Assignment Task

Objectives and Characteristics

The objective of the MSc Dissertation is to assess students’ capacity to produce answers to real-life, professional challenges, relying on academic readings and empirical data analysis.

In particular, the assignment is designed to address the following competencies:

• Identifying suitable and sustainable approaches to real-life challenges.
• Proposing inclusive and/or sustainable solutions.
• Designing initiatives that achieve sustainability.
• Recommending solutions based on data analysis (primary or secondary data).

Contrary to purely academic research or standard MSc theses, this work has a strongly professional orientation, addressing a real-world challenge in the domain covered by the programme. Readings and data analyses should result in operational recommendations that can be directly applied in real life. This applied aspect of the Dissertation is more important than theoretical discussion and elaboration.

Assessment Criteria

Student performance for the MSc Dissertation Proposal and Final paper is assessed on nine dimensions:

• Originality of the topic: relevance and originality in relation to the specific area.
• Appropriation of the literature: mastery of the relevant literature and quality of its critical presentation.
• Quality of methodology/information collected: quality and appropriateness of method for data collection (quantitative or qualitative).
• Quality of analysis and reasoning: the ability to address the issue at hand.
• Ability to synthesize: the degree to which the analysis allows for an in-depth understanding of the recommendations.
• Pertinence of recommendations: recommendations clearly result from the analysis presented.
• Quality of layout: professional level of report writing.
• Ethics: application of citation and referencing standards.
• Quality of thought and knowledge of specialization area: addressing the objectives set out by the dissertation, demonstrating knowledge of the specific area.

The Role of the Superior

The dissertation supervisor may be a permanent or associated professor or instructor. They are assigned in the autumn semester by the Head of the Programme in collaboration with the related Academic Department.

Students are enrolled in a 12-hour course, composed of lectures and workshops with their supervisor. Students are assigned to a group of 12 to 15, working in the same broad area, and develop their own individual project.

The course sessions aim to direct students to examine their topic of interest in depth, collecting and synthesizing relevant information. Discussions encourage cross-fertilization and foster critical analysis and thinking.

The mission of the supervisor is to validate the scope and outline of the work. Supervisors guide students in shaping their research question and defining a method of data collection to source the evidence to answer it.

The supervisor marks the Dissertation Proposal at the end of the spring semester. For the next two months, the supervisor remains available for problems relating to data collection, analysis, and writing of the final report.

Formulating the Research Questions

The Dissertation work aims to provide (several) alternative, substantiated answers, solutions, and recommendations to the research question.

Students must initially argue the importance and relevance of their research question by considering the following issues:

• Why should this question be asked?
• What are the real-world challenges relating to this issue?
• Is it possible to answer this question? (data availability and accessibility; confidentiality issues)
• Can the possible alternative answers be substantiated?