BA East Asian Studies
As part of Welcome Week, you will meet Dr Zhong Zhang, Programme Lead for East Asian Studies degree programmes. Zhong graduated from a Chinese university with a law degree and worked for the Shenzhen municipal government in China, before coming to the UK to undertake PhD research.
His research focused on corporate governance in China from a legal perspective, extending later to law and finance and the rule of law in China.
He teaches law and business in China and contemporary Chinese business and management.
The structure of your Degree
At university, we refer to students being in "levels" rather than "years". There is no mandatory year abroad, but students can apply for a place on the University of Sheffield Study Abroad scheme to spend an optional year abroad in Level 3 (adding a year to the duration of the degree). All students on BA East Asian Studies will have the opportunity to spend some time in East Asia, via a core fieldwork module in level two.
Understanding the jargon
Some of the most important things for you to understand are a few terms we use all the time:
Semester: a period of 15 weeks: 12 teaching weeks and 3 weeks for assessment. Each academic year is split into two semesters: Autumn and Spring. You can find your semester dates here https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/about/dates
Module: Your studies are made up of modules, and each module is worth a number of credits.
Credits: Modules will be 10 or 20 credits. For a full year, you will need to pick 120 credits in total.
Core module: this is a compulsory module for your programme. You don't need to pick these modules as part of the registration - they will already be on your student record.
Approved module: there will be a some flexibility in your programme which means that in addition to your core modules, you choose approved modules that you're interested in to make up to 120 credits per year.
Guided Module Choice: these modules have been selected as being complimentary to your main area of studies. These modules might be run by SEAS, or they may be run by a different department.
Degree programme: this is the title of your degree. Programme of study is another term we use.
Add/Drop: for the first 2 weeks of the semester you have the option to drop an optional module if you don't like it. You can then add another (as long as there is space on the module and we can make your timetable work).
Modules in Level 1
Each year you must take 120 credits, split across Autumn and Spring semesters. These credits can be balanced equally 60:60, but you can also choose to have a 70:50 or 50:70 split at times.
Your marks for first year do not count to your degree, but you need to pass all your modules to move on to Level 2.
Semester 1
Core modules (required)
EAS1000 Exploring East Asia – 10 credits
Semester 2
Core modules (required)
EAS1000 Exploring East Asia – 10 credits
Plus at least 80 credits from
EAS1021 History & Culture in China (Autumn Semester) - 20 credits
EAS1031 History & Culture in Japan (Autumn Semester) - 20 credits
EAS1041 History & Culture in Korea (Autumn Semester) - 20 credits
EAS1022 Politics, Economy & Society in China (Spring Semester) - 20 credits
EAS1032 Politics, Economy & Society in Japan (Spring Semester) - 20 credits
EAS1042 Politics, Economy & Society in Korea (Spring Semester) - 20 credits
The remaining 20 credits to be used on
Guided Module Choice (a selection of modules from other SEAS degrees or other departments) or Languages for All modules
Beyond Level 1