Teaching - The university of Cambridge

Teaching - The university of Cambridge  

Teaching consists of a mix of lectures, organized by university departments, and supervisions, organized by universities. Science subjects also involve lab sessions, organized by departments. The relative importance of these teaching methods varies depending on the subject's needs. The supervisions are typically weekly hour-long sessions in which small groups of students (usually between one and three) meet with a faculty member or a graduate student. Students are normally required to complete a task before the supervision, which they will discuss with the supervisor during the session, along with concerns or difficulties they have had with the material presented in that week's lectures. The allocation is often an essay on a set subject by the supervisor, or a leaf problem posed by the teacher.

Depending on the subject and college, students can receive between one and four supervisions per week. This pedagogical system is often cited as being unique to Cambridge and Oxford (where "supervisions" are known as "tutorials").

A professor named William Farish developed the concept of grading students' work quantitatively at the University of Cambridge in 1792.