Rules for Submitting Papers and Exams

 1.  Seminar papers are to be handed in by the last day of class, or by another date agreed upon with the class instructor, no later then three weeks after the last day of teaching.
2.   Instructors must grant a mark for a paper within three weeks.
3.   All papers must be handed to the departmental office. Papers cannot be submitted via e-mail. Papers cannot be submitted directly to the instructor.
4.   Students may appeal seminar paper grades no later than a week starting from the date in which the graded paper was reported to the student.
5.   Please note: Students who fail to meet the dead lines for submission of papers and who were not granted an extension, will be penalized by reduction of 10 points from the paper's grade, unless post-deadline submission is approved by the director. Petitions for extension should be submitted a week BEFORE the deadline.
6.  Please note: In special cases when a student submits a paper after the end of December s/he will be charged a fine in the amount of 5 percent of the basic tuition for the year in which the paper was to be submitted.
7.   A paper that was submitted in one course cannot be submitted in another course, even after revision.
8.  Arabic course exam – For each Arabic course, students may choose ONE exam date out of two. Exam procedure
  

The submission date is very important for the fulfillment of degree requirements.
Please make sure to obtain authorizations from the departmental office secretary.
 
 
Final Exam – Guidelines
 
A final exam is required as partial fulfillment of requirements towards the Masters’ degree when no thesis is submitted. Students may take the final exam as soon as they have finished their course work. The final deadline for submitting the exam is two months after the last day of teaching in the second semester.
 
The final exam is a take-home exam submitted in writing. It constitutes 20% of the final degree grade.
 
Students will be examined on three topics, based on three courses of their choice. Teachers of these courses will then offer the student a choice between two questions. The student will pick one question/topic in each field, three questions/topics in all. In special cases a MAPMES M.A. Committee, composed of the Department Chair and MAPMES Director, may allow a topic/question not based on a specific course.
 
Having chosen the questions students will prepare the answers at home and submit them via emai, no later than 7 days after receipt of each set of questions, or 21 days in case all questions were received during the same time.
 
The answer to each question should be no longer than 8 double-spaced pages. No minimum is set.
 
The grade of the final exam will be an average between the grades of the three answers. Students may appeal in case there is a serious discrepancy between grades. In such cases the Departmental Committee will appoint a fourth referee to read the exam. The exam grade will then be an average between the initial grade and the new garde that of the fourth referee.
 
 
Thesis – Guidelines
 
A Masters thesis is defined as a research paper demonstrating that the student has the ability to gather relevant source materials, analyze them and come up with original conclusions. The thesis should be on a par with publishable articles. The maximum length of a thesis is 100 1.5 spaced pages. No minimum is set.
 
Please notice: To be eligible to write a thesis, a student has to have the following pre-requisites: At least two grades of 90 or above (in non-language courses); an overall average of 85. The thesis constitutes 50% of the final degree grade. It requires additional payment equivalent to roughly 5% of tuition.
 
We strongly recommend that you submit the thesis before the end of the first term in the year following your studies in the program.
 
All matters and problems relating to the thesis are decided by a Departmental committee composed of the Department Chair and the Director of MAPMES (henceforth: The MAPMES M.A. Committee).
 
The first step towards writing a thesis is finding a suitable supervisor. The supervisor can be a faculty member of the Middle East Department, or a faculty member in another department or university holding the rank of Lecturer or above, and approved by the MAPMES M.A. Committee. In case the main supervisor of the thesis is from another university, a co-supervisor from the Department of Middle East Studies should be appointed as well.
 
Students are encouraged to meet with faculty members and discuss their interests in order to find an adequate supervisor for the thesis they intend to write. In case no such supervisor is found, the Departmental Committee will confer with the student and appoint one.
 
Read carefully thesis Faculty full Guidelines
 
Proposal
 
A thesis proposal no longer than eight printed pages should be prepared by the candidate and submitted to the MAPMES M.A. Committee after approval by the supervisor(s). It should include a description of the subject, aims of research, a short description of approaches and methods; an analysis of existing literature, and a list of sources.
Deadline for submission of thesis proposal: October 30th.
 
Read carefully Thesis proposals guidelines
 
Thesis content
 
The thesis should open with an Introduction, situating and defining the problem, and setting the aims of research. This should be followed by a discussion of existing literature and a chapter or sub-chapter referring to theoretical and methodological considerations.
 
The body of the work should include a thematic or chronological discussion of the topic.
 
In the summary/conclusion the student should sum up findings, compare them to previous research and theoretical assumptions, and draw conclusions.
 
Submission and grading
 
Two bound copies of the final draft of the thesis should be submitted to the MAPMES office.
 
The thesis is then sent to the readers (the supervisor, and another referee), who are requested to grade and return the thesis within 60 days.
 
Readers may request corrections or emendations to the thesis before final approval.
 
The final grade will be an average between the grades of the supervisor and the referee. Students may appeal in case there is a serious discrepancy between the two grades. In such cases the MAPMES M.A. Committee will appoint a third referee, and the grade will be an average between the highest grade, the lowest, and that of the third referee.
 
The minimum passing grade for a thesis is 75.
 
The final version of the thesis should be submitted in three signed and bound copies, which are to be prepared according to university guidelines.
Deadline for submission of thesis: September 30th.