Requirements to Pass 

In order to pass this unit a student must obtain a mark of 50 or more for the unit (i.e. obtain a passing grade P/ CR/ D/ HD).

For further details about grading, please refer to Schedule 1 of the Assessment Policy. 

Grading 

The College will award common result grades as specified in Schedule 1 of the Assessment Policy.

Students will receive criteria and standards for specific assessment tasks, which will be aligned with the grading descriptors given in Schedule 1.

The attainment (or otherwise) of learning outcomes for a unit of study will be reported by grade and mark which will correspond to the Schedule 1 and be as outlined below.

Final Grades not receiving a mark because the student has withdrawn after the Census Date , not submitted or completed one or more components of the assessment, has been awarded a supplementary assessment or because of an unresolved matter such as allegations of academic misconduct are outlined in Schedule 1.

Where to find information about assessment

General assessment information including the number and nature of assessments, due dates and weightings has been provided in this unit guide.

Specific assessment information including assignment instructions, questions, marking criteria and rubrics as well as examples of relevant and related assessment tasks and responses will be available in the Assessment section on iLearn. For units that have final examinations, students may access past final exam papers using MultiSearch.   

Student Responsibilities

As per the Assessment Policy, students are responsible for their learning and are expected to:

• actively engage with assessment tasks, including carefully reading the guidance provided, understanding criteria, spending sufficient time on the task and submitting work on time;
• read, reflect and act on feedback provided;
• actively engage in activities designed to develop assessment literacy, including taking the initiative where appropriate (e.g. seeking clarification or advice, negotiating learning contracts, developing grading criteria and rubrics);
• provide constructive feedback on assessment processes and tasks through student feedback mechanisms (e.g. student surveys, suggestions for future offerings, student representation on committees);
• ensure that their work is their own; and
•  be familiar with University policy and College procedures and act in accordance with those policy and procedures.

Submission of Assessment Tasks 

Assessments must be submitted in accordance with instructions provided in this unit guide. Assessment tasks which have not been submitted as required will not be marked; they will be considered a non-submission and zero marks will be awarded for the task.

Extensions & Late Submissions

Extensions will only be granted as a result of a Disruptions to Studies Notification for which special consideration has been awarded. To apply for an extension of time for submission of an assessment item, students must submit their Disruptions to Studies notification via ask.mq.edu.au.

Late submissions without an approved extension are possible but will be penalised at 20% per 24 hour period or thereof up to 4 days (weekend inclusive).

Example: An assignment is due at 5:00 pm on a Friday and is marked out of 100 marks.

• If a student submits at 5:02 pm on the Friday and no Disruptions to Studies or special consideration is granted, a penalty of 20% of the total marks possible (20 marks) will be deducted from their result.
• If the student submits the assignment on Sunday and no Disruptions to Studies or special consideration is granted, then a penalty of 40% (40 marks) will be deducted and so on.
• If a student submits an assessment task 5 or more days after the due date and no Disruptions to Studies or special consideration is granted, a record or submission will be made but the student will receive zero marks for the assessment task. 

Retention of Originals

It is the responsibility of the student to retain a copy of any work submitted. Students must produce these documents upon request. Copies should be retained until the end of the grade appeal period each term.

In the event that a student is asked to produce another copy of work submitted and is unable to do so, they may be awarded zero (0) for that particular assessment task.

Requests for original documentation will be sent to the applicant’s student email address within six (6) months of notification by the student. Students must retain all original documentation for the duration of this six (6) month period and must supply original documents to the University within ten (10) working days of such a request being made.

Final Examinations

Final examinations will typically take place or be due in Week 6 or Monday of Week 7. For unit specific details please refer to Assessment section of this unit guide.

All students must be available up until and including Monday of Week 7 to undertake final examinations.

The University will publish College Final Examination Timetable at least 4 weeks before the commencement of the final examination period and students will be able to access their final examination schedule in Week 3 of the Term.

Final Examination Requirements

As per Schedule 4 of the Assessment Policy, students will be responsible for:

• checking the final examination timetable
• knowing the examination location (including seat number allocation) and arriving at allocated examination venue on time.
• knowing the structure and format of the examination
• adhering to the final examination timetable
• ensuring they are available for the full duration of the final examination period and supplementary examination period.

Details of the structure and format of the final examination paper will be made available to students prior to the start of the final examination period. This detail will include:

• a copy of the examination coversheet, giving the conditions under which the examination will be held
• information on the types of questions the examination will contain, and
• an indication of the unit content the paper may examine.

Students must follow directions given by the Final Examination Supervisor.

Students will be required to present their Macquarie University Campus Card as photographic proof of identity for the duration of the final examination.

Students are not permitted to:

• enter a final examination venue once one hour from the time of commencement (excluding any reading time) has elapsed
• leave a final examination venue before one hour from the time of commencement (excluding any reading time) has elapsed
• leave a final examination venue during the last 15 minutes of the examination 
• be readmitted to a final examination venue unless they were under approved supervision during the full period of their absence
• obtain, or attempt to obtain, assistance in undertaking or completing the final examination script
• receive, or attempt to receive, assistance in undertaking or completing the final examination script (Unless an application for reasonable adjustment has been approved)
• communicate in any way with another student once they have entered the final examination venue

Missed assessments and examinations

The University recognises that students may experience unexpected events and circumstances that adversely affect their academic performance in assessment activities, for example illness.

In order to support students who have experienced a serious and unavoidable disruption, the University will provide affected students with an additional opportunity to demonstrate that they have met the learning outcomes of a unit. An additional opportunity provided under such circumstances is referred to as special consideration.

In order to be eligible for special consideration students must submit Disruption to Studies Notification via ask.mq.edu.au within five (5) working days of the commencement of the disruption and attach appropriate supporting evidence.

Where special consideration is granted the student will be given and an additional opportunity to demonstrate that they have met the learning outcomes of a unit in the form of a alternative or supplementary assessment task or extension.

Please refer to the Disruption to Studies Policy or the Disruptions to Studies section under Policies and Procedures below.

Supplementary Examinations

The supplementary examination period will span across Week 7 of the Term and Week 1 of the subsequent teaching term. Students who have lodged a Disruptions to Studies must be available to undertake examinations during the supplementary examination period.

Results for supplementary exams may not be available for up to two weeks following the supplementary examination. Students in their final term of study who undertake supplementary final exams should note that formal completion of their Program will not be possible until supplementary results are released and this may impact on their ability to enrol in subsequent programs of study on time.

Accessing your Results

Students will be able to view their results for internal assessments via the Grades section in iLearn.

Grades (e.g. HD, D, CR, P, F) for all assessment tasks will be released to students once marking has concluded. Marks for individual assessments may be released as well.

Final results for the unit will be released at 00:01 on Friday of Week 7. Students will be able to view their final result for the unit via eStudent.

Calculating your GPA

A Grade Point Average (GPA) is a calculation that reflects the overall grades of a student in a coursework program. Please refer to the GPA Calculator.  

Obtaining Feedback

Teaching staff will provide students with feedback about their academic progress and performance in assessment tasks or a unit of study. Where relevant, other staff such as Senior Teachers, Program Managers and members of the Student Administration and Services Team will provide feedback and advice to students about their performance in a program of study. Feedback may be provided to individual students, a group of students or a whole class and it may be written or verbal in nature.

Some examples of feedback include:

• Teaching staff member reviewing a draft submission and giving a student advice on how to improve their work before making a final submission
• Teaching staff member telling a class that they need to improve their editing of grammar in their recently submitted assignment.
• Teaching staff member discussing progress of an individual student before census date to allow the student to decide whether they should remain enrolled in the unit.
• Online feedback via announcements or forums, an online marking rubric or various iLearn activities employed in a unit
• Written marks and comments on a marking sheet or essay.
• Recorded voice comment provided in response to an essay submitted online.  
• Student Services officer telling a student that they should consider withdrawing from a unit because they have missed too many classes to be able to catch up.

It is a student’s responsibility to act promptly on feedback and advice provided.

If you are unsure how feedback has been or will be provided, or you feel that feedback provided is not sufficient, you must approach relevant teaching or administrative staff and request additional feedback in a timely manner during the term. Students may seek general feedback about performance in a unit up to 6 months following results release.

Contacting Teaching Staff Obtaining Help 

Students may contact teaching staff at any time during the term by using the contact details provided in this guide. Students should expect a response within 1-2 business days.  Teaching staff are unable to accept assessment submissions via email, all assessments must be submitted as outlined in the unit guide.

For all university related correspondence, students must use their official Macquarie University student email account which may be accessed via the Macquarie University Student Portal. Inquiries from personal email accounts will not be attended to.

Academic Honesty

Using the work or ideas of another person, whether intentionally or not, and presenting them as your own without clear acknowledgement of the source is called Plagiarism. 

Macquarie University promotes awareness of information ethics through its Academic Honesty Policy. This means that:

• all academic work claimed as original must be the work of the person making the claim
• all academic collaborations of any kind must be acknowledged
• academic work must not be falsified in any way
• when the ideas of others are used, these ideas must be acknowledged appropriately.

All breaches of the Academic Honesty Policy are serious and penalties apply. Students should be aware that they may fail an assessment task, a unit or even be excluded from the University for breaching the Academic Honesty Policy. 

Turnitin

To uphold principles of Academic Honesty, Macquarie University employs online anti-plagiarism Software called Turnitin. Turnitin compares electronically submitted papers to a database of academic publications, internet sources and other student papers that have been submitted to the system to identify matching text. It then produces an Originality Report which identifies text taken from other sources, and generates a similarity percentage. Teaching staff will use the report to judge whether plagiarism has occurred and whether penalties should apply for breaches of the Academic Honesty Policy.

All text based assessments must be submitted through Turnitin as per instructions provided in the unit guide. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that work is submitted correctly prior to the due date. No hard copies of assessments will be accepted and only Turnitin records will be taken as records of submission. 

Multiple submissions may be possible via Turnitin prior to the final due date and time of an assessment task and originality reports may be made available to students to view and check their work.

There is no set percentage which indicates whether plagiarism has occurred; all identified matching text should be reconsidered carefully. If plagiarism has occurred or is suspected and resubmission is possible prior to the due date, students are advised to edit their work before making a final submission. Help may be sought from teaching staff. Students may also access research resources provided by the library or Learning Skills.

Students should note that the system will not immediately produce the similarity score on a second or subsequent submission - it will take 24-36 hours for the report to be generated. This may be after the due date so students should plan any resubmissions carefully. 

Please refer to these instructions on how to submit your assignment through Turnitin and access similarity reports and feedback provided by teaching staff.

Should you have questions about Turnitin or experience issues submitting through the system, you must inform your teacher immediately. If the issue is technical in nature may also lodge a OneHelp Ticket, refer to the IT help page. 

Term Dates & College Calendar

Details of key dates during the term can be found on the Important Dates calendar.

Enrolment and Timetables

General timetable information is available via Macquarie University's Timetable page. 

Students will be able to enrol in units and register for classes via eStudent and also view their personal timetable. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that classes they have registered for do not clash.

Students are only permitted to attend classes in which they have registered via eStudent, unless they have written approval from the Students Services and Administration Manager. To seek approval, students must email muic@mq.edu.au or speak to a member of the Student Services and Administration Team at E3A Level 2 Reception. Approval will only be granted in exceptional circumstances.

Swapping groups is not possible after the enrolment period has concluded. The last day to do so is Tuesday of Week 1 and this must be finalised by the student in eStudent by the end of the day.

Attendance Requirements – All Students

All students are expected to attend 100% of scheduled class time. 

Attendance will be monitored in each lesson & students will be able to see their current attendance percentage to date and potential attendance percentage for each unit they have enrolled in via iLearn.  

• Current attendance Percentage will reflect the percentage of classes a student has attended so far (based only on the lessons held to date).
• Potential Attendance Percentage will reflect the percentage of classes a student can potentially attended by the end of the term, taking into consideration lessons attended and assuming the student also attends all future lessons scheduled (based only on the total number of lessons in the Term).

Where a student is present for a part of a lesson (for example arrives late, leaves early, leaves the class frequently or for lengthy periods, engages in inappropriate or unrelated activities or does not participate actively in the majority of the lesson) the teacher reserves the right to mark a student absent for that part of the lesson.

In cases of unavoidable non-attendance due to illness or circumstances beyond their control, students should lodge a Disruption to Studies Notification via ask.mq.edu.au within 5 working days and supply relevant supporting documentation, even if they have not missed a formal assessment task. This will ensure that that appropriate records of unavoidable absences can be kept. 

Public Holidays and Make-up Lessons

If any scheduled class falls on a public holiday a make-up lesson may be scheduled on an alternate day. Attendance will be taken for any scheduled make-up lessons. Where a make-up lesson is scheduled, students will be informed in class and via iLearn.

If appropriate, teaching staff may instead organise an online make-up lesson requiring students to complete additional activities outside of class. Students will be informed of any such arrangements in class and/or via iLearn.

Technology Used and Required

• Access to internet (Available on Campus using Macquarie OneNet and in designated E3A Self-Access Computer Laboratories)
• iLab - iLab is Macquarie University's personal computer laboratory on the Internet, enabling students to use the Microsoft Windows applications they require to do their university work from anywhere, anytime, on anything.
• Access to iLearn 
• Access to Macquarie University Library catalogue (MultiSearch)
• Access to Microsoft Office Suite (available in E3A Self-Access Computer Laboratories and via iLab)

iLearn

iLearn is Macquarie's online learning management system and a principal teaching and learning resource which will be used throughout the term. Students must access iLearn at least 3 times per week to access important information including: 

• Announcements and News Forums - Teaching staff will communicate to the class using iLearn announcements. Announcements may also be emailed to students’ Macquarie University email address but students should check the News Forum regularly.
• Attendance – current and potential attendance percentage for the Term.
• Unit Guide and staff contact details
• Set unit readings available through MultiSerach (library).
• Lesson materials and recordings where available
• Learning and teaching activities and resources, questions and solutions
• Assessment instructions, questions, marking criteria and sample tasks
• Assessment submission links such as Turnitin
• Links to support materials and services available at the University
• Evaluation Surveys for the unit

For any resource related iLearn questions contact your teacher. For any technical or support issues using iLearn, please contact the IT helpdesk (Ph. 02 9850 4357) or lodge a ticket using OneHelp. 

Useful Study Resources

StudyWise is an iLearn resource created by Learning Skills, which is specifically designed to help you to manage your studies, strengthen your study techniques, write effective assignments and improve your English language proficiency. Once you enrol in StudyWISE, you can access it from your iLearn course list under the category "Student Support".

InfoWise will help you improve your research skills by teaching you how to use MultiSearch, decode citations, identifying key search terms and use advanced search techniques.

Lib Guides provide students with links to electronic sources and websites that are good starting points for research in different fields or disciplines.

MultiSerach will connect you to Macquarie University Library and allow you to search library resources, databases, unit readings and past exam papers

Academic Language and Learning Workshops are designed to help you with Study Skills, Assignment Writing, Referencing and Academic Language

Research resources provide information about:

• Researching for your assignments
• How to manage your references
• Referencing style guides
• Subject and research guides

UNIT OUTLINE AS A TABLE

DETAILED SUMMARY of TOPICS TO BE COVERED IN CLASS:

Week 1. WHY begin WPOL107 'THINKING POLITICALLY' with the Ancient Greeks?

Greek LANGUAGE that we use to talk about POLITICS: some terms we still use today

The great debate: PLATO VS ARISTOTLE; what do they agree & disagree about?

Plato's scientific knowledge vs Aristotle's practical reason: How does each produce a different political outcome?

Is rhetoric a mere gift of the gab or essential to the political process?

Week 2. Thomas More's Utopia and Machiavelli's Prince: The Great debate between Plato and Aristotle continued?

Or is More inventing modern communism and Machiavelli modern political realism?

Debate More's Christian virtue vs Machiavelli's Roman Republican warrior virtu

Week 3. ANCIENT VS MODERN LIBERTY: The origins of modern liberalism.

Human equality, social contract theory and the notion of universal natural human rights

Isaiah Berlin's 'Two concepts of liberty': negative liberty suits the free market economy.

HOBBES invents modern liberalism during the English Revolution: how? Private vs public liberty.

What is the good life? Is there a best way of life or not?

CONSTANT argues that ancient republican liberty is inappropriate in the modern world, producing only French Revolutionary Terror. Modern liberty is private not public, thanks to modern commerce and representative government.

JOHN STUART MILL: what did he mean by the tyranny of public opinion? WHO and WHEN was he? What did he mean by liberty?

Week 4. TWO CRITIQUES OF MODERN LIBERALISM: NATIONALISM & MARXISM

What does NATIONALISM say about human sameness or human equality vs human differences?

How 'free' is the free market economy of liberalism, according to MARXISM? Who benefits from it?

What do we mean by the concept of IDEOLOGY? How is it different from Political Theory?

Week 5. Critics of the Modern Free Market Economy? CONSERVATISM & ENVIRONMENTALISM

What is conservatism, according to Burke and Oakeshott? Can it accommodate change?

What do conservatives seek to conserve? Traditions? The environment? A way of life? A culture?

Are conservatives committed to the free market economy of liberalism & neo-liberalism?

Who were the neo-conservatives? Were they conservative or radical proponents of change?

Is environmentalism necessarily apocalyptic in tone eg about climate change & the Anthropocene age?

Week 6. FUNDAMENTALISM & FEMINISM: MODERN RESPONSES TO MODERNITY?

Secularisation thesis: has the world become more secular (meaning?) as it has modernised & globalised?

Is Fundamentalism a modern response to modernisation? Egs from different religions

Do fundamentalists use the tools of modernity to get their message across?

Can there be an atheist fundamentalism? Are there problems with the term 'atheist'?

Is feminism necessarily in collision with religious fundamentalism? What do we mean by 'Feminism'? Is it a western invention?

Conclusion:  The Contemporary Scene – the end or the resurgence of ideology? Unit summary and revision.

Weekly face to face contact for this unit will be 6 hours (36 hours per term).

There will be 2 lessons per week consisting of 3 hour lessons and 3 hour workshop in the MUIC PC laboratory. 

Please note an additional 3-hour lesson will be scheduled during the term. 

There are no prescribed text books for this unit. All materials and resources will be provided via iLearn or in class.