The practice-based dissertation is designed to appeal to: (a) students who have already begun their careers, and for whom this is a return to studying after considerable time in employment; and (b) students wishing to enhance their employability by making links within different professions.
The aim of this module is to provide an alternative to the more traditional dissertation route. The module focuses on practical rather than academic skills, which will complement the academic courses on offer across the rest of the MA/MSc. The module is designed for students who have a clear idea of the areas in which they wish to work, and will therefore enable those students to develop and hone skills relevant to their career paths.
The module leader will ensure that proposed placements are appropriate and act as a point of liaison between the university, students on the module and their places of placement should any issues arise, and for ensuring compliance with the University’s Code of Practice on Placement Learning in general.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
demonstrate the ability to relate theory to practice, showing how knowledge gained in other academic modules applies and influences their chosen area of practice.
demonstrate a reflective and flexible understanding of how the needs of practice affect theorists and theory-construction.
show how their professional and practical practice has been developed and enhanced both by the placement and by the MA/MSc as a whole.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessment:
Completion of 160 hours on Placement plus dissertation. Placement must be secured by student before beginning of term 2 (entrepreneurial challenge).During the placement, students have to produce a practical output/project for the organization/institution that hosts their placement. This output can take various forms such as a report for internal use, a piece of research for a think-tank; contribution to an NGO report or policy document; a series of blog posts; a video; a feature article for a newspaper; production of another form of media output. Students writing their dissertation in Philosophy or Law have to write a separate 12,000-word report about their placement. Students writing in POLSIS have to write a separate 10,000-word report about their placement to account for the differential word limits of regular POLSIS dissertations. This report must comprise three parts: Part 1: outline the rationale of the placement, and critically discuss the placement organisation. The rationale must include an outline of the set project/practical output as well as a specification of a pre-determined set of goals for personal and professional development that is the basis for part 2. Part 2: to reflect on the tasks, role, function performed by the student, and the learning process during the placement. Part 3: (length ca. 6,000 words, 5.000 in POLSIS) is to consist of a theoretical discussion of an issue having to do with the placement. This theoretical discussion will ideally be related to the project, but should not merely describe the practical output (the practical output can be mainly for use by the organisation). However, the theoretical part of the report at least has to involve a theoretical reflection of the practical output based on the literature.Placements are approved on a case by case basis and are subject to restrictions in terms of appropriateness within the subject area, the relevant professional and academic qualifications of the student, and availability of academic staff.Students who take the Global Ethics placement module can also do the practice-based dissertation. However, to avoid self-plagiarism (e.g. with respect to part 1 of the dissertation), it is normally expected that students undertake two different placements in separate institutions – unless the institution is sufficiently large so that it can be engaged with from two separate angles. Importantly, the placements cannot reproduce similar arguments or practical outputs but these have to clearly distinct.
Method of Reassessment If the placement report is of insufficient quality: rewriting of the written elements of the requirements. If the placement falls through while it is undertaken and no other placement can be secured immediately: switch to the regular research-based dissertation.
