January Orientation for Visiting, Erasmus & Exchange Students

Research-led university

Your lecturers will not teach from a textbook in Trinity. As a research-led institution, your teaching and your learning will make use of your lecturer's research as well as the body of academic research in a field. You will also be expected to do your own research for your assessment. Trinity has a culture of independent & self-directed learning with an emphasis on critical thinking. This means that you are expected to manage your workload and assessments, keep up with reading and critically analyse the sources you use. You can get advice and help on all of these skills from Student Learning Development

The role of your lecturer

There are some significant differences in the responsibilities of lecturers, also known as professors, in Trinity. In some academic cultures, the lecturer is considered an expert whose job is to transfer particular knowledge to the student, providing them with the correct perspective or solution.

In Trinity, however, the lecturer is considered a more advanced colleague in the field who gives academic advice and encourages students to engage with the learning material and seek the answers. Lecturers generally keep set “office hours” when you can make an appointment to meet and speak with them. Furthermore, there will also be Teaching Assistants (TAs) that you can talk to.

The relationship between Trinity academic staff and students is a formal one, yet academic staff remain accessible to students. This might look difficult to achieve when it comes to large classes where you find yourself in a lecture hall together with 200 other students. However, respecting the office hours, you are encouraged to:

• Ask questions
• Seek advice
• Discuss ideas
• Ask for feedback

Tutorials and class participation

The aim of tutorials is to approach a certain topic in greater detail and encourage discussion on different ideas and points of view as well as clarify any misunderstandings from various readings. Depending on your course, you might be involved in tutorials with only 10-20 students, or in larger ones, with 60 or more.

Tutorials vary depending on your area of study and are linked to modules: some might involve interaction and you will be required to participate and lead discussions, while others might be less interactive. Furthermore, some of them will be led by teaching assistants, while others will involve the lecturers themselves. In most courses you will be assessed based on your participation in tutorials, so it’s important to try to contribute to discussions.

Grading System

The grading system in Trinity will probably be quite different to what you are used to at home. Some of you may be discouraged by the percentages you get here, as you might be used to seeing higher marks at home. Please don't be, it's just a different way of marking.

Degree Classification	Grade	Percentage Range
First Class Honours	I	70 - 100%
Second Class Honours, First Division	II.1	60 - 69%
Second Class Honours, Second Division	II.2	50 - 59%
Third Class Honours	III	40 - 49%
Fail	F1	30 - 39%
	F2	Under 29%

Studying Through English

You may find that even with very good English, the style of academic writing is different to what you have learned in the past. Student Learning Development has some useful resources to help you with structure, grammar and vocabulary on their website

Student Learning Development

Linking Words

One of the quickest ways to improve your essay writing is to use appropriate linking words. Here is a bank of them to get you started.

Describing similarities	Showing cause and effect	Comparing and contrasting
Likewise	Consequently	Alternatively
Correspondingly	As a result	However
Equally	Thus	Conversely
Not only… but also	Therefore	On the other hand
In the same way	Since	Instead
Similarly	This suggests that	Yet

Showing limitation or contradiction	Emphasis, addition or examples	Concluding
Despite/in spite of	Typically	To summarise
While (not whilst!)	To clarify	It can be concluded that
Even so	Further (not ‘furthermore’)	As can be seen
On the contrary	First, second and third	Ultimately
Nevertheless	For instance	Given the above
Although	Moreover	Finally