The Forum is an essential component of our undergraduate
programmes in the Schools of Design and Fine Art (except PD and
PDE). Over the four years of the undergraduate degree programme,
students from both Schools study together for one day per week.
This opportunity for artists and designers studying specialisms
ranging from photography to textiles, to work and learn together
and inspire each other is invaluable.
The range of teaching styles varies from traditional keynote
lectures to interactive discussion groups and experiential
learning. Courses are constructed in order to both underpin studio
practice and to open out and extend the range of student
research.
All students are required to attend lectures and discussion
groups, to make oral presentations, to write essays and in the
final year, to present a piece of personal research in the form of
an Extended Essay (20% of the final degree mark) or a Dissertation
(30% of the final degree mark).
Students requiring learning support are provided with additional
teaching tailored to individual needs. Each student also has a
departmental contact tutor who acts in an advisory and pastoral
capacity in relation to progress in Forum for Critical Inquiry.
Information on the curriculum is detailed below.
Year 1
Year 1 of the BA (Hons) programme is introductory and also
interdisciplinary. Students are introduced to methods and processes
of historical and critical research, writing and reading. A lecture
series outlining key ideas, events and movements in Design and Fine
Art from 1800 -1960 is delivered. Students are given lectures as
one large group in the Glasgow Film Theatre thus offering an
opportunity for Art and Design students to meet and socialise.
There are also weekly discussion groups, which are a mix of art and
design students. These allow for student led seminars or focused
topic-based discussions. In Year 1 students are assessed on the
basis of two essays and one oral presentation.
Year 2
In Year 2 students enter their specialisms and the Forum courses
have been designed to reflect this while still providing
opportunities for diversification and cross-disciplinary
engagement. In this year contemporary issues for designers and
artists are explored in the two core courses, Leaving the Twentieth
Century and Cultural Studies and Design, and in Terms 2 & 3,
option courses are provided for all students which reflect staff
specialist interests.
Year 3
In Term 1 of Year 3, students are again offered a menu of
specialist courses. However, in this term only one course is taken
to allow for more engagement with the topic. Also in this term
students are required to select topics for the Extended Essay or
Dissertation. This is done through consultation with staff in the
Forum and is a well-paced and supported process. A separate
Extended Essay/Dissertation booklet is available which describes
the whole process in detail. The assessment procedure for Term 1 is
again appropriate for the selected course and may be by essay,
report, presentation or creative writing.
In Terms 2 & 3 of Year 3, students engage in self-directed
study in the form of research and development of the extended essay
or dissertation.
Year 4
In Year 4 students finalise their degree submission for the
Fourm component. For those students submitting an Extended Essay
(5,000 - 7,000 words in length. 15% of the final degree
submission), this is a relatively short procedure culminating in a
hand-in in early November.
For those students submitting the Dissertation (8,000 -12,000
words in length, 30% of the final degree submission), engagement
with the Forum is more extensive and requires additional tutorials
and 2 days writing and research per week throughout Term 1.
Dissertations are submitted in the first week of Term 2.
