Structure of the studies and degrees

In Academia Thules you can study variety of subjects dealing with ancient history and culture as well as modern international Roman organisations. Our focus is ancient Roman culture, but other ancient cultures are also included in our course selection. More information about individual courses and lines of study can be found from Study Guide at appropriate section.

Academia Thules aims to give student high quality knowledge of the classic Roman culture. This knowledge is useful to anyone who wishes to become professionally inclined to the classical studies. Academia Thules offers inter-disciplinary training in methodologies of ancientstudies. Individual methodologies studied depend on the students course selection.

Academia Thules is not accredited institution of learning and therefore the degrees and studies completed in Academia Thules cannot be part of official academic curriculum unless there is specific agreement between other institution of learning and Academia Thules.


1. Faculties

Definition of Facultas (faculty)
A Facultas (faculty) is a basic organisational unit of the educational side of Academia Thules. There are two types of faculties: a) normal and b) special. Normal faculties are arranged and upkept by Academia Thules. Special faculties can be arranged, upkept, sponsored or otherwise organised by other instances. Each faculty consists of one or more academic subjects, for example Latin or Roman History. Each subject consists of selection of courses divided into different levels, for example into basic or intermediate studies.

How faculties are organised/structured
A Decanus Facultatis (dean of faculty) is responsible of leading the development of his faculty.

His/Her duties includes of finding Praeceptores (teachers) and suggesting them to be appointed for the Academia administration. He is also responsible for developing the plan of activities. His duties also include inspecting the Academic articles (papers) the students are to write to obtain Academic degrees. The Concilium may also ask him to take care of some other special duties concerning his faculty.

All his actions are under supervision of the Rector and the Rector must approve all his major decisions before they are put into action.

There can be also Scribae (Assistants) and Praeceptores (teachers) in faculty organisation.


2. Teaching in Academia

Almost all teaching in Academia Thules is organised as online teaching or as self-study. The basic unit of teaching is a course. A course is a entity which contains information about certain topic(s) and carries a certain amount of credits. Number of credits depends on the amount of work student is expected to do during the course. One credit is equivalent of 26 hours of work.


3. Course System

Types of courses are:

-Lecture course
These courses are divided into lessons which are studied in the leading of an Praeceptor (teacher). The courses may contain exercises, homework, essays, final exams and other work for the students. A typical lecture course would for example contain 12 lectures with some homework each requiring about 2 hours of work from student and final exam requiring 2 hours work from student. This kind of course would carry one credit.

-Book exam
This kind of course includes reading a book or several books and taking an exam from them. Usually the teacher arranging the exam is available for questions before the exam. Rule of thumb is that 200 pages + exam is worth of one credit.

-Language
These kind of courses are for studying languages, for example Latin. Learning language requires more work from the part of student than other types of courses and adequate amount of time should be reserved for taking language courses.

-Field
Academia currently doesn't arrange it's own field courses, but recognises some courses arranged by others. Field course typically contains studying in some place, for example at seminar, and by presenting a diploma of such course Academia can recognise the course as part of degree of student. See more information under each faculty in study guide.

The planning
The courses shall be planned carefully before the course can be accepted into Academia. The courses arranged should be equivalent of normal university-level teaching.

Starting time and procedures
When the course is accepted and ready to start, the aquiring of the students can begin. Decanus facultatis and Rector make the decisions about when the student aquiring shall begin and make sure that proper measures are taken to handle it. The course is considered started when Praeceptor (teacher) starts it by holding the first lesson, or otherwise informing the students about it.

Before the course start Academia personnel lead by Rector, or an assistant he has given this task, takes care of all the technical requirements for the course.

Teaching
The Concilium has the power to dismiss a Praeceptor (teacher) at any time, if they find it necessary. The Rector can also remove a Praeceptor (teacher) from his position, but for this he needs the approval of the Praescriptor (Vice-CEO). If the Praeceptor (teacher) doesn't approve this decision of the Rector or the Concilium, he can make a complaint to the Praescriptor (Vice-CEO), who decides about the final outcome of the matter.

The teaching must be carried out according to a course plan which has been approved. If this plan is not followed during the course, the Concilium can give warnings. When a Praeceptor (teacher) has three warnings within one course he will be immiedtly removed from his position, but he can make a complaint to the Praescriptor who decides about the outcome of the issue.

The Praeceptor (teacher) has a right to propose the expelling of a student from a course to the Rector, if he finds it necessary. The decision of the actual expulsion of a student is made by the Concilium. The student can make a complaint to the Praescriptor Academiae Thules (Vice-CEO), who decides about the outcome.

The ending of the course
When the course has finished the Praeceptor (teacher) grades the students within three weeks (21 days) of the ending. Praeceptor (teacher) passes the grades of the students for Decanus Facultatis (dean of faculty) who is responsible of delivering them to the archives of Academia.


4. How the students are graded
All Academia articles or tests or courses will be graded with the following system.

5 points = M = Licentia Magna cum Laude = Excellent
4 points = C = Licentia cum Laude = Very good
3 points = P = Licentia Primi Ordinis = Good
2 points = S = Licentia Secundi Ordinis = Mediocre
1 point = T = Licentia Tertii Ordinis = Accepted
0 points = I = Improbatur = Failed

The grades should be contributed with Gauss-function like for the group of students that is graded, that means that most of the grades should be between 2-3 points, 1 and 4 being lesser and 0 and 5 very rare, with the following approximative percentages:

0 = 5%
1 = 10%
2 = 30%
3 = 30 %
4 = 15 %
5 = 10 %