Please note that this information applies only when you have satisfied all the conditions laid down by the Board of Graduate Studies and received a final letter of confirmation admitting you to the course.
By now you will have received formal notification from the Board of Graduate Studies of your provisional acceptance as a graduate student in this Faculty from October 2011.
You are invited to attend the relevant Induction Meeting for your course. It is most important that you arrive in Cambridge in time to attend this meeting and to register with us. This meeting will give you the opportunity to meet your fellow students and the Chairman and Secretary of the course. A Course Handbook will be emailed to you before Induction Meeting. Your supervision arrangements will be clarified at this meeting as well.
In the time remaining before your admission to the University you would be well advised to begin preparing yourself for your research career here. You could consider the acquisition of appropriate skills, such as typing or word-processing. You could devote time to acquiring or consolidating knowledge of languages likely to be important in your research. Above all, you could give further thought to your initial research proposal and the field within which it lies – by beginning your survey of the relevant secondary literature considering possible primary sources, and reflecting upon your preliminary research strategy. If you are admitted to the Economic and Social History MPhil, it would be helpful if you could read some of the proposed books for the Central Concepts course before you arrive in Cambridge.
Modern Languages Tuition
Classes are provided in Beginners French and German; Intermediate French and German; Italian. They are intended primarily for students who need a reading knowledge of the relevant language for their research. You should consult your supervisor for his/her opinion as to which foreign language (if any) you will need to read for your dissertation. Please note that the Beginners Classes are intended only for persons starting on a PhD or aiming to work towards a PhD upon completion of their MPhil course. They are not suitable for those taking only an MPhil, since an adequate reading knowledge will not be attainable in time for the writing of the dissertation. You will receive further information about enrolment in Classes in your Course Handbook.
Latin
Latin Classes are provided by the University Lector in Post-Classical Latin, Dr Neil Wright. Medieval MPhil students must attend his Intensive Latin course in September. If you are a non-medievalist who would - with your supervisor’s approval - like to attend his Consolidation course in Michaelmas Term, you should get in touch with Dr Wright at the very beginning of Michaelmas Full Term.
MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History students
You are expected to give some thought to your research essay proposal for the first (Michaelmas Term) essay. You will fix the topic and the title with your supervisor, but you should start the preparatory work in the summer already. Prepare more than one topic of your choice, preferably ones that might connect to your dissertation topic later in the academic year.
It is a requirement of the MPhil course that you attend a weekly text reading and interpretation class during the first term. Students will be divided into two classes. One class will study Hobbes; the other class will study Hume. The allocation of students between the two classes will be made by the Academic Secretary in early September when we know for certain how many students will be on the course and will depend on the overall numbers and the distribution of student interests. You will be notified once this allocation has been made and be provided with a reading list. Students must attend their prescribed class, but also may audit the other one. You can start reading for these classes in the summer already. In the first instance it might be helpful if you also consulted the undergraduate bibliographies that are used in Cambridge for the study of Hume and Hobbes as a part of the History of Political Thought papers in the Historical Tripos.
We look forward to welcoming you to Cambridge in early October. If you have any questions you may contact the Administrative Secretaries. Please note that many supervisors will be away from Cambridge or busy in the summer and will not normally expect to be in touch with you until the autumn.
Please complete the July Letter Reply Slip for your course and return it to the History Faculty by 31 August 2011 either by post or by e-mail attachment:
- MPhil in Economic and Social History*
- MPhil in Early Modern History
- MPhil in Historical Studies
- MPhil in Medieval History
- MPhil in Modern European History*
- MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History
*Some reply slips require new students to indicate course preference(s). The relevant course descriptions can be found here.