Studying at Cambridge and Girton
Students from all colleges share resources provided by, or organised by, the University or its Faculties. The faculties and departments decide on and design the courses to be offered by the University, organising the lectures, practicals and classes; they are also responsible for setting and marking the examinations. The University also awards your final degree. Students in a given subject therefore take the same course whichever college they are at, and they have access to the same excellent departmental facilities, specialist libraries and computing facilities.
In addition, however, the colleges provide the personal academic guidance and small-group teaching which are the great strengths of the Cambridge collegiate system. At Girton you will have a Director of Studies – a specialist in your subject area – who will look after your academic welfare whilst you are at Cambridge and will get to know you very well. Your Director of Studies will be involved in admissions and will almost certainly interview you during the selection process.
Throughout your undergraduate career your Director of Studies will meet up with you regularly, will give you advice on subject options and on which lectures you should attend and will monitor and discuss your progress. Your Director of Studies is also responsible for deciding what supervisions you will need and for selecting your supervisors.
Supervisions are a distinctive feature of the way we do our teaching in Cambridge – they are teaching sessions in which small groups of students meet with a senior member of the College or a graduate student who is a specialist in the subject. You will have at least one one-hour supervision every week – in some subjects you may have three or four – when you will have the opportunity to discuss and clarify aspects of your work in an informal way. Your supervisor will set and mark your work, will guide reading and will provide insights into your subject which take you beyond what is covered in the lectures. Your supervision work is not formally assessed but it is an essential part of your education at Cambridge. Your Director of Studies may well supervise you at some stage and you will also be supervised from time to time by members of other colleges – this flexibility allows you to benefit from the best available teaching in the subject area you want specialise in.
The Cambridge degree courses are called Triposes and are normally divided into two parts – Part I and Part II. Subjects are differently structured, with some having a two-year Part I and a one-year Part II and others having a one-year Part I and a two-year Part II. There are examinations at the end of each Part of a Tripos and in most subjects there are examinations at the end of each year. You must pass all these examinations before you can be awarded your degree from the University – whether you take a science or an arts course your degree will be a BA Hons. In some science subjects there are four-year courses which also lead to the award of an MSci or MEng. Whilst the majority of students read just one subject over their three- or four-year undergraduate careers, a small number choose to take advantage of the flexibility of the Cambridge course structure to change to a new subject after one or two years.