Lecturer-Tutor-Student
Contract
In many
American universities, there is what is known as the ‘Honour System’ or the
‘Honour Code’ which outlines in legal terms about the assumptions of student integrity
and honesty and what should happen if students do not live up to the trust
accorded to students. That, however, is litigation-happy
1. It is
the lecturer’s duty to organise the module in a coherent and a meaningful
fashion.
2. The
lecturer will deliver the lecture (obviously!) and suggest readings to students
and teach as effectively as he or she can. This does not mean that he or she
will ‘cover’ the syllabus during the lectures (see below). If
readings are prescribed, or if there are notes distributed or given on-line, it
will be assumed that students have gone through these (for the purposes of
exams or otherwise).
3. It is
also the lecturer’s duty to oversee the evaluation of students through the
various continuous assessment components and final examination fairly and
carefully.
4. The
lecturer will attempt to motivate and inspire students to explore ideas.
5. The
lecturer should be available to respond to general and academic queries. (This
does not mean that the lecturer should be available at any time on any day, or
that responses will be given immediately.)
1. It is the duty of the tutor to chair and lead tutorial discussions, and organise the way the tutorial will be conducted. However, this does not mean that the tutor should be doing most of the talking during tutorials. Tutorial worksheets provide a guide as to the way tutorial discussion should proceed; tutorial discussions, however, need not cover all the material in the worksheets and can move on to issues not raised in them.
2. It is also the duty of the tutor to assign continuous assessment marks to each student: therefore, participation marks, test marks, essay marks and project marks will be assigned by the tutor. If there are disputes, the matter can be taken to the lecturer (or, if the tutor is also the lecturer, to a higher authority).
3. The tutor will attempt to motivate and inspire students to explore ideas.
4. The tutor will be available to respond to academic queries pertaining to the module. (This does not mean that the tutor should be available at any time on any day, or that responses will be given immediately.)
1. Students
are expected to keep up-to-date with their module: this means reading the
appropriate handouts, webpages and various readings
prescribed for the module.
2. Students
are expected to attend all lectures and tutorials. Attendance will not be taken
at lectures, but they will be at tutorials. If you know you cannot attend a
tutorial, please get in touch with your tutor before the tutorial; this
should be followed up with a written note or a medical certificate. Remember
that some of the CA marks are devoted to attendance and participation.
3. Students
are expected to work with intellectual honesty towards producing work that will
be assessed for the CA marks. This does not mean that students should not have
group discussions, general trading of ideas or distribute useful readings.
Intellectual honesty involves the following:
(a) Students will not give or
receive any unauthorised assistance (whether involving payment for work or not).
(b) Students will not be
involved in plagiarism. This means passing off as your own some else’s
ideas, thoughts or language; so if you quote someone else’s ideas, thoughts or
language, they should always be explicitly acknowledged. Obviously, submitting
someone else’s work (eg another student’s essay, or an essay downloaded
from the Internet) also constitutes plagiarism.
(c) Students will not be
involved in any attempt at falsification. This means putting down untrue
statements, forging signatures, tampering with records, changing your essay
after it has been marked, among other things.
Students found to be involved in
plagiarism and falsification will be severely penalised.