Our ever expanding academic duties have included this year the novelty of participating on the examining boards for the new BA dissertations or TFG (‘Treball de Fi de Grau’). July has thus yet another day of very hard work that, as usual, must be deducted from research and that delays the official date for the end of teaching to 5 July –very, very late.
The TFG is a very confusing concept, beginning with its name, as it suggests it must be something that caps or crowns the whole BA degree. The word ‘dissertation’ is not, however, included in its official description, so we opted for giving students the chance to write simply an academic paper with at least 7 secondary sources. The particular topic must be agreed on with the tutor and must suit one of the three choices each teacher offers.
I was supposed to supervise two TFGs but ended up supervising three: on domestic abuse in Roddy Doyle’s moving The Woman Who Walked into Doors, homoeroticism in the thrilling BBC series Sherlock and the use of high culture in the demanding SF novels by Dan Simmons, Ilium and Olympus. In the three cases, both the process of tutoring my very intelligent tutorees and the end result have been extremely satisfactory, with clear possibilities in the three cases of doing further research within an MA and perhaps even a doctoral programme. It’s been also very hard work.
The TFG has become a personal elective subject, tailored to suit the needs of each student’s topic. In principle, my personal teaching account will receive seven hours for each completed TFG, which is far less than I have used (multiply by three at least). I don’t very much care because a) I have enjoyed the conversations with my tutorees, b) I have learnt from their projects, c) I consider these hours a kind of hybrid between teaching and research. Yet, it’s clear that spending so many hours on a teaching extra is a very hard to afford luxury.
All of us, teachers, are wondering besides what will happen when the less proficient students demand our help, as we’ll have to invest even more time on them. This means that soon there will be a fierce competition among students to choose the best tutors and among teachers to choose the best students. Tricky…
I attended 9 of the 10 Literature and Culture presentations (30 minutes each, 10 for the presentation and the rest for debate) and I must say it was a very positive experience. The topics seemed to me all very interesting, quite up-to-date as regards research. The students did generally very well, braving questions and comments that often seemed more apt for an MA viva. Perhaps the only problem is that as third year students did not attend these public oral examinations, we’ll have to repeat the effort of setting up a clear standard next year again. This is something we need to correct.
I can’t help, however, wondering why the whole process has been so stressful for both teachers and students, considering that, ultimately, they’re doing a kind of exercise they’re already familiar with, whether this is writing a paper or offering an oral presentation. My guess is that the label ‘TFG’ impresses them too much and that if we used, say, ‘Applied Academic Skills’ the whole concept would work much better. As usual, others decide for us and not always with the best pedagogic criteria.
To all our first TFG students: well done!!
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