|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In registering for classes for the fall semester 2007, students should pay special attention to area designations. The Curriculum Committees of the Krieger School and the Whiting School recently have overseen a review of the areas of knowledge designators associated with certain courses that satisfy the curricular requirement that all students earning bachelor's degrees have some exposure to the fields of learning represented by the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences, quantitative and mathematical sciences, or engineering. A number of course designations have been changed, and students should look carefully at the designations associated with the course listings on the Registrar's website. Not all courses carry designations. Changes in area designations for individual courses do not affect students who have taken those courses in previous semesters; they will be considered as having satisfied areas of knowledge requirements according to the designations attached to courses at the time of enrollment in that course. Students should note also that the designations for some writing intensive courses are subject to change from semester to semester, depending on whether the instructor designs assignments that fulfill the requirements for courses designated as writing intensive. You should look carefully at the coding of courses to be certain that a course you intend to use to satisfy the writing requirement has a "W."
The Committee on Independent Work, including students, faculty and deans from the schools of Engineering and of Arts and Sciences, met in 2006 to reexamine policies affecting internships and independent study and research. This website explains these recommendations, which have been accepted by the Deans of the Krieger and Whiting Schools. INTERNSHIPS Because internships ordinarily are done off campus without direct faculty supervision or evaluation, awarding academic credit for them is complicated. Internships may be valuable as personal and pre-professional experiences, but this value doesn't make them "academic" or necessarily worthy of academic credit. To protect the integrity of academic credit, the Committee decided to revise the policies regarding internships. Beginning with the summer of 2007, students may earn only one S/U academic credit for internships that are not part of formal academic courses. Credit may not be given for simply doing the job nor for working a certain number of hours. Instead, at the time of registration, the sponsoring faculty member and the student must agree on an academic component, such as a journal, series of essays, research paper, annotated bibilography, etc., that will be evaluated by the faculty member. Students who wish to earn the equivalent more credits must register for no more than two credits of independent study and complete a more substantial product, using the internship to inform that body of work. Also note that internships done as an integral part of a faculty-led course (e.g., the Aitcheson Program in Washington, DC., the Practicum in Community Health, and the Urban Policy Internship) are not subject to these policychanges. INDEPENDENT STUDY and RESEARCH Policies affecting these academic opportunities were not changed by the Committee as much as clarified. As usual, only full-time AS/EN faculty or other faculty formally designated by their department can sponsor this work although other Hopkins faculty may supervise such projects. Students may still earn graded or S/U credit. As with internships, the university will continue to not charge summer tuition for independent work. The Committee underlined the importance of close monitoring of the demands of the experience. Faculty should consider the work load associated with independent study (papers, readings, etc.) in comparison to a typical three-credit course. If the requirements are comparable, three credits may be earned. If not, they will award one or two credits in appropriate proportion. Likewise, faculty will evaluate credit for research based on hours worked and other measures such as a final report, substantive contributions, and general productivity. Letter grades should be reserved for those experiences that result in an academic product or exercise that can be graded; the use of S/U is appropriate, otherwise. The Neuroscience program has now adopted this policy for all its research requirements. Questions about these policy changes may be directed to the respective advising offices of the two schools. FAQ's about Independent Work can be found at http://www.jhu.edu/advising/FAQ.html
Last modified: May 29, 2007
|