Keep in Mind

Problem class attendance

Most courses of the Master's programme TP consist of a weekly lecture (2 x 45 minutes) by an ITP staffmember and a problem class session (3hrs) supervised by TA’s of the ITP.

These problem class sessions are a service to the master students, and involve a substantial effort in terms of ITP manpower. It is therefore expected that all participants of a course actively participate by default, and sign the attendance-list of at least 75% of the sessions–this amounts to being present at least 12 of the usual 16 weeks. This list will circulate in the first 15 minutes of the problem class session, and signing implies full attendance.

Exceptions are to be discussed with the lecturer in advance, and sanctions for poor attendance, at the discretion of the responsible lecturer, will be communicated at the beginning of the course.

Colloquium attendance

The biweekly “Nico van Kampen Colloquium for Theoretical Physics” as organized by the Institute for Theoretical Physics is a key ingredient of the theoretical physics master program, in which students get exposed to the full breadth of (theoretical) physics.

In order to qualify for a master degree TP students must attend at least 18 colloquia out of the 36 that are organized during two years, in addition they must attend 3 alumni talks out of the 10 that are organized during two years, as well as a career event. Attendance is maintained electronically via the Theoretical Physics Colloquium Blackboard community to which students are registered upon entering the program. In addition, an attendance list will circulate during the first 15 minutes of the colloquium/alumni talks, which cannot be signed afterwards (barring exceptions approved by an ITP staff member); signing for another student is fraudulent. The ITP hosts one career event per year.

In order to better prepare TP students to the colloquium, an introductory talk will occasionally be presented one hour before the start of the colloquium. Attending these occasional preparatory talks, which will be announced in advance, is also compulsory.

**Note that it is highly recommended to start attending the colloquium in the first year in the TP program already, not only to make sure to complete the set of 18 required sessions but also to get oriented optimally on the possibilities for MSc-thesis topics.

Exam and retake rules

The grading of most TP courses involves a final exam, combined with a midterm exam and/or hand-in exercises. The details vary from course to course, and are to be clearly stated (in writing) by the lecturer at the start of the course. Note that active participation to the problem class sessions is a necessary condition for access to the final exam.

Every year there is one retake per course, which, however, is not open for those who scored below 4, or obtained 6 and above in the regular (first) grading period. These TP rules are conform the EER of the Graduate School of Natural Sciences.

Integrity and quality of hand-in work

Hand-in exercises are an important part of the feed-back mechanism from lecturer/TA to student. The quality, readability, and exposure of this work must therefore be of such a standard that feed-back is possible efficiently. Although it need not be type-set, it is necessary that steps and structure are clearly indicated–it is required to rewrite and restyle actual erratic calculations in a way that allows for an efficient grading–in fact the process to have consideration with the reader is a key ingredient of scientific writing and must be trained anyway.

Moreover, in line with proper scientific integrity it is also mandatory to

• (i) provide references to (non-standard) sources other than the book/notes of use in the course,
• (ii) to mention key input from others (e.g. fellow students with whom the work was carried out or internet discussion forums).

Moreover, handing-in work for grading also implies implicitly and explicitly that the work was actually done by the student, otherwise it will be considered as fraud if discovered with all due consequences as stated in the EER.