Lord Ashcroft International Business School Postgraduate Major Project Department: All LAIBS Departments Module Codes: MOD001170 MOD001168 MOD001160 1
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Module Guide Template
Prior to application:1.Researcher / student / project tutor completes ethics training .
2.Lead researcher / student completes Stage 1 Research Ethics Application form in consultation with co -
researchers / project tutor.NO answered to all questions(Risk category 1)NO answered to question 1-13YES answered to any question 14-
22 (Risk Category 2); such as
question 21Yes answered to any question 3-13(Risk Category 3)Research can proceed.You need to: Send this completed form to
faculty office for record.
You need to:i) Complete Section 4 of this form.
ii) Produce Participant Information Sheet (PIS)
(Appendix 10) and Participant Consent Form (PCF) (Appendix 11).iii) Submit this form and PIS/ PCF where applicable to your faculty office, who will
forward it to DREP/FREP
Two members of the DREP/FREP will review the application and report to the panel, who will consider whether the ethical risks have been managed appropriately.
•Yes : DREP / FREP inform research team of
approval and forward forms to FREP for recording.•No: DREP / FREP provides feedback to researcher outlining revisions required.
The panel may recommend that the project is
upgraded to Category 3 -please see below for procedure. Complete this form and the Stage 2 Research Ethics Application form and submit to your
faculty. FREP will review the application and
approve the application when they are satisfied that all ethical issues have been dealt with appropriately.Yes answered to question 1 and / or 2
(Risk Category 3)
Submit this completed form to your faculty office to inform them of your intention to apply
to an external review panel for your project.
For NHS (NRES) applications, the FREP Chair would normally act as sponsor / co-sponsor for your application.The outcome notification from the external
review panel should be forwarded to FREP for recording.
Lord Ashcroft International Business School
Postgraduate Major Project
Department: All LAIBS Departments
Module Codes:
MOD001170
MOD001168
MOD001160
Academic Year: 2013/14
Semester/Trimester: 1
CONTENTS
31. KEY INFORMATION
42. INTRODUCTION
53. THE DISSERTATION PROCESS
53.1. Supervision
63.2. A note on the use of questionnaires and surveys
84. CHOOSING A TOPIC, ISSUE, PROBLEM OR QUESTION
95. USING SOURCES AND REFERENCING
95.1. Example of Harvard referencing
105.2. Good scholarship, referencing and academic misconduct
105.3. What is good scholarship?
115.4. What do I reference?
126. THE FORMAT AND PRESENTATION OF YOUR DISSERTATION
167. CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING YOUR DISSERTATION
178. Characteristics of a Postgraduate Dissertation
189. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
1910. HOW WILL MY WORK BE ASSESSED?
1910.1. Submitting via Turnitin®UKGradeMark [Cambridge and Chelmsford students ONLY]
2110.2. Submitting your work [Students in all other locations at Associate Colleges]
2210.3. Marking Rubric and Feedback
2210.4. Feedback
2510.5 Re-Assessment (resit)
2611. ASSESSMENT OFFENCES
3112. FEEDBACK
3213. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE STUDENT
3314. SECURITY
3415. LEARNING RESOURCES
35APPENDIX 1: DISSERTATION TIMETABLE
36APPENDIX 2: DISSERTATION PROPOSAL COVERSHEET
37APPENDIX 3: PRODUCING AND SUBMITTING YOUR DISSERTATION PROPOSAL
38APPENDIX 4: HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR DISSERTATION PROPOSAL
40APPENDIX 5: EXAMPLE OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
44APPENDIX 6: ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY GENERIC ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND MARKING STANDARDS
47APPENDIX 7: LAIBS, POSTGRADUATE DISSERTATION ASSESSMENT FORM
49APPENDIX 8: LAIBS SUPERVISOR CONTACT LOG
50APPENDIX 9: ETHICS FORM
56APPENDIX 10: PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET
58APPENDIX 11: PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM
1. KEY INFORMATION
Module/Unit title:
Postgraduate Major Project
Postgraduate Major Project Leader:
Dr Zilia Iskoujina
Every module has a Module Definition Form (MDF) which is the officially validated record of the module. You can access the MDF for this module in three ways via:
· The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
· The My.Anglia Module Catalogue at www.anglia.ac.uk/modulecatalogue
· Anglia Ruskin’s module search engine facility at www.anglia.ac.uk/modules
All modules delivered by Anglia Ruskin University at its main campuses in the UK and at Associate Colleges throughout the UK and overseas are governed by the Academic Regulations. You can view these at www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs. A printed extract of the Academic Regulations, known as the Assessment Regulations, is available for every student from your Faculty Office (all new students will have received a copy as part of their welcome pack).
In the unlikely event of any discrepancy between the Academic Regulations and any other publication, including this module guide, the Academic Regulations, as the definitive document, take precedence over all other publications and will be applied in all cases.
2. INTRODUCTION
In order to obtain a Masters degree you must prepare, submit, and pass a dissertation. Apart from this regulation requirement there are a number of reasons why the dissertation is a very important part of your studies. From the learning outcomes in the module definition forms (available on the VLE webpage) you will see that the dissertation is a demanding module. Perhaps a more attractive way of stating this is to say that it allows you an opportunity to demonstrate, at an advanced level, several important intellectual and practical skills. These skills are valued by employers and as the dissertation is your own work it is proof that you have mastered them. In fact, sometimes your dissertation will help you to obtain an interview or find the position you want.
The dissertation is not a taught module and this means that the research and writing up of your findings is very much an individual effort that allows you to demonstrate both organisational and time management skills. You will have further honed your research skills and techniques and deepened your understanding of at least one major area of business and/or business related areas. Other high level skills which will be developed and improved include evaluation, synthesis, and critical thinking. Finally, a well-written dissertation enables you to demonstrate communication and presentation skills.
Full details of how to present your dissertation can be found in the Anglia Ruskin University publication, "Presentation and Submission of Projects and Dissertations for Taught Higher Degrees". A copy of this booklet can be obtained from the VLE. You are advised to make yourself aware of the entire contents of this booklet before you start your dissertation. You should read carefully the section on Formatting before you start any writing-up, as your dissertation will not be accepted if it doesn't comply with this section. Anglia Ruskin University regulations and guidelines do change from time to time. It is your responsibility to make sure that you are working to current regulations and guidelines so check that the Module Guide and Anglia Ruskin University publications you are using are up-to-date. If in doubt consult your supervisor and/or Postgraduate Dissertation Tutor.
3. THE DISSERTATION PROCESS
There are a number of formal processes associated with the dissertation.
Registering your dissertation topic - This must be done by submitting a completed Dissertation Proposal Coversheet, along with your outline Dissertation Proposal (For an example see Appendix 5) to the Faculty Office by the published date. It is important that you submit your coversheet and proposal on time, to the relevant Faculty office, as you will not be allocated a until it is submitted. You may indicate a preferred supervisor on the form but we cannot guarantee you will be allocated the preferred supervisor as a holistic view of staffing is taken in the Business School. Please do not approach staff to ask if they can supervisor your dissertation, the course leader assigns supervisors.
Allocating your supervisor - after you have completed and submitted your Dissertation Proposal Form you will be allocated a supervisor. This will be done by the Postgraduate Major Project Module Leader. One of the roles of the Postgraduate Major Project Module Leader is to utilise the staff resource in the Business School as effectively and efficiently as possible. The Postgraduate Major Project Module Leader will also endeavour to match your topic to staff expertise.
Meeting your supervisor - you are strongly advised to meet your supervisor as soon as possible. The supervisor will be sent a copy of your proposal. Thereafter, you should meet regularly with your supervisor to discuss progress, resolve any problems you may have, etc. It is your responsibility to make and keep the appointments. If you have any problems in making appointments then please inform your Programme Leader immediately. Sometimes face-to-face meetings are not possible. In this case other means of communication, such as email, may be appropriate.
Recording your meetings - you must keep a record of your meetings with your supervisor on the Contact Log Sheet (Appendix 8) and the completed CLS must be put with your dissertation when handing in.
Submitting your dissertation - you must submit two comb-bound copies of your dissertation to the iCentre on or before the submission date. You will know this date by the time you commence stage three of your programme. If you think you have a good reason for a later submission you must ask for an extension (maximum 10 days). Only the Student Advisor can give you permission. Do not ask for an extension at the "last minute". A copy of the extension form must be submitted to the faculty office. Please make sure you are familiar with University policy on extensions.
