Supervisions and Supervisors

The Colleges and undergraduate teaching

Each College is a separate institution with its own structure, culture and philosophy. Colleges appoint their own staff and are responsible for selecting and admitting undergraduate students. Undergraduate students are selected and admitted by the Colleges and the Colleges provide small-group teaching for their undergraduates.

The undergraduate supervision system

A supervision is the Cambridge name for a small-group teaching session. These are usually one hour in length with one to four students and (usually) a member of the College who is a specialist in the subject. Supervisions are arranged by Colleges and are a great opportunity to explore the course material in a much greater depth than lectures allow. Different supervisors may structure supervisions in different ways, and often tailored for the individual students concerned. All supervisions aim to clarify any points brought up in lectures or other material students have come across, to engage in in-depth problem-solving and to allow students to explore and discuss aspects of the course of most interest to them. Supervisions allow for students to learn in ways most suited to them and help them to learn independently.

Students are usually asked to prepare in some way for supervisions, by either submitting work (essays or completed problems) beforehand or preparing other work to present. Supervisions are not formally assessed (they do not count towards the degree) and students are encouraged to use them to explore new approaches to learning and topics outside of the lectures. All students receive regular reports from their supervisors, which may also be used by the College to provide evidence to the University of diligent study, if required.

Training of supervisors

The Faculty places great value on the training and formation of future tertiary-level teachers.  We run a series of seminars, taught by senior members of the Faculty, which are designed to equip graduate students in a variety of teaching skills, including supervising and lecturing.  All graduate students who wish to be added to the Faculty’s lists of approved supervisors must attend the seminar on supervising and the University PPD section's supervision training workshop. Graduate students will also be given the opportunity to present an undergraduate-level lecture and receive peer feedback on it.

Supervisors in Theology & Religious Studies

The Paper Coordinator and Supervisor details are available from the links below. A CamTools account at Divinity is required in order to view these files: