like TSM students are doing more: in my course, several modules were 10 credits for single honours students and 5 for TSM, just so TSMs would be doing the same 60 credits as the single honours students. It was ridiculous.

My subjects don't have a single-honour version but I've heard that from people in Music and Drama alright.

TSM needs to be made more transparent, people haven't a clue what's going on. They only start talking about credits in JS year (unless you go on Erasmus) for one thing. And communication between departments would be helpful - it would fix the workloads of the people doing a course that also has a single-honour version - and it would be great if they talked about assignment dates (three major essays counting towards the degree due the same day! )

But I don't understand this new 250/750 thing. When you've spent three years studying a subject, you've done most of the work already! And what about people who've taken a year out/repeated a year? They're not going to have the right credits when the change comes in... Is anyone protesting against it? (And who would you even protest to?).

Groinshot wrote: »

I don't even get a minor I spent two years studying mechanics of structures and I don't get anything for it, so no sympathy from me!

What are you studying?

Groinshot

languagenerd wrote: »

What are you studying?

Engineering :cool: