MBA Project supervision, marking, etc These notes were agreed at a small meeting of supervisors in July 2011

Project website and documents Everything – Project Guidelines, Examples of good projects, Marking guidelines, Ethics form, workshop schedule, etc, etc – linked to Everything – Project Guidelines, Examples of good projects, Marking guidelines, Ethics form, workshop schedule, etc, etc – linked to Please have a look at the Project Guidelines in particular Please have a look at the Project Guidelines in particular

Projects must have Projects must have –Aims or research questions to be answered –Literature review –Discussion of methods –Analysis of results –Conclusions and recommendations –References –An ethics form signed off at the appropriate time Projects must be Projects must be –No more than words (11000 would be a good goal) –Sensibly laid out with page or section numbers, references in alphabetical order, etc. Students should Students should –Take the initiative in liaising with supervisors, and negotiating a schedule taking account of holidays, etc (see Project Guidelines) –Write as clearly as possible. (May be a good idea for the student to get a colleague to check sense and grammar.) Supervisors should Supervisors should –Be encouraging and constructive, but critical (see project Guidelines)

Supervisors …. Apart from the previous slide, please be flexible. Remember that your supervisee may have a perspective that is different from yours in some ways. E.g. … Apart from the previous slide, please be flexible. Remember that your supervisee may have a perspective that is different from yours in some ways. E.g. … –References should draw on academic journals BUT some textbooks, websites, newspapers may also be OK –Best to avoid too much “I think …” etc BUT some use of first person (“I work for … and our big problem is …”) may be OK –Many projects use questionnaires and interviews BUT there are many other sources of data which may be more appropriate –Most projects involve primary data BUT sometimes analysis of secondary data may be OK –Usually supervisors will only check each chapter once, BUT … –Etc …

Marking Marking Guidelines linked to Marking Guidelines linked to Second markers will be allocated randomly (subject to a few constraints but not subject groups). Nobody has opted out Second markers will be allocated randomly (subject to a few constraints but not subject groups). Nobody has opted out Please make some typed comments suitable for the student (i.e. reasonably polite) Please make some typed comments suitable for the student (i.e. reasonably polite)