Aims

Apart from its specific requirements, any seminar in a third-year degree course must be a pedagogical tool by which the student can assess his or her own work from a minimum of four different perspectives: research; drafting a paper; oral presentation; and participation in discussions.

Main themes

There is great flexibility in the organisation of the seminar (number of classes, organisation of weekends, etc.). However, for a seminar with 15 students, there must be a total of 30 hours of group classes and the method adopted must allow considerable time for group discussion. Whatever time of year the seminar begins, a preliminary meeting must take place in the two weeks immediately after the start of the academic year, when the subjects will be allocated, or at least suggested to the students. Even if the submission of a written paper is required before or at the oral presentation, it must still be possible for students to revise their texts, and the date for the final submission of papers must be the same for everyone. The standard of the written submission must be that of a paper or article suitable for publication. It must include original references. Any failure to meet the standards of scientific probity (i.e. plagiarism) will be severely penalised. The course tutor checks for style and grammatical errors. The length of the written work may vary according to circumstances, but should be between 20 and 50 pages (the maximum may be extended for a group submission). Any paper produced by a group must include individual contributions from each member. All tasks relating to the seminar must be completed by the end of April.

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