You must also submit 2 separate copies of the abstract along with two copies of the Assessment Form (Appendix 7) and an electronic copy of the dissertation on CD.
3.1. Supervision
Based on your proposal, you will be allocated a supervisor who will provide general guidance and help. Extensive reading and commenting on draft chapters is not included in the role of the supervisor. (It is a University regulation that only a maximum of 20% of a draft can be read by the Supervisor). Students should provide their supervisor with a brief outline of their proposed dissertation, line of inquiry etc. as soon as possible. Following this, your supervisor will discuss the presentation and methodology of the dissertation, possible titles, and give guidance on how to focus the work. Supervisors are not required to be expert in the chosen topic.
Students are entitled to a maximum of 4 hours of supervision over the period in which the dissertation is being written. Normally, it will be advantageous if this is divided into a number of shorter periods. You are strongly advised to make full use of these consultation sessions. Supervisors will indicate their availability and students must then make arrangements for supervision sessions.
In Appendix 8 you will find a Supervisor Contact Log and Supervisor Change Form. The contact log form should be signed by your supervisor each time you visit him or her in connection with your dissertation. This form must be submitted by you with your completed dissertation.
Your supervisor will expect to receive regular reports on your progress. It is important that you provide your Supervisor with detailed evidence of your progress for two reasons: the assistance he/she can give will be limited in the absence of information; and, if you submit a document which your supervisor cannot vouch for as your own work because you have not provided evidence to him/her during the course of your research, you will have to undergo a viva voce examination.
There may also be additional opportunities for attending group sessions on various specific aspects of the dissertation – look out for information on these sessions.
3.2. A note on the use of questionnaires and surveys
If you decide to undertake a questionnaire or survey you must seek the approval of your supervisor on the following issues:
· Ethics (this is very important as your research is likely to involve contact with humans – please see Appendixes 9-11)
· Aim of the questionnaire or survey
· Target population
· Sample size
· Sampling method*
· Number and type of questions
· Discussion of the limitations of the questionnaire/survey
· Statistical methodology used for analysis (e.g. using MS Excel, SPSS)
You must submit all completed questionnaires/survey with your dissertation. (These do not have to be bound into your dissertation.)
If you conducted an observational survey then you must submit your original notes and comments with your dissertation. (An example of an observational survey might be counting the number of people purchasing food from a hot-dog stand on a wet Sunday afternoon in Benwick.)
* Random samples are those in which each member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected: it requires each individual to be numbered and then selected using random number tables. Even then the method can be flawed and prone to bias which requires complicated statistical techniques to overcome. Standing on a street corner interviewing likely people for an hour on a Saturday morning is not a taking a random sample. This form of sampling is ‘ad hoc’ or ‘opportunistic’.
4. CHOOSING A TOPIC, ISSUE, PROBLEM OR QUESTION
You choose your own topic but it has to be approved. You can choose a similar topic to which may have been assessed for another module as long as it does not cover identical ground.
As a start, remind yourself that a dissertation is much more than just a simple descriptive account of some aspect of your course. Very often the success of your dissertation is determined by how successful you are in finding a good issue to pursue, a problem to investigate, a question to answer, and so on. Unless you are successful here you may be unable to develop a coherent and well argued dissertation. This first stage can be difficult so don't be afraid to spend some time on it.
You may come up with a fairly broad topic but it will have to have a focus. Even at the broad topic stage you will have to ask yourself whether it is likely to be viable. You should also try to come up with a topic you are interested in personally, as a large amount of your time will be spent on background reading, fieldwork and/or other types of research, and finally writing up your research. If you are interested in your question, etc., then all this activity is likely to be a source of pleasure rather than an onerous and pointless burden.
The activity associated with choosing the topic, problem, etc., should be done before you submit your Dissertation Proposal. Sometimes, even after much hard work, it may be difficult to come up with a focused topic, but please note that a broad general area may not be acceptable. You are advised to seek some specialist help before submitting your proposal if you run into difficulties.
You are strongly advised to spend a good deal of time on choosing your topic. You will probably find it helpful to discuss possibilities with other students, and try out an initial literature search in areas you are considering. Even something quite simple such as writing out the nature of the problem or topic can be helpful at this stage.
You are allowed to modify your topic, research question, etc., (and any necessary changes to your methodology) if you experience problems with your original intentions, your research throws up better and more interesting possibilities, and so on. Very occasionally, you may have to abandon your topic and change to something completely different but this is regarded as being exceptional.
5. USING SOURCES AND REFERENCING
Do not forget that a dissertation depends crucially on source material. From the assessment criteria listed in a later section of this document you will see that you will be evaluated on the way you use your sources. Thus, before you finalise your topic and title, make sure that adequate and appropriate sources are available. This is particularly important if empirical research is a part of your dissertation. For instance, response rates to student questionnaires are often poor and/or slow.
Your dissertation may depend mainly on primary sources such as surveys, interviews, statistics, etc. Many dissertations depend more on secondary sources such as books, articles, and the internet. As you can see from the assessment criteria below, supervisors will look for evidence that you have located a good selection of appropriate sources and understood them.
Make sure that you have acknowledged these sources. If you don't this will be viewed as passing off other people’s words and ideas as your own, i.e. cheating, and you will be penalised for this dishonesty.
Good references are an indication that you have found and used available sources and this will be taken into account when your dissertation is marked.
As all quotations and paraphrases must be acknowledged this means that you will need to keep careful records of your research and reading.
The use of references can cause difficulties. You must use the Harvard System of Referencing. The essence of this system is that whenever you quote from a primary or secondary source you add in brackets, immediately after the quotation, the surname of the author, the year of publication, and the page reference
The referencing system outlined can be found at the following website: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/subjects/reference/harvard.php
5.1. Example of Harvard referencing
Carter persisted with the ‘responsible’ import based recovery programme, hoping that the Germans and Japanese would ultimately follow their example. As a consequence of this policy the US trade deficit increased from $9.5 billion in 1976 to $31.1 billion in 1977 (Stein 1998, p159).
(Stein 1998, p159) would appear after a direct quotation, or as in this case, the presentation of an idea. Direct quotes of more than 30 words or so should be indented on either side.
Example:
In my view, and notwithstanding some of the really important theoretical insights and results that the concept has generated, there are problems in trying to apply the concept of utility that have not had the attention they deserve. However, economists are now beginning to take more interest in the extent to which psychological evidence can inform the development of economic models.
(Anand, 2006, p223)
All books etc. you have cited in the text are listed in a reference list at the end of the dissertation in alphabetical order: author, initials, date, title, place of publication, publisher. Stein would thus appear as:
Stein, J (1998) The Locomotive Loses Power: The Trade and Industrial Policies of Jimmy Carter; in Fink, G & Graham, HD (eds) The Carter Presidency: Policy Choices in the Post New-Deal Era, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
Note that this is a chapter in a publication edited by someone else. The full volume also needs to be cited thus:
Fink, G & Graham, HD (1998) The Carter Presidency: Policy Choices in the Post New-Deal Era, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
Note the use of italics in these two examples. It is always the title of the book that is italicised.
All books etc. you have cited in the text are listed in a bibliography at the end of the dissertation in alphabetical order: author, initials, title, publisher, date. Mansfield would appear as:
Mansfield, E.; Microeconomics: Theory & Applications, Norton and Company, 1995
If there is more than one book, journal article etc. by the same author your references will normally be distinguished by the year of publication. If the author has published more than one work in the same year, show them as 1992a, 1992b etc.
Ensure that your document is spell-checked and pay particular attention to grammatical and punctuation errors.
5.2. Good scholarship, referencing and academic misconduct
In your project, as with all academic work you will be expected to demonstrate a high standard of academic referencing. To recap, this is for three reasons:
1. To show the breadth and depth of research you have carried out (e.g. get good marks!)
2. To enable the reader to follow up on interesting ideas/research that you have discussed
3. To avoid being accused o plagiarism.
As a level 3 student you should know all of the following information, but experience tells us that it is useful to include a re-cap.
