Faculty of Classics - University of Cambridge

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Studying Classics at Cambridge

How we teach is as important as what we teach. All students in Classics benefit from tuition which is organised centrally by the Faculty and, on a more individual basis, by the college. Colleges also provide you with a Director of Studies in Classics, who will help you maximise your potential.

This variety of provision allows us to offer a unique level of care and flexibility. Lectures are offered on all parts of the course as well as in some areas that cut across discipline, while classes (especially in Part II) allow you to debate issues and formulate your own arguments.

Likewise, throughout your degree course, college-teaching or “supervision” offers you the chance to study the ancient world in depth, often emphasising a different angle from in the lectures. The format of supervisions differs according to college. Often you will write an essay in advance and discuss it with your supervisors and one or two other students. There is a real opportunity to work on each individual’s intellectual development. Supervisions train you to think critically and independently.

In addition to lectures and seminars, the Classics Faculty also provides a number of “site visits” both in the UK and abroad. Its Museum of Classical Archaeology on the first floor of the Faculty building houses one of the finest collections of casts of classical sculpture in the world, and is regularly used in art and archaeology teaching. The Faculty also has an excellent pottery or sherd collection. The library downstairs completes the picture. Not only is it a wonderful resource for primary and secondary literature on open access, but is comfortable, light and airy, Undergraduates, graduates and lecturing staff find it a friendly and productive place to work.
  
Case Study: Being at the same college, Natalia Kim and Emily Schurr are regularly supervised together.Natalia and Emily in the MuseumThey write: “Supervisions have been the most rewarding part of our academic experience of Cambridge . You get a chance to voice your own opinions about issues raised in the lectures — it’s a really important thinking process that prevents you from just reproducing what other people have written. It is also essential to have a balance of contribution between the supervisions partners — then you can really get a debate going.”

Illustration: Seneca, Epistulae morales 1.1 CCC MS 107 f. 156 R (c. 1500).  By kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.