Visiting Students

Visiting Student Information

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Each semester the Department of English welcomes over two hundred visiting students, mainly from the United States and Europe. The following guidelines explain some of the special procedures and conditions which apply to Visiting Students. 

• The Academic Co-ordinator for visiting students for 2017-18 is Mrs Bernadette O'Sullivan, Room 336, 2nd Floor, Arts Millennium Building 
• The Administrative Co-ordinator for visiting student matters is Ms Irene O'Malley and her office hours are posted on her door: Room 511, 3rd Floor, Tower 1. 
• Courses may be selected from both Second Year and Third Year programmes offered by the Department, subject to course availability.  Visiting students will find the selection of courses in our discipline listed in the Visiting Student Handbook. Please note that it is not safe to select courses from the discipline website, which displays courses from various programmes.  All modules available to visiting students for  2017-18 can be found in the Visiting Student Course Outline 2017-18
• If selecting courses from both Second and Third Year, please ensure that classes are not scheduled to take place at the same time.
• Students may select as many lecture courses as they wish. Lecture courses have a 5 ECTS (NUI, Galway) / 2 UNIT weighting.
• Students may select, if they wish, ONE seminar course per semester. Seminars may be selected from either Second or Third year seminars offered by the Department. Please note that entry to individual seminars is restricted in order to maintain small class sizes. Therefore, students are NOT permitted to get a seminar module pre-approved before arriving to Galway.  If you wish to register for a seminar, you must register directly with the department.
  Seminar Registration forms will be available at the Visiting Student Advisory Session at the beginning of term.  
  
• If you wish to regsiter for an English seminar, you must fill out the Seminar Registration Form and return it to the box in the English Department by Wednesday, 6th September at 12 noon.  These forms will be available at the Visiting Student Advisory Session in the Bailey Allen Hall on Friday, 1st September (English talk on at 10.50am).  
• When selecting courses, students are advised to pay careful attention to the weighting of each course to ensure that the combined weighting of the courses they study at NUI, Galway meets the criteria of their home university.
• A full course load for students at NUI, Galway consists of courses having a combined weighting of 12 units / 30 ECTS per semester. Visiting students may, depending on their needs, take fewer or more units but should carefully consider the implications, from the point of view of obtaining credit, of taking less than 12 units. Most courses in the English Department are worth 2 units, or 5 ECTS credits.

Assessment for Visiting Students

• All visiting students are assessed by essay in the English Department.
• Students should ensure that they will be able to meet the deadlines for their essays prior to booking their return flight home at the end of the semester.
• About mid-way through the term, students will be supplied with a list of essay titles in each course. The deadline for the submission of essays is non-negotiable. Only in the case of illness (a medical certificate must be presented) or some other serious personal problem, will an essay be accepted late.
• Essays for Lecture Courses will be submitted online via Turnitin on Blackboard.
• Deadlines for seminar assignments will be announced in seminar class.
• Final essay assignments for visiting students in the English Department expect that students will write between 2500 and 3500 words.    
• Please note that if a student discontinues a course for which s/he has registered, it is essential that the Department is notified in writing; otherwise the university transcripts will record an absence.
• Students should adopt the MLA Style of citation. Copies of the latest guidelines are in the Library. Students may purchase Tory Young’s Studying English Literature which contains examples of the MLA style.
• Students should check the Visiting Student Departmental Notice Board (near Room 511, English Department) from time to time during term also.