5.3. What is good scholarship?
Academics (including you!) are engaged in the generation of new knowledge and insights that contribute to what we already know about the natural, supernatural and social world – this is called ‘scholarship’. Good scholarship is the result of conventions that help the readers of academic research to see exactly what is new, what is the work of others and how it all fits together – the main way this is done is through the referencing system.
Put simply, authors (including you) need to make it clear what are not their own ‘new’ ideas, by adding a citation after every idea or set of ideas they write about that are not their own. There are several different ways of doing this that have evolved from different academic disciplines (just as there are lots of different world languages). In the Business School we use the Harvard Referencing System.
An excellent resource about referencing can also be found at the following website:
http://www.learnhigher.org.uk/site/index.php
We suggest that you select ‘in depth’ mode from the drop-down menu on the bottom left of the page.
5.4. What do I reference?
As the above section suggests, you should attribute all your sources regardless of the medium the material comes in (e.g. You Tube video, journal article, blog, radio programme, book chapter etc.) There is a general rule of thumb that says that which is ‘common knowledge’ does not need to be referenced, but of course, what counts as common knowledge? So-called ‘common sense’ hides many assertions and prejudices that good quality academic work should seek to expose. A useful technique to use if you want to include general assertions is to use constructions like:
‘It is generally accepted that……’ or, ‘Arguably,’ or ‘It is reasonable to assume…’
But do take care, even assertions need some justification in the text to be credible.
It is also a good idea to completely avoid cutting and pasting text from the internet, even if you correctly enclose a paragraph in quotation marks and add the reference underneath, you are unlikely to get many marks since this is not your own work and does not demonstrate your understanding.
Quotations are good to see, but use them judiciously for the above reasons. If you can say it just as well yourself, write it in your own words and add the citation at the end of the sentence / passage.
You need to include page numbers for all direct quotations.
A useful reference, particularly with regard to referencing new electronic sources is at the following: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/subjects/reference/citation.php
6. THE FORMAT AND PRESENTATION OF YOUR DISSERTATION
Your dissertation must be written in English in typescript form on A4 paper. Your name must not appear on the dissertation. TWO hard copies of your completed, bound dissertation and via Turnitin by the published deadline (28 February 2014). It is advisable to retain a copy for your own records. Please note submitted dissertations will only be returned in cases of failure.
The maximum length of the dissertation depends on your chosen programme. Typically, the dissertation is 18,000 words (60 credits). However, some programmes allow 15,000 words (45 credits) or 12,000 words (30 credits). Please check with your Course Leader or Course Administrator.
One of the approved regulatory changes in the word limits for Postgraduate Major Project modules which for all new learning from 1st July 2013 onwards will be:
· 30 credits: 10,000 words
· 45 credits: 12,000 words
· 60 credits: 15,000 words
PLEASE NOTE: these revised word limits only apply to all new learning. Previous word limits as detailed in the sixth edition of the Academic Regulations apply to any student who commenced a Major Project module on or before 30th June 2013 (including any resit that may be required).
Note
The maximum number of words does not include footnotes, the abstract, the bibliography, indented quotations, appendices and tables.
When you submit the copy of your dissertation you may be asked to submit, either on disk, using Word, or in manuscript, your working papers which have formed the basis of your dissertation; for example, copies of articles, working notes and summaries, completed questionnaires and tapes or notes of interviews. These may provide the basis for a viva voce should that be necessary. These will be returned to you after the assessment process is complete.
The cover sheet of the dissertation must include the following declaration: 'I declare that the above work is my own and that the material contained herein has not been substantially used in any other submission for an academic award'.
The dissertation must be prefaced by an abstract. This is not an introduction but a summary which outlines the plan and argument of the dissertation. It should include brief details of the methodology employed. The abstract should not be longer than 300 words. It should be included immediately after the title page and it will be examined as part of the dissertation.
A list of contents, such as the glossary, chapters, and appendices - with page references - should be included at the front of the dissertation.
Pages should be numbered and double-line spacing used.
Your dissertation must be held together in a suitable spine binder with a disclaimer page which will be available from the Business Faculty Office, LAIBS 312, Cambridge or MAB301, Ashcroft, Chelmsford, or as designated by your centre.
Diagrams, figures, tables, and illustrations should be incorporated into the text at the appropriate place, unless there is a series of them or they are continually referred to throughout the text. In this case they should be placed in appendices at the end of the work. You are advised to use a drawing package for diagrams and scan in other illustrations.
The work of other authorities must be acknowledged. When quotations or general references are made they must be suitably referenced by using the Harvard system.
Appendices should not contain material which is not used or referred to in the text. Similarly, illustrative material should not be included unless it is relevant, informative, and referred to in the text.
A bibliography should be included at the end of the dissertation and should list, alphabetically, all the sources (including magazines and newspapers) that you have consulted. Books should be listed as: Author (surname then initials); title, edition, publisher, date. Other sources such as journals, magazines, and newspapers should be treated in a similar fashion. If sources are used which are not written in English then the English translation is required in the bibliography.
You should also submit a copy of your dissertation on via Turnitin this will be used to help verify the sources you have used.
Your Dissertation should be presented as follows, ALL dissertations should include the following (but they may include more):
Plastic Front Cover
(from Reprographics)
White Card Cover
(from Reprographics)
Disclaimer Page
(from your faculty office)
Abstract
Set out on a page of its own immediately after the title page. The abstract is likely to be the last section to be written. It is a short (300 words maximum.) summary of the project (not an introduction) and should indicate the nature and scope of the work, outlining the research problem, key issues, findings and your conclusion/recommendations.
Table of Contents
An outline of the whole project in list form, setting out the order of the sections, with page numbers. It is conventional to number the preliminary pages (abstract, table of contents) with lower case Roman numerals (i.e. (i), (ii), (iii) etc.) and the main text pages (starting with the first chapter) in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) as shown below.
Contents
Page
List of Tables
i
List of Figures
ii
List of Abbreviations
iii
Acknowledgements
iv
Chapter 1 (Title)
1
1.1 (First Section heading)
1.2 (Second etc.)
1.3 (Third)
List of tables and figures
You can present a list at the beginning of your dissertation/ project of the tables and figures you have included.
A table is a presentation of data in tabular form; a figure is a diagrammatic representation of data or other material. Tables and figures should be clearly and consistently numbered, either above or below the table or figure. Each table and figure should have a separate heading (caption). The reader should be able to understand what the table or figure is about from this heading / caption without referring to the text for explanations. The numbers of the tables and the figures you use in the text and in the lists at the beginning should correspond exactly.
Main body of document, appropriately structured (this structure may vary depending on the nature of your dissertation.)
Bibliography / References
Appendices (these should only contain material which is genuinely supportive of the argument in the main body of the dissertation).
Supervisor Contact Log (completed)
(See Appendix 8)
White Card Back
(from Reprographics)
Black Comb Binding
(from Reprographics)
Do remember that clear writing makes a good impression. If your grammar is poor, sentence construction clumsy, and spelling bad, then your communication with the reader will also be affected. You will not be penalised for poor English unless it is so bad that the meaning of what you have written cannot be understood.
You are required to use the following format:
· Use A4 size paper only.
· Type 1.5 or doublespaced. (You may want to use single spacing for indented quotes, footnote materials and the bibliography).
· Use one side of paper only.
· Margins should be approximately:
· 3 cms on left hand side of page to allow for binding.
· At least 1 cm on the right hand side
· 3 cms top and bottom.
· Pages should be numbered in a single sequence from the contents page onwards.
· Short quotations can run in the text within single quotation marks (double quotation marks reserved for quotations within quotations). Quotations longer than about 30 words should be set in from the side of the page (normally the indent should be more than the paragraph indent).
· Always write in complete sentences. Do not resort to note form.
· Do not use abbreviations in the text unless they are for the organisations documents etc which are commonly initialised or referred to by acronyms eg. BBC
· All abbreviations must be explained when they first appear and included in the front of the document following the contents page and the list of tables and figures.
Your documents must be bound using a plastic or metal comb binding. The cover should be plain except for the title and the author’s SID number. Reprographics will copy and bind your work. There is a charge for this service.
Forms of Dissertation
The final form your dissertation takes will depend on the topic and the approach you take for the presentation of the data. Two examples are:
Example A
Chapter 1 - Introduction An explanation as to what the Dissertation is all about and why it is important. The research questions or hypotheses.
Chapter 2 - Literature Review A critical analysis of what other researchers have said and where your topic fits in. The theoretical framework.
Chapter 3 - Methodology Why certain data was collected and how it was collected and analysed.
Chapter 4 - Results A presentation of your research results.
Chapter 5 - Analysis and Discussion Analysis of your results showing the contribution to knowledge you have made and acknowledgement of any weaknesses/limitations in your work.
Chapter 6 - Conclusions/Recommendations A description of the main lessons to be learned from the study and what future research could be carried out.
Chapter 7 - References and Bibliography References are a detailed list of sources from which information has been obtained and which has been cited in the text. The bibliography is a detailed list of other sources you have used but not cited.
Appendices - Detailed data referred to but not shown elsewhere.
Example B
You may wish to elect to write a descriptive type of dissertation that looks for patterns, ideas and hypotheses. If you do the quality of the dissertation will depend on:
· How thoroughly the issues are covered.
· How closely the facts relate to the original research question.
· Whether the data collected provides valuable and new information that is a contribution to knowledge.
· Whether the research could be built upon by future writers.
· The extent to which creativity has been used in building the narrative.
NB - This approach is not an extended essay, but evidence of critical reflection and analysis.
The two forms of dissertation outlined above are given as an indication of possible formats. It is possible that your dissertation may require a different approach or modification to the above possibilities in presentation and content. Both presentation and content should be discussed with your Dissertation Supervisor at an early stage.
Remember, study at Master's level encourages innovative application of research principles to academic work.
7. CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING YOUR DISSERTATION
The criteria for assessing your dissertation are shown OR the Postgraduate Dissertation Assessment Criteria Form that is included as Appendix 3 in this document. They are:
Introduction – Is the abstract adequate? Is there a clear purpose and rationale for the study? Clear set of objectives / research questions?
Research Design & Methodology – Was research design and methodology discussed? Was the approach appropriate?
Use of Literature / Sources – Was the range suitable and adequate? Has a critical review of the literature been adopted? Has the student made a ‘link’ between existing literature and their own research?
Results, analysis and interpretation of data – Has the data been accurately presented and analysed or are the findings merely a description? Appropriate theory applied? Interpretation – Has the student made reasoned judgements on their findings?
Conclusion & recommendations – Are conclusions reasoned? Do they correspond with the objective(s) of the dissertation? Has the student reflected on the extent they have achieved their objectives? Was limitations and future research discussed?
Presentation - structure & language, Harvard Referencing correctly applied, appropriate use of tables/diagrams
8. Characteristics of a Postgraduate Dissertation
You will have gained some idea of what is required in a postgraduate dissertation from the learning outcomes of the module and from the assessment criteria above. In general terms we expect an emphasis on the critical literature review and an in-depth understanding of theory and methodology. Specifically,
Methodology - you will be expected to critically review the theoretical, empirical, and methodology literature. The theory should be comprehensively discussed and understood, and paradigms of inquiry and different methodologies should be explored. You should show awareness of the soundness of the methodology you use and its rationale.
Problem formulation - you will need to be precise and rigorous about the problem formulation and the setting of objectives. Relevance and originality in the choice of topic is also important.
Content and Analysis - your dissertation should clearly meet stated objectives and indicate the extent that arguments are based on valid and reliable evidence, and identified and worked within a critically analysed theoretical framework.
Evaluation of Implications - the evaluation of the implications in the dissertation, based upon the analysis undertaken and upon any data collected, should be of high quality and aim for originality.
Presentation - your dissertation should be well-structured in terms of both paragraphs and chapters. There should be attention to detail, expression should be clear, the title appropriate, and arguments coherent. Any appendices (and you are encouraged to keep these to a minimum) should be used. The same applies to references and the bibliography. Tables and diagrams should be of a high standard and make use of appropriate software.
9. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Learning outcomes (threshold standards)
No.
Type
On successful completion of this module the student will be expected to be able to:
1
Knowledge and
understanding
With reference to a chosen significant and complex area for enquiry establish a method for investigation / exploration of key concepts, models and principles. (University outcome)
2
Knowledge and
understanding
Critically evaluate complex issues from a variety of viewpoints
3
Knowledge and
understanding
Develop effective arguments to support relevant conclusions
4
Intellectual, practical,
affective and
transferable skills
Critically justify and rigorously apply appropriate methodologies, techniques and practical strategies; being sensitive to the context.
(University outcome)
5
Intellectual, practical,
affective and
transferable skills
Where appropriate formulate solutions to business or management problems in discussion with peers, clients, mentors and others.
6
Intellectual, practical,
affective and
transferable skills
Reflect critically on the process and outcomes of the investigation/enquiry.
Anglia Ruskin modules are taught on the basis of intended learning outcomes and that, on successful completion of the module, students will be expected to be able to demonstrate they have met those outcomes.
10. HOW WILL MY WORK BE ASSESSED?
All dissertations or projects are marked first by your supervisor and then by a second marker. In addition, a sample of dissertations will be sent to an External Assessor. Dissertations are graded using the criteria set out on the dissertation assessment form (See Appendix 7).
A Viva may be held if examiners feel unable to reach a final decision on a mark, based on the written work submitted. A Viva may also be held if a student is suspected of plagiarism.
All coursework assignments and other forms of assessment must be submitted by the published deadline which is detailed above. It is your responsibility to know when work is due to be submitted – ignorance of the deadline date will not be accepted as a reason for late or non-submission.
All student work which contributes to the eventual outcome of the module (ie: if it determines whether you will pass or fail the module and counts towards the mark you achieve for the module) is submitted via the iCentre using the formal submission sheet. Academic staff CANNOT accept work directly from you.
If you decide to submit your work to the iCentre by post, it must arrive by midday on the due date. If you elect to post your work, you do so at your own risk and you must ensure that sufficient time is provided for your work to arrive at the iCentre. Posting your work the day before a deadline, albeit by first class post, is extremely risky and not advised.
Any late work (submitted in person or by post) will NOT be accepted and a mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment task in question.
You are requested to keep a copy of your work.
10.1. Submitting via Turnitin®UKGradeMark [Cambridge and Chelmsford students ONLY]
You are required to submit your project online via Turnitin/Grademark, as well as submitting two hard copies to the iCentre. This section explains how to submit the digital copy. You must put YOUR Student ID number (SID) as the submission title (details below).
You will be enrolled automatically to two types of Turnitin class: 1) Grademark Classes entitled by module name, to which you will submit a ONE TIME ONLY final submission; 2) The Originality Report Class to which you can submit multiple drafts for originality checking.
The Grademark class page shows the start date (when you can begin submitting work), the due date for your assignment and the post date. All assignments must be submitted by 5pm on the due date. Any late work will NOT be accepted and a mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment task in question. The post date is the date when both feedback and provisional results will be posted online. You should follow the detailed instructions provided on the VLE.
When you submit your paper, remember to:
Prior to application:1.Researcher / student / project tutor completes ethics training .
2.Lead researcher / student completes Stage 1 Research Ethics Application form in consultation with co -
researchers / project tutor.NO answered to all questions(Risk category 1)NO answered to question 1-13YES answered to any question 14-
22 (Risk Category 2); such as
question 21Yes answered to any question 3-13(Risk Category 3)Research can proceed.You need to: Send this completed form to
faculty office for record.
You need to:i) Complete Section 4 of this form.
ii) Produce Participant Information Sheet (PIS)
(Appendix 10) and Participant Consent Form (PCF) (Appendix 11).iii) Submit this form and PIS/ PCF where applicable to your faculty office, who will
forward it to DREP/FREP
Two members of the DREP/FREP will review the application and report to the panel, who will consider whether the ethical risks have been managed appropriately.
•Yes : DREP / FREP inform research team of
approval and forward forms to FREP for recording.•No: DREP / FREP provides feedback to researcher outlining revisions required.
The panel may recommend that the project is
upgraded to Category 3 -please see below for procedure. Complete this form and the Stage 2 Research Ethics Application form and submit to your
faculty. FREP will review the application and
approve the application when they are satisfied that all ethical issues have been dealt with appropriately.Yes answered to question 1 and / or 2
(Risk Category 3)
Submit this completed form to your faculty office to inform them of your intention to apply
to an external review panel for your project.
For NHS (NRES) applications, the FREP Chair would normally act as sponsor / co-sponsor for your application.The outcome notification from the external
review panel should be forwarded to FREP for recording.
ONLINE SUBMISSION AND FEEDBACK THROUGH GRADEMARK
At the post date you will get your feedback through Turnitin/Grademark. We have implemented this online feedback system to give you the following benefits:
· More timely receipt of your feedback;
· Better quality feedback;
· The ability to hand in your work online;
· Reduction in time spent queuing to hand in and pick up your assignments;
· The ability to receive marker feedback when it is posted, regardless of your location;
· Reduction of both yours and the university’s carbon footprint by no longer printing work.
HOW TO VIEW YOUR FEEDBACK
Click on the class that you wish to view and then you will see the assignments for the module listed. Click the blue view button to open up the document viewer. A new window will open and you will see your feedback on the right-hand side of the screen. Or click on the grey arrow to download a copy of your assignment and feedback.
POINTS TO NOTE
1. The due date as seen in eVision is the official submission deadline. Any late work will NOT be accepted and a mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment task in question. Do not leave it until the last minute to submit your work – the system becomes extremely busy and can be slower during the period of the deadline.
2. Grademark final submission classes will become available 10 working days before the final submission date. Be aware that work can only be submitted ONCE to these classes and cannot be removed or changed.
3. All work submitted MUST be entitled by your Student ID number.
4. The Originality Report is automatically generated by Turnitin on submitting work. A paper copy of the originality report is not required.
5. The Originality Report will not be used to make assessment decisions unless concerns arise as to poor academic practice, plagiarism, or collusion. The report may then be considered as part of the normal investigatory procedures undertaken by the academic team and the Director of Studies (again, please see Section 10 of the Assessment Regulations).
6. Re-sits and extensions are also to be submitted via Turnitin. New Turnitin classes will be created for re-sits.
7. Full details as on submitting to Turnitin, the Originality Report, and a FAQs list, can be located on the module VLE. If you have experience submission difficulties, please email:[email protected]
All coursework assignments and other forms of assessment must be submitted by the published deadline which is detailed above. It is your responsibility to know when work is due to be submitted – ignorance of the deadline date will not be accepted as a reason for late or non-submission.
10.2. Submitting your work [Students in all other locations at Associate Colleges]
All student work which contributes to the eventual outcome of the module (i.e. if it determines whether you will pass or fail the module and counts towards the mark you achieve for the module) is submitted according to your institutions guidelines. Academic staff CANNOT accept work directly from you.
Any late work will NOT be accepted and a mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment task in question.
You are requested to keep a copy of your work.
10.3. Marking Rubric and Feedback
The rubric, shown in section 11.Assessment Criteria for Postgraduate Major Projects, will be used to mark your work.
10.4. Feedback
A completed Report Form for the dissertation will be sent to you. The dissertation remains the property of Anglia Ruskin University and will not be returned to you. You should therefore make an additional copy for your own use.
Anglia Ruskin is committed to providing you with feedback on all assessed work within 20 working days of the submission deadline or the date of an examination. This is extended to 30 days for feedback for a Major Project module (please note that working days excludes those days when Anglia Ruskin University is officially closed; eg: between Christmas and New Year). Personal tutors will offer to read feedback from several modules and help you to address any common themes that may be emerging.
At the main Anglia Ruskin University campuses, each Faculty will publish details of the arrangement for the return of your assessed work (eg: a marked essay or case study etc.). Any work which is not collected by you from the Faculty within this timeframe is returned to the iCentres from where you can subsequently collect it. The iCentres retain student work for a specified period prior to its disposal.
To assure ourselves that our marking processes are comparable with other universities in the UK, Anglia Ruskin provides samples of student assessed work to external examiners as a routine part of our marking processes. External examiners are experienced academic staff from other universities who scrutinise your work and provide Anglia Ruskin academic staff with feedback and advice. Many of Anglia Ruskin’s staff act as external examiners at other universities.
On occasion, you will receive feedback and marks for pieces of work that you completed in the earlier stages of the module. We provide you with this feedback as part of the learning experience and to help you prepare for other assessment tasks that you have still to complete. It is important to note that, in these cases, the marks for these pieces of work are unconfirmed as the processes described above for the use of external examiners will not have been completed. This means that, potentially, marks can change, in either direction!
Marks for modules and individual pieces of work become confirmed on the Dates for the Official Publication of Results which can be checked at www.anglia.ac.uk/results.
After you have handed your work in or you have completed an examination, Anglia Ruskin undertakes a series of activities to assure that our marking processes are comparable with those employed at other universities in the UK and that your work has been marked fairly and honestly. These include:
· Anonymous marking – your name is not attached to your work so, at the point of marking, the lecturer does not know whose work he/she is considering. When you undertake an assessment task where your identity is known (eg: a presentation or Major Project), it is marked by more than one lecturer (known as double marking)
· Internal moderation – a sample of all work for each assessment task in each module is moderated by other Anglia Ruskin staff to check the marking standards and consistency of the marking
· External moderation – a sample of student work for all modules is moderated by external examiners – experienced academic staff from other universities (and sometimes practitioners who represent relevant professions) - who scrutinise your work and provide Anglia Ruskin academic staff with feedback, advice and assurance that the marking of your work is comparable to that in other UK universities. Many of Anglia Ruskin’s staff act as external examiners at other universities.
· Departmental Assessment Panel (DAP) – performance by all students on all modules is discussed and approved at the appropriate DAPs which are attended by all relevant Module Leaders and external examiners. Anglia Ruskin has over 25 DAPs to cover all the different subjects we teach.
The following external examiners are appointed to this DAP and will oversee the assessment of this and other modules within the DAP’s remit:
External Examiner’s Name
Academic Institution
Position or Employer
Harold Birkett
University of Staffordshire (now Retired)
Lecturer
The above list is correct at the time of publication. However, external examiners are appointed at various points throughout the year. An up-to-date list of external examiners is available to internal browsers only at www.anglia.ac.uk/eeinfo.
10.5 Re-Assessment (resit)
Whilst we hope that all our students are successful in all the assessment tasks they complete, on occasion some students fail their dissertation and are therefore given one opportunity to resit the assessment. In these circumstances, the e-Vision system will tell you if you have failed and what it is you have to do to retrieve that failure, e.g. a resit examination, write a new piece of coursework, etc. The e-Vision system will also tell you when this has to be completed.
It is your responsibility to make sure you are aware of any resit requirements, the exact details of the reassessment and when it will take place, e.g. the submission deadline or the period for any examination.
Please note that the overall mark for any module which you pass after you have been reassessed, e.g. undertaken a resit examination, will be capped at 40%.
11. ASSESSMENT OFFENCES
You are reminded that any work that you submit must be your own. All suspected assessment offences will be investigated and can result in severe penalties. Please note that it is your responsibility to consult the relevant sections of the Academic Regulations (section 10 – see www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs) and the Student Handbook.
When you are preparing your work for submission, it is important that you understand the various academic conventions that you are expected to follow in order to make sure that you do not leave yourself open to accusations of plagiarism (eg: the correct use of referencing, citations, footnotes etc.) and that your work maintains its academic integrity.
Plagiarism is theft and constitutes the presentation of another’s work as your own in order to gain an unfair advantage. You will receive advice and guidance on how to avoid plagiarism and other elements of poor academic practice during the early stages of your studies at Anglia Ruskin.
Guidance on being honest in your work
Introduction
Being honest in your work is at the heart of studying and working at university. To be honest in your work you must acknowledge the ideas and work of others you use, and you must not try to get an advantage over others by being dishonest. It is important that you understand what it means to be honest in your work. Although there is general agreement within the UK academic community about the types of activity that are unacceptable, this does vary slightly between institutions, and may be different from where you studied before.
We have developed this guidance to help you understand what it means to be honest in your work, and what you should do to make sure that you are handing in work that meets our expectations. This means we can make sure that we can maintain reliable standards for our academic awards, and students continue to enjoy studying for academic qualifications that have a good reputation. In this guidance we will:
· clearly define what being honest in your work and good practice mean, and how you can achieve this;
· define ‘assessment offences’, including plagiarism, cheating and collusion;
· identify the resources, help and advice available to help you learn the academic skills you need to avoid committing assessment offences;
· explain how we expect you to behave; and
· describe what happens if we think you have committed an assessment offence.
