Teaching
At Cambridge and at Caius, learning is characterised by an emphasis on independent and self-directed study within a teaching system which pays a great deal of attention to the individual. We believe that the education we offer is second to none. Caius admits undergraduate and graduate students in every subject offered by the University.
At Cambridge and Caius, students are generally taught in two complementary ways: lectures, organised by a faculty and attended by students from across the University; supervisions, very small group sessions, often one-to-one or two-to-one, which are organised by the College. Caius has a Director of Studies for every subject, a Fellow (senior academic) with particular responsibility for overseeing a student's academic development, structuring their tuition, and offering regular guidance. There may well be a number of other Fellows in Caius with teaching and research responsibilities in a given subject. Details of our teaching provision in each subject are available here.
Lectures cover the basics of a subject and act as a starting point for your own research and reading. They may be attended by anything from a dozen to several hundred students, and as many of our lecturers work at the forefront of their research fields, lectures are a fantastic opportunity to find out about the latest findings and be inspired by leading academics who share your passion for the subject.
During seminars and classes you’ll have the opportunity to explore a particular topic in more detail with a medium-sized group (between 6 and 30 students, for example). Led by lecturers, seminars and classes are less formal than lectures and more interactive – you’re expected to contribute actively to discussions.
Supervisions are teaching sessions for individual students, pairs or small groups with a subject expert, the supervisor. This personal tuition is one of our greatest strengths and a striking advantage of studying at Cambridge. Most students find their supervisions the most rewarding and beneficial part of their course. Designed to help students develop skills to learn independently, supervisions are a fantastic opportunity to explore course material in much greater depth than lectures allow, gain further insights into the subject and clarify any areas of uncertainy.
At Caius, our large fellowship (body of senior academics) means that we are able to offer many supervisions in-house and in small groups. In many larger subjects one-to-one supervision remains the norm, although supervision in pairs is also common. Students are likely to go to different supervisors for different parts of the course where they are specialists in particular areas of your subject. Our College Directors of Studies will always make sure that our students have the best supervisor for a given term's work, and it may well be that they will arrange supervisions at other Colleges if appropriate.
Typically students have a couple of hour-long supervisions each week although the frequency does vary from course to course. What actually happens during supervisions also varies but generally students are expected to prepare an essay or work through some problems in advance of the sessions, using material from a reading list or lectures and practicals, which is then discussed. Students receive regular reports from your supervisors but aren’t formally assessed on this work, so they can take advantage of this chance to take risks with their own ideas, investigate new approaches, and discuss both the set topic and other aspects of the course.
More information on College and University teaching is available here.