Problems

Should you encounter any problems of an academic or personal nature in the course of your work, please rest assured that the Department would be determined to help you resolve them without delay. In dealing with the problems, you need to identify the right person to approach about them, and also to be as clear-sighted as possible about what the available ways of dealing with them are.

Your college will have notified you of its arrangements for dealing with problems that arise in a college context. If you experience any difficulties with your supervisor, you should raise the matter with your Tutor or with your Director of Studies.

Difficulties relating to Departmental teaching can be addressed in various ways. You may raise them directly with a senior member, or with the Head of Department (in person, or by e-mail). If they are not so pressing, you may prefer to draw attention to them anonymously on the questionnaires, or by approaching any member of the Joint Academic Committee. We hope that the small size of the Department will make you feel comfortable in raising anything with any one of the senior members.

Sexual and racial harassment

The University, the Department and the colleges all have formal procedures for dealing with sexual and racial harassment. University policy (including a definition of harassment) is set out in a document which is posted on the English Faculty Library noticeboard, and may also be obtained from the English Faculty Office. The Department strongly endorses the University’s view that racial or sexual harassment of one member of the University community by another is wholly unacceptable behaviour, and that any such incidents will be taken seriously. If you experience harassment in a college context, you should follow the college procedures of which you will have been notified. If you experience harassment in a Departmental context, you should approach the English Faculty’s Harassment Advisor, who is the Administrative Officer, Gillian Weale (glw33@cam.ac.uk). Her role is to provide support and advise you of ways to resolve the problem. These include, in the severest instance, the referral of the matter to the Chairman of the Faculty Board for investigation and resolution, with the aid of the University’s Harassment Officer. If you are nervous about broaching the subject alone, you may request one of the junior members of the JAC to act as a ‘student friend’ and accompany you.