Being honest in your work and good practice
You can show good practice when you do your work independently, honestly and in a proper academic style, using good referencing and acknowledging all of your sources.
To show good academic practice you must:
· show you understand the literature;
· use research from academics and others in your area of study;
· discuss and evaluate ideas and theories;
· develop your own independent evaluation of academic issues; and
· develop your own arguments.
To support your own good practice you will need to develop your:
· skills at studying and getting information (for example, reading, taking notes, research and so on);
· skills in looking at an argument and making your own evaluation (for example, having a balanced opinion, using reasoning and argument);
· writing skills for essays, reports, dissertations and so on;
· referencing skills (how you include your sources of information in your work); and
· exam techniques (for example, revising and timing).
Achieving good practice is not as complicated as it may appear. You need to do the following.
· Know the rules.
· Make sure you reference all of your information sources. Poor practice or dishonesty in your work (such as plagiarism, cheating, fraud and so on) can be a result of you not knowing what you are allowed to do.
· Develop your own style. Sometimes students include too much original text from the work of others, as they believe that they cannot ‘put it any better’. Although you should try to express ideas in your own words, quoting or summing up ideas from academic sources is fine, as long as you say where you have taken this from. You must also reference other people’s performances or art in your own work. It fine to use other people’s performances and art, but you must be completely clear about why you are using that work, and make sure it is obvious that it isn’t your own.
Definitions of assessment offences
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is when you present someone else’s work, words, images, ideas, opinions or discoveries, whether published or not, as your own. It is also when you take the artwork, images or computer-generated work of others, without properly acknowledging where this is from or you do this without their permission.
You can commit plagiarism in examinations, but is most likely to happen in coursework, assignments, portfolios, essays, dissertations and so on.
Examples of plagiarism include:
· directly copying from written work, physical work, performances, recorded work or images, without saying where this is from;
· using information from the internet or electronic media (such as DVDs and CDs) which belongs to someone else, and presenting it as your own;
· rewording someone else’s work, without referencing them; and
· handing in something for assessment which has been produced by another student or person.
It is important that you do not plagiarise – intentionally or unintentionally – because the work of others and their ideas are their own. There are benefits to producing original ideas in terms of awards, prizes, qualifications, reputation and so on. To use someone else’s work, words, images, ideas or discoveries is a form of theft.
Collusion
Collusion is similar to plagiarism as it is an attempt to present another’s work as your own. In plagiarism the original owner of the work is not aware you are using it, in collusion two or more people may be involved in trying to produce one piece of work to benefit one individual, or plagiarising another person’s work.
Examples of collusion include:
· agreeing with others to cheat;
· getting someone else to produce part or all of your work;
· copying the work of another person (with their permission);
· submitting work from essay banks;
· paying someone to produce work for you; and
· allowing another student to copy your own work.
Many parts of university life need students to work together. Working as a team, as directed by your tutor, and producing group work is not collusion. Collusion only happens if you produce joint work to benefit of one or more person and try to deceive another (for example the assessor).
Cheating
Cheating is when someone aims to get unfair advantage over others.
Examples of cheating include:
· taking unauthorised material into the examination room;
· inventing results (including experiments, research, interviews and observations);
· handing your own previously graded work back in;
· getting an examination paper before it is released;
· behaving in a way that means other students perform poorly;
· pretending to be another student; and
· trying to bribe members of staff or examiners.
Help to avoid assessment offences
Most of our students are honest and want to avoid making assessment offences. We have a variety of resources, advice and guidance available to help make sure you can develop good academic skills. We will make sure that we make available consistent statements about what we expect in this document, and in student handbooks and module guides. You will be able to do tutorials on being honest in your work from the library and other central support services and faculties, and you will be able to test your written work for plagiarism using ‘Turnitin®UK’ (a software package that detects plagiarism).
You can get advice on how to honestly use the work of others in your own work from the library website (www.libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/referencing.htm) and your lecturer and personal tutor.
You will have an opportunity to do a ‘formative’ assignment before you finish and hand in your first ‘summative’ assignment. A ‘formative’ assignment is one in which you can talk about your work thoroughly with your tutor to make sure that you are working at the correct level for your award, and that you understand what is meant by good practice (a ‘summative’ assignment counts towards the assessment for your course).
You will be able to use ‘Turnitin®UK’, a special software package which is used to detect plagiarism. Turnitin®UK will produce a report which clearly shows if passages in your work have been taken from somewhere else. You may talk about this with your personal tutor to see where you may need to improve your academic practice. We will not see these formative Turnitin®UK reports as assessment offences.
If you are not sure whether the way you are working meets our requirements, you should talk to your personal tutor. They will be able to help you and tell you about other resources which will help you develop your academic skills.
What we expect from you
We will make sure you have the chance to practice your academic skills and avoid accidentally breaking our Academic Regulations. On page nine of the Student Charter (see http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/students/pdfs/09_student_charter.pdf), it says you have to ‘be aware of the academic rules relating to your studies’.
To make sure that you are aware of the rules, we expect you to agree to:
· read this guidance and make sure you thoroughly understand it;
· work through ‘PILOT’, the online tutorial available on our library website (http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/pilot/), which aims to help you learn good practice and has a useful section on plagiarism;
· make sure that you are familiar with how to reference (acknowledge other people’s work);
· correctly reference all the sources for the information you have included in your work;
· identify information you have downloaded from the internet;
· never use someone else’s ideas for a performance, film or TV programme, their artwork, graphics (including graphs, spreadsheets and so on and information from the internet) as if they are yours;
· only hand in your own original work;
· never use another person’s work as if it were your own; and
· never let other students use or copy your work.
What we will do for you
To help you avoid making assessment offences, our staff will:
· make sure they are familiar with the guidance on being honest in your work and the Academic Regulations;
· tell you clearly about the guidance on being honest in your work and any guidelines on misconduct, and record the dates for future reference;
· arrange library information sessions for you;
· promote the resources on the library website and put links to them in module guides and student handbooks;
· include statements on academic honesty in each module guide, making sure they are consistent throughout our university;
· make you aware of the punishments for misconduct early in the course;
· give you effective guidance on how you should acknowledge the information you have used;
· tell you, in writing if possible, how far you may work with other students in your coursework;
· plan procedures for assessing work in a way that reduces plagiarism, cheating and collusion;
· be aware that you may have worked differently in the past and make sure that you are aware of good practice in the UK;
· familiarise themselves with ‘Turnitin®UK’ and its reports; and
· report all suspected misconduct using the proper disciplinary procedures.
Procedures for assessment offences
An assessment offence is the general term used to define cases where a student has tried to get unfair academic advantage in an assessment for themselves or another student.
We will aim to give you as much help as possible to avoid an assessment offence. We listed a number of possible assessment offences earlier in the document. These and any relevant breaks of the Academic Regulations are dishonest, unacceptable and not allowed. We will fully investigate all cases of suspected assessment offences. If we prove that you have committed an assessment offence, we will take action against you using our disciplinary procedures.
For full details of what punishments you may receive for assessment offences, see the Academic Regulations, section 10 at: www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs
And finally
One of the main aims of university is to give you the ability to learn, have independent judgment, academic rigour and intellectual honesty.
You should encourage people to ask questions, to show personal and professional honesty, and have mutual respect.
You, university teachers and support staff are responsible for working together to achieve this aim.
References
Adapted from Scott, M, (2000), Academic Misconduct Policy. A model for the FE Sector. (Copyright _ Association of Colleges 2000)
More information
Academic Regulations, section 10 (www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs)
PILOT, the online tutorial in academic practice (www.libweb.anglia.ac.uk/pilot/ )
Referencing procedures (http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/referencing.htm)
RefWorks, a bibliographic management service that allows you to create a personal database and collect bibliographies in a variety of styles
(www.libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/refworks.htm)
The Student Charter
(http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/students/pdfs/09_student_charter.pdf)
12. FEEDBACK
A completed Report Form for the dissertation will be sent to you. The dissertation remains the property of Anglia Ruskin University and will not be returned to you. You should therefore make an additional copy for your own use.
13. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE STUDENT
It is your responsibility to prepare and present your dissertation by the deadline given. Failure to submit by that date will result in the dissertation being assessed as a FAIL. There will be NO EXTENSIONS allowed except in highly exceptional circumstances agreed by the Student Adviser.
You should also be aware that you are responsible for:
· Submitting an initial synopsis (outline of your topic and title) by the specified date.
· Submitting a proposed timetable of work and research by the specified date.
· Building a substantial contingency into your timetable to allow for unforeseen and unexpected problems.
· Undertaking the necessary research.
· Ensuring that your Supervisor is kept informed of your progress.
· Ensuring that all progress reports, drafts etc are submitted to your Supervisor by the specified date.
· Arranging for the dissertation to be presented according to the guidelines given in this guide.
14. SECURITY
As your work for the dissertation is of great importance, you should keep copies of all relevant material to guard against loss. It is advisable to have back-up copies of any disks on which you have stored information.
15. LEARNING RESOURCES
Recommended Reading:
· Wilson, J. (2010), ‘Essentials of business research: a guide to doing your research project, London: Sage Publications.
· Bell, J. (2010), ‘Doing your research project: a guide for first-time researchers in education, health and social science’, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
· Burnett, J. (2009), ‘Doing your social science dissertation’, London: Sage Publications.
· Fisher, C.M. (2010), ‘Researching and writing a dissertation: an essential guide for business students’, Harlow: Prentice Hall.
· O’Leary, Z. (2009), ‘The essential guide to doing your research project’, London: Sage Publications.
· White B (2000), ‘Dissertation Skills for Business and Management Students’, Cassell.
Recommended Internet Resources
Your supervisor may be able to recommend internet resources of particular relevance to your area of research.
Other Resources
Use of a copyright library (letters will be provided by the Project supervisor to enable students to access a copyright library).
Anglia Ruskin Digital Library: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/diglib.htm
Link to the University Library catalogue and Digital Library http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/
Link to Harvard Referencing guide http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm
Faculty Liaison Librarians
ALSSKaren Ready ([email protected]) extn 2304
LAIBS
Jolene Cushion ([email protected]) extn 2470
FoECarol McMaster ([email protected]) extn 4643
FHSC
Maurice Wakeham ([email protected]) extn 3766
FSTRuth Rule ([email protected]) extn 2313
Specialist Learning Resources
None.
APPENDIX 1: DISSERTATION TIMETABLE
Most students will begin their dissertation at the beginning of the second semester.
The guidelines below commence at week one of the second semester of your postgraduate course.
Week 1 You should be deciding upon a subject area, title and initial study plan for your dissertation.
Week 3
By Friday 5pmYou should have submitted a hardcopy of your completed Dissertation Proposal Coversheet and Dissertation Proposal form to the Faculty Office. NB without a proposal form we are unable to allocate a supervisor, it is therefore imperative that your proposal form is received on time.
Week 5
By Friday 5pm
Deadline for the ethics training
Friday Week 6
By Friday 5pmDetails of allocated supervisors will be published for all students that have submitted a Dissertation Proposal form. The list will be made available on the VLE.
From Monday Week 8
Make contact with your supervisor in order to arrange an initial meeting to discuss your dissertation.
By Week 10
By Friday 5pmDeadline for submission of ethics application form to faculty office. Remember, this needs to be signed by student and supervisor (only if the student has completed online training, otherwise supervisors do not sign).
By Dissertation DeadlineGet your dissertation printed and bound (this must be in the correct format – see section 8 of this guide) and submit two hard copies of your completed, bound dissertation and a via Turnitin by the published deadline (28.02.2014).
THE DISSERTATION DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS 28/02/2014. 5.00PM
APPENDIX 2: DISSERTATION PROPOSAL COVERSHEET
Student Name:
Student Number:
Degree Programme:
Dissertation to be submitted:
Area of Dissertation: This must be a minimum of 2-3 paragraphs and include an overview of the research topic, along with aims and objectives. An additional page can be attached if required.
Please tick the most appropriate subject area for your Dissertation
Accounting & Finance
(Business Decision Making(
Business Economics
(Corporate Strategy
(
Organisational Behaviour(Marketing
(
HRM
(Information Technology
(
Ent & Innovation
(Logistics
(
Signature of Student:
Date:
Office Use Only
Proposed Dissertation Supervisor:
APPENDIX 3: PRODUCING AND SUBMITTING YOUR DISSERTATION PROPOSAL
You are required to produce a 750-800 word Dissertation Research Proposal. This should be based on your chosen dissertation topic. A guide to the structure of the proposal is set out in (Appendix 4), followed by an example of a Dissertation Research Proposal (Appendix 5). Although this example is slightly longer than what we are expecting from you, it still contains all of the ‘key elements’ typically found in a research proposal. It’s important to follow this structure as it makes it easier for us when it comes to allocating your Dissertation Supervisor.
Once you have finished your completed proposal, it should be submitted to the Faculty Office along with your completed Dissertation Proposal Coversheet (Appendix 2). This is so that a Dissertation Supervisor can be allocated to you. The name of your Dissertation Supervisor will be posted on the VLE. This is likely to be done 7-10 days after you submit your proposal. Once you have found out the name of your supervisor, it is down to you to make contact in order to arrange an initial meeting to discuss your dissertation.
Do not worry at this stage if you have not fully formulated your research topic. The important thing is that you have some idea of your proposed area of research. You can change your topic, although try to keep it within the same broad discipline e.g. Marketing, Economics, HR.
*Your proposal must contain a minimum of 5 references.
APPENDIX 4: HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR DISSERTATION PROPOSAL
Title
The title of your proposed research must fulfil a number of set criteria. First, it must reflect the nature of your study. For example, if you intend studying a particularly firm’s financial performance, then something to this effect must be stressed in your proposed title. Second, it must be concise. Ideally, try not to exceed more than 10-12 words. Third, try to avoid unnecessary terms such as ‘Case study approach’. Finally, try and keep your title clear and easy to understand. In other words, consider it from the layperson’s point of view.
Research Problem
The research problem or the main focus of your research should be clearly set out within the introductory section of your proposal. As noted earlier, it is important that the nature of your topic is clear and easy to understand. Your introductory section should provide background to your study; while at the same time define any key words or terms. Ideally, brief reference should also be made to existing studies that are relevant to your own work. Of course, making sure that the Harvard referencing System is applied in the correct way.
Key Literature
This involves a shortened literature review that critically analyses the work by leading authors relevant to your own research issue. In short, it must be critical and not overly descriptive. The verbatim copying of previous studies also provides no evidence as to how existing work ‘links’ to your own study. Remember that at some point you also need to say how your own research fits in to the gap of current literature. This usually comes somewhere towards the end of your preliminary review.
Methodology
This part of the proposal should classify your research design; include your rationale behind your chosen research strategy, along with methods for collecting and analyzing your data. This is of course dependent on your research approach. Aim to provide support for your choice of methodology. This can be done on the basis of using academic references or referring to previous work that also used a methodology similar to your own. Clear support for the latter option is the ability to compare your findings with that of previous studies.
The importance of validity and reliability is something that one would also expect to see featured in this part of your proposal. In addition, use this as an opportunity to cite any potential limitations that you foresee with your research. Limitations are constraints in your research. For example, for most researchers financial and time constraints are potential limitations.
Research Timetable
Unlike your final research project, your proposal will not set out your research findings and conclusions. This part of the proposal is intended for you to develop your own research timetable. You might question the purpose of a timetable, as you prefer to work in an ad hoc manner. True, every researcher works in their ‘own’ way. However, the setting out of clear tasks, along with start and completion dates can help you to work towards a set research schedule. A Gantt chart often works best. This can set out the tasks e.g. literature review, data collection; writing up etc, along with a respective start date and completion date. A point worth mentioning is that when allocating time, it is better to be conservative, rather than too ambitious.
APPENDIX 5: EXAMPLE OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Title: The Internationalization and Brand Development of Chinese Firms
Research Problem
A number of internal and external factors have resulted in many Chinese firms becoming involved in the internationalization process. Increased domestic competition, along with an easing of regulations under WTO, has allowed Chinese firms to penetrate international markets. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in Chinese outward investment. However, there currently exists a limited amount of research on the internationalization of Chinese firms (Child and Rodrigues, 2005; Deng, 2007a; Deng, 2007b). The majority of research focuses on inward, as opposed to outward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Therefore, a gap needs to be filled that explores the reasons Chinese firms internationalize, as well as how they currently penetrate international markets.
