Course Handbook - Faculty of History

7. PART II: THE DISSERTATION
7.1 The Dissertation
Part II gives you the opportunity to undertake an extended piece of research of your own in a
thesis, of between 20,000 and 25,000 words in length, including tables and appendices, but
excluding footnotes and bibliography. No penalty will be imposed for an excess of 150 words
over the maximum word limit, but this allowance should not be abused. The MPhil subcommittee
acting as a Board of Examiners has the discretion to penalise dissertations which
exceed the word limit. The word limit (within the 150 words grace allowance) must
therefore be strictly observed. Students can expect to be severely penalised for
exceeding the word limit. Normally the penalty will be a deduction of up to 5 marks from
the dissertation, but in severe cases the dissertation may be marked as failed.
To clarify what is expected of this thesis, the following extract from the University
Regulations may be helpful -
Before recommending the award of the MPhil Degree (one-year course), when the
examination requires the submission of a thesis, the Examiners shall satisfy themselves
that the thesis is clearly written, that it takes account of previously published work, and
that it represents a contribution to learning.
See also Appendix B.3, ‘Guidelines for Classification in the MPhil in Medieval History Part
II’.
The best of previous years' dissertations are deposited in the Seeley History Library and you
may find it helpful to look at some of these as an indication of the quality of a good or very
good dissertation. Some of them may also be useful to your own research. (See Appendix D
for a list of dissertations available in the Seeley).
You should begin to prepare your dissertation already in the Michaelmas Term. You will
receive helpful feedback on the Bibliography and Bibliographical and Historiographical essay
submitted in Part I as you start to focus on the dissertation full-time.
7.2 Deadlines for submission
Dissertation titles must be submitted in their final form to the MPhil Office no later than
12.30 pm on Friday 21 January 2011. Any further changes of title must be notified to, and
approved by, the MPhil Sub-committee before submission. Please inform Tessa Blackman
and ensure that your supervisor sends his/her approval of the change.
The submission date for the dissertation is between 11.30 am and 12.30 pm on Wednesday
31 August 2011 (this date and time must be strictly adhered to). By this date, all MPhil
students must:
EITHER:
• submit the MPhil dissertation to the MPhil Office for examination;
OR
• have submitted – ideally at least 1-2 weeks prior to the dissertation submission date –
a Board of Graduate Studies deferral of submission application form AND supporting
documentation to the MPhil Office, for consideration by the MPhil Sub-Committee
and Degree Committee. In the past students have at times submitted dissertations with
pages missing. All dissertations should therefore be carefully checked for
completeness before they are submitted.
A labelled CD electronic version of the dissertation must also be submitted.
Mechanical breakdown in the functioning of word processors and printers will not normally
be regarded as a sufficient excuse for late submission. Students are therefore strongly advised
to plan to have completed their work a couple of days in advance of the deadlines in order to
avoid such problems.
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