Guidelines for Masters Dissertation Process

Supporting your Masters Dissertation

This document covers many aspects of the Masters Dissertation process as well as information relating to student/staff responsibilities and appropriate presentation of the dissertation.

These guidelines provide comprehensive written guidance to enable both students and staff (in the role of supervisor) to fully understand the dissertation process and follow a common Newcastle Business School approach.  This will help to ensure that the challenge presented by this individual piece of work is manageable and that enjoyment and satisfaction are maximised.

These guidelines should contain the answer to any queries you may have about the dissertation.  Should you require further information please refer to the eLearning Portal (eLP/Blackboard) site that supports the dissertation module (LD0422).  The LD0422 site contains all the forms and information that you need and many other resources.

Should you need further help then please contact either help desk or the Dissertation Co-ordinator.

Thanks to all students and staff who have contributed generously to the development and production of this document.

Comments and feedback on dissertation documents are welcome in order to allow continuous improvement.  If you have any comments, please give these to the Masters Dissertation Co-ordinator.

The guidelines are intended to help students of the Newcastle Business School in the preparation of the dissertation necessary to obtain their qualification and should be read carefully. The Masters Dissertation is an individual piece of work and there is no intention to unduly restrict students in their approach and therefore this document can only be in the form of guidelines.

A successful dissertation for the Masters degree will present a thorough and critical review of relevant literature and of current subject knowledge. It will demonstrate high levels of analytical and critical awareness, the ability to synthesise theories and the ability to relate theory to practice. The theoretical base will be tested against practical illustration(s). Further information on the Learning Benchmarks can be found in Appendix A.

At the completion of the Masters Dissertation module, students will be able to:

1. Plan and complete a major research project on a contemporary business, financial, management or leadership topic and organise the findings into a comprehensive and explicit structure that is critically assessed and is linked to the conclusions drawn;
2. Demonstrate skills of analysis and synthesis in the selection and application of appropriate research methodology and method(s) to their chosen research topic;
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of innovative and contemporary research on the business and management community.;
4. Critically reflect on the processes involved in the research, including reflection upon their ethical values and the contribution of the research to the topic area;
5. Acquire, interpret and apply specialist functional knowledge about their programme of study (specialist programmes only).

Students will also illustrate and document progress within the dissertation process by providing an adequate set of working papers and log book.

Masters’ Programme Goals and Objectives

1.1   Demonstrate awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses and the ability to engage in continuing self-development

1.2   Demonstrate the development of  inter-personal and intra-personal skills

1.3   Demonstrate competence in contemporary analytical and ICT applications   

2.1   Demonstrate their ability to work in culturally diverse groups and teams and make appropriate an personal contribution to team effectiveness

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2.2   Reflect on their own ethical values

2.3  Understand the wider impact of individual or organisational decision making on social and environmental contexts

3.1  Analyse and communicate complex issues effectively

3.2  Demonstrate decision making, problem solving and project management skills

4.1  Acquire, interpret and apply knowledge of international business, management and organisational functions

4.2  Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of innovative and contemporary research on the business and management community

4.3  Acquire, interpret and apply specialist functional knowledge in relation to their programme of study (specialist programmes only)

5.1 Plan and complete a major piece of research or project on a contemporary business, financial, management or leadership topic

5.2 Demonstrate skills of analysis and synthesis in the application of research methods to the exploration of contemporary business and management issues

The Masters dissertation begins with ‘Dissertation preparation and research methods’ in the first semester. This will cover  research methods that you will use in your dissertation. Towards the end of the first semester there will be subject specialist presentations from the different subject groups in the Business School and consultation sessions to help you decide on a dissertation topic. Materials to support your dissertation studies will be available on the LD0422 eLP site.

All students completing a dissertation are required to submit a Dissertation Research Proposal Form to the Blackboard link – the deadline for this and other information to help you put together your proposal will be available from the eLP site. The proposal will be marked and it is worth 15% of the final dissertation module mark.

Once a supervisor has been assigned, students can meet with their supervisor to get feedback on their proposal. Students must then work under the guidance of their supervisor to complete the dissertation. Students will need to arrange to see their supervisor on a regular basis so that steady progress can be made over the course of the dissertation process.

Selection of a suitable dissertation topic rests with the student. The student cannot be required by a member of staff to undertake a topic that is not acceptable to the student.  Ideas for topics can be gleaned from many sources.  Work placement experiences, aspired career paths, course work and readings are just a few.  Start thinking early about potential topics that interest you. Copies of previous Masters dissertations are available for inspection via the eLP; consult these to see what previous students have done.

Dissertation Learning Outcomes

Your dissertation should describe an original piece of work undertaken by yourself. The topic needs to be related to business or management or to the specific named degree the student is studying.  You may have come across the phrase ‘addressing a gap in the literature’ but this applies most strongly to doctoral level research. At Masters level your research may be investigating a business (or accounting) issue that has been studied by others but you should still produce a critical literature review and obtain/analyse some data. It is the student's responsibility to verify that the title and the approach of the dissertation are original.  However, a student may not claim exclusive rights to a topic area.

Students can assume that the topic as initially conceived may evolve as the dissertation progresses.  By ‘evolve’ it is meant that the particular aspect of the topic which becomes central to the dissertation may well change in one direction or another as the dissertation progresses.  This evolution or “fine tuning” of a topic is quite usual and should be expected. The goal is to find a topic which is general enough to be significant, but specific enough to become focused. A common problem is to have the scope of the work too wide so that the work is not sufficiently focussed to allow successful completion with the resources available. 

Any major change of topic must be made with care and must be discussed with the dissertation supervisor.  A change of topic will not result in a change of supervisor, and a student may find that significant variation to the topic may compromise the ability of the supervisor to give advice. The topic change does not need to be notified to anyone beyond the dissertation supervisor.

Submission Of The Topic And Supervision Allocation :

Each student should submit his/ her proposed topic using the prescribed form .

The research topic must be close to your pathways of the study.

The Dissertation Research Proposal Form must be submitted as a soft copy to the Turnitin link  of LD0422 under the Blackboard. The submission date(s) for the proposal will be announced on the eLP.

A team of academics will allocate you a supervisor as per your topic, expertise of the faculty and resource availability. So please do not request for changing your supervisor. In normal circumstances, it will not be possible unless there is some conflict of interest or some  strong evidence of non-compatibility.