First statistics assignment
Milan
think the questions are awfully vague. While they have shown us a few
commands for generating graphs in STATA, they haven't really told us
anything about how to interpret them. While I don't think their
expectations can be terribly high, I am nonetheless rather nervous
about the whole thing. It's a nervousness that does not sit well beside
the need to read for the core seminar tomorrow.
Milan
From: Lee Jones
<lee....@politics-and-international-relations.oxford.ac.uk>
Organization: St Antony's College, Oxford
Reply-To: Lee Jones
<lee....@politics-and-international-relations.oxford.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:46:16 +0100
Subject: A Note about Quantitative Methods
Dear all,
I'm writing to update on on the Quantitative Methods course.
I was, as some of you already know, extremely angry to find out
yesterday that the Graduate Studies Committee has authorised the staff
teaching the QM course to assess 50% of the course through a 'test'.
This is something James Tilley has been lobbying for since last
Christmas and which both I (on behalf of students), the Director of
Graduate Studies and the Director of Postgraduate Research were all
adamantly opposed to.
2nd years will recall I solicited a lot of feedback about the courses
last year and I worked a lot with the dept to try to make sure the QM
course in particular would not be as god awful as it was last year. In
addition you all completed course feedback forms and wrote
self-assessments which added to the case for change. I really feel
that I have let students down, because the arrangements for the course
have actually worsened rather than having improved.
The explanation for the institution of the test is fairly mundane: the
new post-doctoral fellow who was specifically hired to teach QM for IR
students (a positive step forward, as a result of student feedback)
is unable to mark essays at the start of Hilary term due to prior
commitments - hence the exam. Furthermore IR was in a weak position to
push for 100% coursework because of two instances of plagiarism last
year. However, the Director of Graduate Studies has assured me that
the institution of the test is to be regarded as a one-off, temporary
measure to overcome this staffing issue this year only. I can only say
how sorry I am to the 1st years that they must endure this.
On the course itself, it has changed little, and this is again very
frustrating given the concrete suggestions I laid out for the dept
many months ago. The excuse given is that the new post-doc was (for
reasons the dept will not disclose to me) unreachable over the summer,
and therefore arrived without any chance to reform the course
substantively. This year the IR students are being taught separately
from others, and for most of the assignments, Correlates of War data
will be used to make it IR-relevant. However, so far the content of
the lecture series appears not to have changed, focuses on abstract
principles of statistics, and does not marry with the classes
particularly; there is limited utility to teaching STATA. Given this
it seems unlikely that course will fulfil the basic requirement of
providing students with skills to engage critically with IR work that
makes use of QM.
I think it is fair to say that departmental incompetence at some level
is responsible for the failure to fundamentally reform this course.
The department is aware of the damning feedback given by all students
as Marga excerpted all remarks from all feedback forms and
self-assessments into a single document, which the GSC did read. I
have conveyed frustration and disappointment that, given the fact the
dept has known since last January/February how people feel about the
QM course, nothing has happened.
However, with the new Director of Graduate Research Training in place,
a review panel is being established to completely rebuild the course
from scratch. Its work will be two-fold: first, look at what
comparable institutions do, and address Oxford's tendency to
over-comply with ESRC regulations; second, get thorough input from
students. The first part has already begun, and I hope when the second
part begins many of you will be willing to participate.
Apologies for the length of this email but I wanted to let everyone
know all the facts as I understand them. But, really, more apologies
for the fact that this nut is yet to be cracked.
Best wishes,
Lee
--
Lee Jones
MPhil in International Relations Programme
St Antony's College, Oxford
E: lee....@politics.ox.ac.uk
M: 07984 579071
W: http://www.leejones.tk
'They who would give up an essential liberty
for temporary security deserve neither
liberty nor security'
- Benjamin Franklin
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