An important aspect of internationalization is how an organization develops its brand when penetrating international markets. For example, a key question is to what extent should we adapt our brand attributes? Often viewed as ‘the workshop of the world’, China has yet to develop a single brand that can be described as truly global. Building brands fits with the Chinese government’s strategy of consolidating strategic industries in order to create national champions that can hold their own in global markets and is viewed as one more way for the country to restore its imperial glory (Shenkar, 2003: 158).
Reasons for China developing global brands is that the home market is fiendishly competitive and puts constant pressure on prices, branded products can be more profitable than those of OEMs, and competing in foreign markets forces companies to innovate and improve, thus helping them to move away from their image as producers of cheap goods (Gao et al., 2003).
According to one of the world’s leading brand consultants – Interbrand, Chinese enterprises such as Haier, Lenovo, TCL and Huawei Technologies are ready to compete on a world stage. Although Chinese brands have made evident and impressive progress in terms of internationalization, they still have far to go to compete with their global rivals, and the gaps are even widening in some respects. This is demonstrated by the revenue of China’s largest consumer appliance company, Haier, which in 2002 amounted to only about ten per cent of Sony’s total electronic sales (Fan, 2006: 367).
Interestingly, the current 2007 list of Interbrand’s top twenty-five Chinese brands includes a total of seven that feature ‘China’ in their name. Much research has shown that country-of-origin (COO) affects consumers’ perceptions of brand image and consumer behaviour (Hong and Wyer, 1995; Peterson and Jolibert, 1995). Chinese products are typically perceived as being ‘cheap’, and of ‘low quality’. Therefore, one would postulate that in order to establish a global brand, reference to China might not help with global ambitions. Even China’s East Asian neighbours have brands featured in the top 100. Japan has eight brands listed (positions in brackets), Toyota (6); Honda (19); Sony (25); Canon (36); Nintendo (44); Panasonic (78); Lexus (92) and Nissan (98), while The Republic of Korea has three brands listed – Samsung (21); Hyundai (72) and LG (97). These Japanese and South Korean companies made the transition from national to global brands; however, this took some years to achieve.
The development of Chinese brands has received limited attention from researchers (Fan, 2006). Therefore, a gap in the literature exists to explore reasons behind a lack of truly global Chinese brands, and determine the steps Chinese firms need to take in order to achieve truly global brand status. In sum, the nature of this research project is to examine the internationalization and brand development of Chinese firms. As reflected in the title, a case study approach will be adopted. In other words, analysis will be based on the existing internationalization activities of Chinese firms.
Research Objective / Questions
The main objective of the proposed research is - to better understand the internationalization and brand development of Chinese firms. The aim is to not only evaluate internationalization and the reasons China lacks a truly global brand, but also analyze what types of strategies Chinese brands need to take in order to achieve ‘global brand’ status.
The objectives for this study are as follows:
· Understand what motivates Chinese firms to internationalize.
· Examine the internationalization strategies adopted by Chinese firms.
· Determine the reasons behind China’s lack of truly global brands.
· Examine the strategies Chinese firms need to adopt in order to develop global brands.
The main research questions to be addressed are:
· Why do Chinese firms decide to internationalize?
· What are the internationalization strategies adopted by Chinese firms?
· Why doesn’t China currently have a major global brand?
· What strategies do Chinese brands need to adopt in order to achieve global brand status?
· How can Chinese firms compete in global markets?
Key Literature
There has been a call from a number of researchers to examine the internationalization of emerging market multinationals (EMM), especially those originating from China (See Fan, 2008: 357). Research into FDI in China is now a ‘well trodden path’. However, there exists a limited body of literature into China’s outward investment. Particularly in relation to the internationalization process of Chinese firms. Child and Rodrigues’ (2005) article is one of the few studies that explore internationalization from a Chinese perspective. Obviously the growing dominance of China on the global stage is justification for a better understanding of the internationalisation of Chinese firms. Although there have recently been a number of high profile cases e.g. Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s PC division, the actual process of internationalization of Chinese firms, and reasons behind it, have still not been fully explored.
According to Hulland (1999) the source country of brands can be seen as an important determinant of brand choice. Given China’s reputation as the ‘workshop of the world’ it is difficult to find anything these days that is not produced in China. Although many of the world’s top global brands such as Nike, Nokia and Gap are produced in China and other developing countries, consumers often view these brands based on the origin of the brand, as opposed to the country of manufacture. Recently the ‘made in China’ label has proven somewhat of a headache for marketers of Chinese brands. An article in Business Week (September 24th, 2007) highlights this by stressing that “after a year of massive toy recalls tainted toothpaste scares, and poisonous pet food incidents, consumers around the globe are thinking twice—or more—before buying Chinese-made goods. Indeed, in a new survey of marketing and business professionals worldwide, 69% of respondents said the phrase ‘Made in China’ hurts mainland brands. The word most frequently associated with Chinese products? ‘Cheap.’
Methodology
This study will use a range of secondary sources. For this study, this includes annual reports, promotional material, company documentation, published case descriptions, magazine and newspaper reports, as well as government printed sources. Multiple sources of data are used in case studies to increase validity and reliability (Yin, 1989). It should be stressed that the secondary data in this research is largely limited to data presented in English. As a non-Chinese speaker, this is an obvious limitation since it is restricting the volume of data available for analysis. However, it is a common problem for individual researchers conducting cross-cultural research.
This study follows a qualitative approach by principally analysing relatively qualitative information and is based on comparisons between cases. Its intention is exploratory in nature, aimed at advancing tentative propositions rather than drawing generalized inferences (Child and Yan, 2003).
Research Timetable
It is envisaged that this entire research project will be completed within a period of 18 – 24 months. At first, this may seem like an extremely short period of time to complete such an in-depth study, however, it must be noted that the student has already collected a significant amount of secondary data on the subject. In addition, the student has close contacts in a UK-Sino joint venture therefore has an excellent insight into the logistics of operating such a venture. In addition, he is very much familiar with existing relevant sources and has access to data.
References
Child, J. and Rodrigues, S.B. (2005) ‘The internationalization of Chinese firms: A case for theoretical extension’, Management & Organisation Review, 1 (3): 381-410.
Child, J. and Yan, Y. (2003) ‘National and transitional effects in international joint ventures: Indications from Sino-foreign joint ventures’ Management International Review, 41 (1): 53-75.
Fan, Y. (2006) ‘The globalisation of Chinese brands’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 24 (4): 365-379.
Fan, Y. (2008) ‘The rise of emerging multinationals and the impact on marketing’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 26 (4): Viewpoint.
Gao, P., Woetzel, J.R., and Wu, Y. (2003) ‘Can Chinese brands make it abroad?’ The Mckinsey Quarterly, Special Edition: Global directions.
Hong, S. and Wyer, R.S. (1995) ‘Effects of Country-of-origin and Product attribute information on product evaluation: An information processing perspective’, Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (2): 175-187.
Hulland, J. (1999) ‘The effect of country-of-brand and brand name on product evaluation and consideration: a cross-country comparison’, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 11 (1): 23-40.
Interbrand (2007) ‘Made in China: 2007 Brand Survey’, online source: www.ourfishbowl.com/images/surveys/Interbrand_Made_In_China_2007.pdf, accessed 10 July 2008.
Kwok, S., Uncles, M., Huang, Y. (2006) ‘Brand Preferences and brand choices among urban Chinese consumers: An investigation of COO effects’, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing & Logistics, 18 (3).
Peterson, R.A. and Jolibert, A.J.P. (1995) ‘A meta-analysis country-of-origin effects’, Journal of International Business Studies, 26 (4): 883-901.
Ping, Deng (2007a) ‘Investing for Strategic Resources and its rationale: The case of outward FDI from Chinese Companies’, Business Horizons, 50 (1): 71-81.
Ping, Deng (2007b) ‘Outward investment by Chinese MNCs: Motivations and Implications’, Business Horizons, 47 (3): 8-16.
Shenkar, Oded (2006) The Chinese Century. New Jersey: Wharton School Publishing.
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