Master of Philosophy in Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology

1. The Social Sciences Board shall elect for the supervision of the course a Standing Committee, namely the Teaching Committee of the School of Anthropology, which shall have power to arrange lectures and other instruction. The course director shall be responsible to that committee. In order to pass the degree, a student must pass all its assessed components. Where one or more components are failed, the student will be given the opportunity to re-sit or re-submit them once, as the case may be. Any subsequent award of the degree on successful completion of all the assessed components may be delayed by up to three terms, i.e. until the Examination Board next meets.

2. The examinations shall consist of the following:

• (1) Qualifying Examination Every candidate will be required to satisfy the examiners in an examination for which, if he or she passes at the appropriate level, he or she will be allowed to proceed to the second year of the M.Phil. Candidates must follow a course of instruction in Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology for at least three terms, and will, when entering for the examinations, be required to produce a certificate from their supervisor to this effect. The Qualifying Examination shall be taken in the Trinity Term of the academic year in which the candidate's name is first entered on the Register of M.Phil. students or, with the approval of the divisional board, in a subsequent year.
 Each candidate will be required to satisfy the examiners in papers 1-4 on the syllabus described in the Schedule for the M.Sc. in Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology, and governed by regulation 4 for that degree, except that for Paper 3(a) an outline proposal for the M.Phil. thesis research of no more than 2,500 words should be submitted.

• (2) Final Examination  
This shall be taken in the Trinity Term of the academic year following that in which the candidate's name is first entered on the register of M.Phil. students or, with the approval of the divisional board, in a subsequent year.
 Each candidate shall be required:

  • (i) to present himself or herself themselves for written examination   or to submit for examination one coursework essay, as required for the course, in one of the optional areas or topics available for that year in Lists A, B, or C, other than that taken by the candidate in the M.Phil. Qualifying Examination the previous year;

  • (ii)  to submit via WebLearnthe University approved online assessment platform not later than noon on TuesdayThursday of the fifth week of Trinity Term an essay of 5,000 words (three copies) in the field of Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology, on a topic to be selected from a list set by the examiners at the beginning of the third week of Trinity Term (candidates should not duplicate any material already used in their submission for paper 2 in the Qualifying Examination in the previous year); the essay must be anonymous, accompanied by confirmation that it is the candidate’’s own work, and submitted in Wordelectronic file format;

  • (iii) to submit a thesis in accordance with the regulations below;

  • (iv) to present himself or herselfthemselves for oral examination if required by the examiners.

Thesis

3. Each candidate shall be required to submit a thesis of not more than 30,000 words (excluding references and appendices) on a subject approved by the supervisor. The thesis may be based on the analysis of objects or photographs in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, or a topic from one of the subject areas covered during the qualifying year, including option topics. The candidate shall send to the Teaching Committee of the School of Anthropology, with the written approval of his or her supervisor, and on the form provided for that purpose, the proposed preliminary title of the thesis, together with a paragraph describing its scope, by noon on the TuesdayThursday of the fifth week of the Trinity term of the first year of the course. A further form, identical in its provisions, and confirming or amending the earlier submission as necessary, shall be submitted to the above Committee by noon on Monday of the second week of Michaelmas Term in the academic year following that in which his or her name was entered on the register of M.Phil. students. The thesis (three copies) must be typewrittensubmitted and delivered tovia the ChairUniversity ofapproved Examiners,online M.Phil.assessment in Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology, c/o Examination Schools, High Street, Oxford, platform not later than TuesdayThursday of the second week of the Trinity Full Term inof the academicsecond year in whichof the Final Examination is takenM.Phil. The dissertationthesis must be anonymous, accompanied by confirmation that it is the candidate’s own work, and submitted in electronic file format. The thesis shall be provided with an abstract of up to 250 words, to be placed immediately after the title page. The word count shall be stated on the outsidetitle front coverpage of the thesis.

4. The examiners shall require a successful candidate to deposit a copy of his or her thesis in the Balfour Library. If the thesis is superseded by a D.Phil. thesis by the same student partly using the same material, the Graduate Studies Committee of the School of Anthropology may authorise the withdrawal of the M.Phil. thesis from the Balfour Library. Such candidates will be required to sign a form stating whether they give permission for their thesis to be consulted.

5. The examiners may award a distinction for excellence in the whole examination.