Hi,

I'm a international postgraduate student from the United States. I'm going to be attending an MLitt program at a university in Scotland for a year. My question has to do with the books required for the courses I will be taking.

In the US, the teachers usually place an order with the local bookstore(s) and I would go collect the required texts a couple weeks before class started. Also, usually there are only 7 or so required texts, maybe a little more for a graduate course. My MLitt course adviser emailed me what I'm assuming is a syllabus or course description for each of the courses I will be taking (literature based). The "required texts" and "secondary reading" listed for each weekly seminar just about equals what I would normally read for one class in one semester here in the US (10-15 texts). Is this normal? If so, is one usually expected to have their own copy of each text? I do plan on checking many of these books out from the library, but I'm also assuming that I won't be the only one interested in the same book!

Also, the books stores in the US also do what is called "deferment," where the student purchases their books and the balance is automatically deducted when their financial aid, loans, or scholarships come through. Do university bookstores in the UK do anything similar?

Thanks!

In my experience, there was nothing like the 'deferment' you mentioned, and nothing so formally set up with a local bookshop. I used to try to buy most of the primary texts but no one bought secondary stuff; that would cost a fortune. From teaching some visiting US undergrads I get the impression we fly through a lot more material here, but they were used to going through things in a much more thorough way at home. You won't be reading all the secondary material on your lists, unless you're doing an essay or something specifically on that topic, I imagine.

Really, though, the best thing would be to email the course adviser and ask these questions, because your institution might be different. Good luck!

Btw, if you're studying lit and it's not too obscure, the book depository website often has good prices, so that might help.