Information for current undergraduates

Your opinion matters: click to enter the National Student Survey

Click here for links to the contents of this page and other useful resources

FREE Comedy Event next Thursday, 25 March 2010, for all UG Maths students

Doors open at 18:00 and it is expected to finish at around 21:00.
Location: Private function room within the main Drapers Bar.
To get a ticket, please e-mail roberts@maths.qmul.ac.uk to reserve your place or you will not be allowed to enter.

Mathematical Sciences lectures in the Mason lecture theatre [New]

Students are not allowed to enter the Mason lecture theatre at ground floor level. This is because students waiting in the ground-floor lobby disrupt the lecture in progress.
Students are not allowed to sit at the back of the Mason lecture theatre, beside the projection booth. This is because the lecturer cannot see students who sit there. Even if you arrive late, you must sit in the main part of the lecture theatre; it will cause delays and disruption if the lecturer has to ask you to move.

Read the new Advice and Counselling Service leaflet on Extenuating Circumstances.

New items on the undergraduate web site:

Student support page

We are moving some of the information that in the past has been on this page to our new student support page; in particular, information about PASS has moved.

Support your mathematics societies: The London Mathematical Society | The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications | The Royal Statistical Society

Opening hours for the Maths Office (room 101)

The Maths Office opening hours during term time are 9:00 am–5:00 pm (last admission 4:45 pm) every weekday except 1:30–2:30 pm on Wednesdays. More limited opening hours may apply during vacations.

Student ambassadors

There are a number of opportunities for you to get involved in the work of the School of Mathematical Sciences. Not only does this give you the chance of earning some extra money, it will also give you additions to your CV and through the training offered you will improve things such as your presentation skills.

We are currently recruiting undergraduate students for the following:

UCAS Visit Days

You would be taking tours around campus and perhaps even talking to the whole group about what it’s like to study maths at university.
There are 4 or 5 half day sessions across the academic year which are held on Wednesday afternoons.

School Visits

We are very keen to encourage more school students to choose to study mathematics at university, therefore we arrange school visits for groups of A-level students. You would be helping in a taster session, talking to them about what it’s like to study maths or taking them on a campus tour.
These half day sessions run throughout the academic year and you would sign up for the dates you were available.

NRICH

These weekly sessions take place at Queen Mary and are attended by students from local schools. You would be there as support to the academic leading the session, meaning that you would go around and work with the students to make sure they understood what they were doing.
These run throughout the academic year on Wednesdays.

The deadline for applying to work on these schemes is Friday 16th October. You can request an application form from Laura Thomas at l.f.thomas@qmul.ac.uk.

Tutoring: We provide tutors for a local school in Hackney, the Bridge Academy who have a Maths specialism. You would be working with students in small groups, helping them to understand their current studies and also trying to stretch them further. The session would take place once a week, on either a Tuesday, Thursday or Friday afternoon (depending on your timetable).

If you are interested in Tutoring please contact Kerry Nash at k.nash@qmul.ac.uk for an application form.

Email etiquette

Email is the best way to contact College staff, but you must include your full name (as registered with the College) and your student number. Use standard and correct English with correct capitalisation; do not use abbreviations or colloquialisms. (Save "txtspk" for friends and family!) Address staff by their title and surname, e.g. Dear Prof. Arrowsmith, Dr Wright, Mr White. You can check staff titles on our People pages. If you are replying to an email then please include a copy of that email.

If you follow the above requirements then you can reasonably expect an acknowledgement within about two working days and a full reply within about five working days during terms, but responses may take longer during vacations. If you do not follow the above requirements then we may ignore your email.

Requesting references

If you want an academic reference for a job or further study, you should normally ask your personal adviser. If you need a second reference, you should ask another member of academic staff who knows you and your work well, but they may refuse. If this happens then you may ask the Senior Tutor, Dr Thomas Prellberg, but only as a last resort. He will only be able to write a general reference unless he knows you well.

You should always ask a member of staff well in advance whether they are willing to act as a referee before naming them on an application form. If you ask them by email then you must follow the email etiquette above. If you need letters of reference (rather than just names of referees), you should allow about two weeks for your referees to write them.

Business and Economics options

You will be allowed to take Business Management or Economics modules only if they are listed in your study programme. The Business Management modules in our study programmes are all compulsory and so are not options, and there are Economics options only in GL11.

View your module registration on-line

Please check your module registration on-line at

https://webapps.is.qmul.ac.uk/reginfo/student

(Note the https protocol if you retype the above link!)

To access this service you will need your central College computing account details. If you have forgotten your username or password please go to room W209 in the Queens' Building to obtain this information again. Please note that this service allows you only to view your module registration details; you cannot make any changes on-line.

The on-line view shows the programme code and title that you are registered for and the modules that you have registered to take for the current academic year and those taken in previous years if applicable.

This system should help you to keep abreast of your details and make sure that they are up to date and correct throughout the year. If you have any queries or you think that there is an error please make sure that you report this to the Registry (email stuadmin at qmul.ac.uk) and your adviser straight away.

Details for the current academic year will appear once you have submitted your module registration form (available from your adviser during the enrolment period before the first semester and during the first week of the second semester). Please allow at least a week for your form to be processed.

Buy Maple

Since we have a Maple site licence, as a Queen Mary student you may purchase a Personal Licence for £65 (excluding delivery and VAT) directly from Adept Scientific by using your Athens login.

IMA Podcast

From Peter Rowlett AMIMA, University Liaison Officer for The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA):

Travels in a Mathematical World is a mathematics podcast by Peter Rowlett, Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, featuring mathematicians talking about their work as well as features on maths history and maths news.

See www.travelsinamathematicalworld.co.uk (click on “Podcast”).

18+ Student Oyster Card applications

These must be validated by Registry (CB05, Queens’ Building). Queen Mary cannot validate 16+ Student Oyster applications.

Plus magazine

Plus magazine is published online and free of charge. It is an award-winning magazine about maths which is aimed at the general public. Its articles by top mathematicians and science writers provide a window into the world of maths with all its beauty and applications, and cover fields as diverse as art, medicine, cosmology and sport. Authors include physicist Stephen Hawking, mathematician and writer Marcus du Sautoy, and NASA astronaut Michael Foale.

Fictional mathematicians

Vote for your favourite fictional mathematician in a poll run by Plus magazine.

Dr Francis Wright
Director of Undergraduate Studies

Related links