Programme Specification: MSc China in Comparative Perspective
1. Awarding Body
2. Details of accreditation by a
professional/statutory body, e.g. ESRC;
BPS etc
3. Name of final award
4. Programme Title
5. Duration of the course
6. Based in the Department/Institute:
7. Relevant QAA subject benchmark
statements
8. Application Code
9. First written/last amended
LSE
N/A
MSc
China in Comparative Perspective
Full-time 12 months
Anthropology
N/A
L6U2
March 2006 / December 2010
10. The programme aims to:
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Provide knowledge of China within the context of an LSE social science training;
Help students place China in a comparative framework, historically, analytically, and
within international and global relations;
Prepare students with a well-informed, conceptually sound and critical analytic basis
for professional, consultancy, media, INGO, diplomatic and business work concerning
China;
Enable students to pursue research degrees in the social science of their first degree,
with a focus on China;
Serve as a gateway for students and scholars from “both sides” to understand and
engage with each other’s countries;
Familiarise students with the approaches to China of students using other social
science disciplines than their own.
11. Programme outcomes: knowledge and understanding; skills and other attributes
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A well-rehearsed negotiation of conceptual issues in the history, politics, economics
and anthropology of China;
Knowledge of at least one other comparator and how to relate China to other
appropriate comparators;
The conduct of sustained comparative research and analysis.
12. Teaching, learning and assessment strategies to enable outcomes to be achieved
and demonstrated
Teaching strategies:
Students take a compulsory core course of 24 lectures and accompanying seminars on China
in comparative perspective. During the seminars they are expected to discuss the issues
raised in the lectures and examine the content of the lecture and the required reading
critically.
To enable them to practice what they are learning, they also have 10 compulsory tutorial
classes for which they write non-assessed essays and discuss them with their tutor
To prepare them for research, students attend a series of ten further seminars in the second
term, during which they present dissertation proposals for comparisons with China jointly with
other students.
Each student must plan, present the plan, and then carry out their own comparative research
and analysis for a 10,000 dissertation.
To further the social science discipline in which they are already qualified, or to sample other
disciplines, students take two further course units, chosen from a list of options in addition to
the compulsory core course and the dissertation.
Assessment strategies:
The three course units are examined entirely by written and invigilated examination. Each
counts for 25% of the total. This will test students’ ability to think and write quickly on subjects
about which they have read. The dissertation makes up the remaining 25%.
See information relating to careers.
13. Programme structures and requirements, levels, modules and awards
See the MSc China in Comparative Perspective programme regulations.
Additional information
14. Criteria for admission to the programme
A first degree in a social science, graded 1st or upper 2nd or their equivalents. Students for
whom English is a second language must provide evidence of competence in English for
higher education.
15. Indicators of quality
This is a new programme, starting in October 2006. The rate of applications has been very
high and consequently the quality of the students to whom offers have been made is very
high. The variety and range of the interests and experiences drawing them to take this course
is great and promises to be very stimulating.
The LSE Careers Centre website provides data on career destinations of LSE Anthropology
graduates.
16. Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standard of teaching and
learning
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Student feedback during seminars and tutorials;
Course teaching surveys;
MSc student representative meetings with the director of the course;
Postgraduate teaching review;
School quality assurance processes include:
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regular staff appraisal and review;
improvements in teaching technique are effected by the Teaching and Learning
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Centre (TLC) through observations, advice and further training;
induction programme and mentoring scheme for new members of staff;
Staff/student liaison committee;
centrally administered student satisfaction questionnaires by the Teaching Quality
Assurance and Review Office;
an improved system for ensuring that External Examiner’s
comments/recommendations are fed through to Departments and acted upon;
the School’s Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee (TLAC) which regulates
all aspects of teaching quality;
annual monitoring of courses and periodic reviews every 3-5 years. The outcomes of
the annual reviews are presented to TLAC;
the School’s Undergraduate Studies Sub Committee and Graduate Studies Sub
Committee which oversee all taught programmes and ensure that significant changes
to programmes and courses pass through a sequence of formal stages to ensure that
curricular changes are appropriate and compatible with other developments.