Independent Research Project

Module overview

The Independent Research Project, or Dissertation, forms an extremely important part of the overall degree. This module represents an extended opportunity to develop independent real-world and applied research skills, in design, execution, analysis and synthesis of experiments and data sets. Students have the freedom to choose a project in a field of particular interest and can develop a completely novel proposal in consultation with an appropriate supervisor.

The output from this module, the report, is often used as an important guide by employers when considering the background and experience of recent graduates. To this end, the double module requires a sustained effort; it accounts for 25% of the third-year mark within a 3 year programme and 16.5% of your final degree mark. As such, this module forms the most substantial single contribution to the final degree.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

1.You will identify a project of interest together with a potential supervisor.

2.You will work in consultation with a project supervisor(s) to develop and execute the research.

Initial planning, and the development of the project occurs through regular meetings with the supervisor who also offers suitable advice on library search and review of appropriate literature, data analysis, interpretation and presentation.

3.Progress is monitored by the project supervisor and also through the logbook progress check at the start of Semester 2.

4.A wide range of support can be provided for those students who have further or specific learning and teaching needs.

Study time
Type	Hours
Project supervision	35
Lecture	5
Independent Study	260
Total study time	300

Assessment

Assessment strategy

Final project report (80%): Submitted at the end of the second week of summer term this report will provide a clear record of your data collection, analysis and interpretation. The discussion section will provide the readers with a clear idea of where the work sits in relation to the published literature. The skills you have learnt writing reports and essays throughout your University career will be used and developed to achieve this.

Logbook: The logbook is handed in for marking midway through the year to ensure timely feedback. A logbook is a diary of the plans and progress made during your project and documents ALL project activity, aims/plans for your work, progress made and results obtained.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Logbook	20%
Project report	80%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External