As an active research section, the German section considers it important as an overall strategy to cover as broad an area of German studies as possible, depending upon staff interests and available facilities. Supervision is offered for the degrees of MLitt and PhD by research in our chief areas of interest and expertise. Some areas of special interest involve at present several teaching or postgraduate members of the section and thus provide specific focuses of attention. The section has an excellent record in respect of attracting postgraduate research students and it is the section's aim to continue to do so. There is considerable subject-based interaction between postgraduates and with academic staff.
Most postgraduates get a chance to undertake some teaching within the section.
Postgraduates are normally provided with an office and wordprocessing facilities within the section, and are also given individual training in teaching where appropriate. The University's Graduate Research School also arranges seminars for postgraduate students on various aspects of research. Postgraduates in German are encouraged to present papers at relevant conferences and to publish material where appropriate. PhD dissertations completed in recent years range from Old High German to the modern novel, and theses are currently in progress in the fields of medieval poetry and of the modern German ballad. Publications by research students have appeared both in the medieval and the modern fields.