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[From 1 October 2013: SPECIAL REGULATIONS FOR THE HONOUR SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY

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Ref: 11-30h2_S_R_H_S_OF_COMPUTER_SCIENCE_AND_PHILOSOPHY

[1] A

[2] In the following, ‘the Course Handbook’ refers to the Computer Science and Philosophy Undergraduate Course Handbook and supplements to this published by the joint supervisory committee and also posted on the website at http://web.cs.ox.ac.uk/currentstudents/

  1. [3] 1. All candidates shall be examined in Computer Science and in Philosophy.
  2. [4] 2. No candidate shall be admitted to the examination in this School unless he or she has either passed or been exempted from the First Public Examination.
  3. [5] 3. The examinations in this school shall be under the joint supervision of the Divisional Board of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences and the Board of the Faculty of Philosophy, which shall appoint a joint supervisory committee to make regulations concerning it, subject in all cases to the preceding clauses of this subsection.
  4. [6] 4. (a) The examination in Computer Science and Philosophy shall consist of three parts (A, B, C) for the four-year course, and of two parts (A, B) for the three-year course. [7] (b) Parts A, B and C shall be taken at times not less than three, six, and nine terms, respectively, after passing or being exempted from the First Public Examination.
  5. [8] 5. The Examiners shall classify and publish the combined results of the examinations in Part A and Part B, and in respect of candidates taking the four-year course shall separately classify and publish results in Part C.
  6. [9] 6. (a) Part A shall be taken on one occasion only. No candidate shall enter for Part B until he or she has completed Part A of the examination.
  7. [10] (b) In order to proceed to Part C, a candidate must achieve upper second class Honours or higher in Parts A and B together.
  8. [11] (c) A candidate on the three-year course who obtains only a Pass or fails to satisfy the Examiners in Part B may retake Part B on at most one subsequent occasion; a candidate on the four-year course who obtains only a Pass or fails to satisfy the Examiners in Part C may retake Part C on at most one subsequent occasion. A candidate on the four-year course shall take Part B on one occasion only.
  9. [12] 7. A candidate adjudged worthy of Honours on both Parts A and B together, and on Part C may supplicate for the degree of Master of Computer Science and Philosophy provided that the candidate has fulfilled all the conditions for admission to a degree of the University.
  10. [13] 8. A candidate in the final year of the four-year course, adjudged worthy of Honours in both Parts A and B together, but who does not enter Part C, or who fails to obtain Honours in Part C, is permitted to supplicate for the Honours degree of Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and Philosophy with the classification obtained in Parts A and B together; provided that no such candidate may later enter or re-enter the Part C year or supplicate for the degree of Master of Computer Science and Philosophy; and provided in each case that the candidate has fulfilled all the conditions for admission to a degree of the University.

[14] B

  1. [15] 1. In Part A of the examination, candidates shall be required to offer four Computer Science subjects from Schedule A(CS&P) in the Course Handbook, to include Models of Computation.
  2. [16] 2. The examination for Part B shall consist of subjects in Computer Science and Philosophy. [17] The subjects in Computer Science shall be published in three schedules, B1(CS&P), B2(CS&P) and B4(CS&P), in a supplement to the Course Handbook by the beginning of the Michaelmas Full Term in the academic year of the examination concerned. Each Computer Science subject shall be examined by a written paper or by a mini-project. [18] The subjects in Philosophy shall be subjects 101–120, 122, 124 and 125 from the list given in Special Regulations for All Honour Schools Including Philosophy, and subject to the regulations therein. Each subject in Philosophy shall be assessed by a 3-hour written examination. [19] Each candidate shall offer:
    1. [20] (a) two, four or six Computer Science subjects, and
    2. [21] (b) five, four or three Philosophy subjects, respectively,
  3. [22] subject to the following constraints:
    1. [23] (i) No candidate shall offer any subject from Schedule B1(CS&P) that he or she has already offered in Part A(CS&P) of the examination;
    2. [24] (ii) Each candidate shall offer no more than two subjects from Schedule B1(CS&P);
    3. [25] (iii) Each candidate shall offer no more than two subjects from Schedule B4(CS&P);
    4. [26] (iv) Each candidate shall offer at least two Philosophy subjects from 101, 102, 104, 108, 119, 122, 124 and 125.
  4. [27] 3. In Part C each candidate shall offer a total of between 24 and 26 units chosen in any combination from the lists of taught courses for Computer Science and for Philosophy, a Computer Science project or a Philosophy thesis subject to the following constraints:
    1. [28] • No candidate may take more than six Computer Science taught subjects;
    2. [29] • No candidate may offer both a Computer Science project and a Philosophy thesis.
    [30] The taught subjects in Computer Science shall be published in a schedule, C(CS&P), in a supplement to the Course Handbook by the beginning of the Michaelmas Full Term in the academic year of the examination concerned. Each such subject shall be examined by a written paper or by a mini-project and shall count as three units. [31] Each taught Philosophy subject shall be one of the subjects 101–120, 122, 124, 125 and 180 from the list given in Special Regulations for All Honour Schools Including Philosophy, and subject to the regulations therein. Each such subject shall be assessed by a 3-hour written examination together with an essay of at most 5,000 words, conforming to the rules given in the Course Handbook. Each such subject shall count as eight units. [32] No candidate shall offer any taught subject that he or she has already offered in Part B of the examination. [33] A Computer Science project shall be as specified for the Honour School of Computer Science, and shall count as nine units. A Philosophy thesis shall be as specified in the Regulations for Philosophy in all Honour Schools including Philosophy (subject 199) except that the thesis shall not exceed 20,000 words, and shall count as eight units.
  5. [34] 4. The use of calculators is generally not permitted but certain kinds may be allowed for certain papers. Specifications of which papers and which types of calculators are permitted for those exceptional papers will be announced by the Examiners in the Hilary Term preceding the examination.
  6. [35] 5. All candidates will be assessed as to their practical ability in Computer Science under the following provisions:
    1. [36] (a) The Head of the Department of Computer Science, or a deputy, shall make available to the Examiners evidence showing the extent to which each candidate has pursued an adequate course of practical work. Only that work completed and marked by noon on Monday of the fifth week of the Trinity Term in which the candidate takes the examination shall be included in these records.
    2. [37] (b) Candidates for each part of the examination shall submit to the Chairman of the Examiners, Honour School of Computer Science and Philosophy, c/o the Academic Administrator, Oxford University Department of Computer Science, Oxford, by noon on Monday of the fifth week of the Trinity Term in which the examination is being held, their reports of practical exercises completed during their course of study. For a report on a practical exercise to be considered by the Examiners, it must have been marked by a demonstrator and must be accompanied by a statement that it is the candidate’s own work except where otherwise indicated.
    3. [38] (c) The Examiners shall take the evidence (a) and the report (b) into account in assessing a candidate’s performance. Candidates whose overall performance on practical work is not satisfactory may be deemed to have failed the examination or may have their overall classification reduced.]