Planning your Year 1 curriculum

Some students come to university with precise intentions about what they want to study and why; others will want to experience a range of subjects, or may be uncertain and will wish to keep their options open. Our Master of Arts programmes can successfully accommodate all of these situations and more and you can tailor your degree to suit your interests and strengths as you progress.  

In most cases, a Year 1 curriculum should allow you to build a  foundation that makes more than one Honours degree subject an option for you later on, and usually a choice of Honours degree subjects will remain open to you until the end of Year 2. This means you will have the opportunity of reassessing your choice after one or two years of  study at the University of Glasgow.  

Choose and enrol on your compulsory courses by selecting ‘My Requirements’ on My Campus.  

You can enrol in your optional courses there too.  Click on a course in the Optional Courses lists for information on content and timetabling.  You might want to choose a subject that will suit your future career plans, or something that you have not been able to study at school. 

As you make your choices, remember:  

  1. You can choose subjects from other colleges - see the options in "My Requirements" in MyCampus. Please remember that it is compulsory for students on an MA programme to take at least 120 credits from courses within Arts over Years 1 and 2 combined. 
  2. Most courses do not require prior experience. For most Arts subjects, you do not need to have studied the subject at school or have prior experience.  All language subjects have beginners’ options as well as options for those who have already studied them, although even the beginners’ courses will normally expect you to have some experience of learning a foreign language.  If you do well in a beginners’ option, you may be able to study the language to Honours if you wish. Music and Mathematics, and some Science subjects, do require prior experience, and you will be able to find the details through the Course Catalogue.  
  3. Choosing your subjects for single and joint honours 
    If you are a Single Honours student, at least one of your two optional subjects should be a subject with which you would be willing to continue into Year 2 at Level 2. If you are a Joint Honours student, you should still bear this in mind when you choose your optional course, as it may be a subject you find you prefer to your other two subjects.  It is preferable that you choose three subjects in Year 1, any two of which could be continued at Level 2 in Year 2, dependent upon your preferences at that time. 
  1. Study abroad opportunities  
    If you think that you might want to take part in the exchange programme to an EU University (in your third year), then you may find it useful to take an appropriate language. Credit-bearing courses are available through the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, including Languages for International Mobility, which you may take in Year 2. 
  2. Oversubscribed courses 
    Some subjects are oversubscribed and may need to limit their enrolment to students who have applied for them through UCAS. Currently this applies to Film and TV Studies and Creative Industries.  Entry to all subjects is guaranteed only for those who applied for the subject through UCAS, but most Arts subjects will be able to take Year 1 students into Level 1 courses. 
  3. Timetable clashes 
    Some courses are incompatible because their timetables clash. If they clash in Year 1, MyCampus will let you know, and you will be unable to enrol in both. If the clash is in Year 2 or later, MyCampus will not be able to tell you this in Year 1, so please check the list of Year 2 timetable clashes on the College website. You will find it the College of Arts Registration & Enrolment webpages. 
  4. Courses that do not lead to a degree 
    Some courses do not lead to a degree and therefore are preferably not to be included in a Year 1 curriculum. They will not appear as available choices under ‘My Requirements’, and you should not enrol in these until Year 2. 

Grades 

On completion of a course, a grade is awarded, with A1 being the highest and H the lowest. Entry into Honours requires that you pass your Year 2 courses in the relevant subject at the first attempt and that you pass them at a grade determined by the relevant subject. Admission to the degree in Year 1 does not guarantee eventual acceptance to Honours. 

To enter honours, you must achieve a grade of D3 or better in at least 200 of these credits (i.e. you are allowed 40 credits below a D3).  You must also achieve the subject specific entry requirements for Honours in the first sitting.