History Department Response to Student Feedback
HSTY2059 - Nationalism (2005)

Unit Coordinator: Associate Professor Robert Aldrich

The overall satisfaction with this unit was 4.18 out of 5.

HSTY 2059 was a lecture course with an enrolment of approximately 90 students in 2005. This very positive evaluation result gives evidence of student interest in the subject of nationalism, and many of the comments on the USE form underlined the importance of the topic for an understanding of modern history. Students thought the workload for the unit – an oral tutorial presentation, an essay and a take-home examination, as well as participation – was appropriate, though some felt that the reading load was heavy. Students appreciated, in particular, being able to design their own essay topic, and found the lecturer’s and tutor’s comments on their proposals beneficial. Choosing an individual topic, they felt, allowed them to pursue particular interests and relate specific cases of nationalism to the wider theme and the various theories studied in the class. Some students would have liked more attention devoted to Asia, America and Australia, but conceded that with such a broad theme as nationalism the concentration on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe was comprehensible.

This is a unit regularly offered in the Department of History, and it will next be offered in First Semester, 2007.