This module offers an alternative approach to the traditional dissertation also offered to third year students and to the Interchange modules.
Students will be given the opportunity to work cross-faculty with engineering students on MECH327.
It will draw upon on the same skills and will test the same outcomes: subject knowledge in sociology, social policy, or criminology or interdisciplinarity as relevant to the chosen topic; desk top research skills; analytic skills and awareness of the limitations of knowledge; and presentation of findings.
Students will be guided through the research process by a supervisor who will have nominated a topic to investigate prior to each academic year (related to supervisors’ areas of specialism). This module will assist students who are unsure of a research topic themselves but wish to develop key transferable skills for employability purposes and provides the opportunity to work closely with an academic expert and fellow students working on similar topics.
The assessment is based on a portfolio comprising different elements. Students will be expected to evidence collaborative working in sharing resources, giving and receiving feedback, and critically reflecting on their delivery and/or preparations for delivery.
The module is an ‘alternative dissertation’ in that it requires group discussion, presentation of findings through a visual or other creative medium and will culminate in a portfolio of 8,000-10,000 words inclusive of appendices.