PART 2 - Academic Advice and Information
The credit value, duration, aims and Intended Learning Outcomes of the module, together with an outline of the syllabus, delivery, assessment and indicative reading are as described in the Module Description above.
Additional information about the teaching, delivery and assessment of the module follows.
1. MODULE LECTURERS
This module will be taught by:
Module Dr Min Park convenor Lecturer in Finance
CONTACT DETAILS:
Email address m.k.park@exeter.ac.uk
Room number: Streatham Court 0.19
Office hours: By request via email
Dr Min Park is responsible for overall module co-ordination. For more specific queries regarding your dissertation, please consult your dissertation supervisor (once he or she has been assigned to you, see below).
Staff are normally available to see students without appointment during their office hours. Outside of these times, please email the lecturer/tutor direct for an appointment.
Further information about staff is available at the following website:
http://business-school.exeter.ac.uk/staff/
Messages
If you are unable to contact the relevant person by any of the above please email the Student Support Team to request assistance. Email: info.buildingone@exeter.ac.uk
2. MODULE DELIVERY AND CALENDAR
Wednesday, 28th January 2020 14.30-16.30 Introductory session
The introductory session on dissertation writing will be given by Dr Min Park in Streatham Court 0.93 at 14.30-16.30. It is essential that you attend the session.
Friday, 6th February 2020, 17:00
Dissertation topic preference online registration deadline
Submission of your dissertation topic preferences must be completed on ELE by
17.00 on 6th February 2020. Please note that you can submit your dissertation preferences on ELE only once (i.e. once you have made your choice and submitted it on ELE, it cannot be changed). However, before you submit it, you can save and make changes to it. You must rank ALL of the possible topic families (from 1 to 16, with 1 corresponding to your most preferred choice). See the separate document for detailed topic descriptions).
Note that in order to help you make unbiased choice of your dissertation topic, the supervisor’s name under each topic is hidden.
To help you make an informed choice, each supervisor provided a brief description of their topic with some key references for it, in addition to the topic titles listed above. This information is contained in a separate document available from ELE of the dissertation module.
You will learn who your supervisor is by Monday, 9 February 2020 at the very latest.
While we ask for your preferences and we will accommodate to meet them to the extent possible, the allocation to your preferred supervisor(s) cannot be guaranteed. Please also note that once your topic and supervisor has been allocated, no changes are possible.
Week commencing Monday, 10 & 17 February 2020 1st Meeting with your supervisor (the exact dates, times, and venues to be announced in due course by your supervisor)
Meet-your-supervisor sessions: Each academic supervisor will give additional information about the dissertation topics as well as a briefing about how to approach your dissertation, and the arrangements for subsequent supervision meetings.
Friday, 6th March 2020, 12:00
Dissertation proposal submission deadline
The dissertation proposal must be submitted by this deadline (see Section 5 below for submission procedure details). The deadline is strictly enforced and failure to meet it will result in delay in obtaining the feedback on your proposal. Failure to meet the proposal submission deadline will be treated like any other delayed submission of the coursework and will result in 10% deduction in the final mark.
The proposal should not exceed 1,200 words (please provide a word count on the first page). In the proposal you should confirm your dissertation title and develop your initial ideas, giving more detail on the proposed content of your dissertation. You should also present some illustrative data, refining the scope of the dissertation’s empirical analysis. The dissertation proposal is part of the formative assessment. It will be marked to give you some indication of quality of the work. While this mark does not count towards the final module mark, the proposal is very important, as it will form the foundation of your dissertation. It will also help you communicate with your supervisor about your dissertation ideas more constructively. More information on preparing your dissertation proposal is provided in other materials which can be found on ELE.
June to early August
Data collection, Literature review, Empirical analysis and Writing up under the guidance of your supervisor
You work on your dissertation, receiving supervision from time to time by appointment with your supervisor (as agreed during the first meeting, see above).
You are strongly recommended to attend the relevant financial database and econometric training arranged by the School.
Any variation or change to the dissertation topic must be approved by your supervisor.
Early August 2020 (Details to be agreed with your supervisor)
First Draft Submission Deadline
You supervisor will look at only ONE draft of your dissertation. You should submit your draft dissertation to your supervisor at least three weeks before the final submission deadline or at an agreed date with your supervisor. If the draft is submitted late, your supervisor may be unable to look at it and return it in time for you to make appropriate revisions.
Note that the purpose of the feedback on the draft dissertation is to provide a final opportunity to identify and correct any major problems, either with the research itself or with the way in which it is presented. In particular, the feedback will address the way in which the research is motivated, the adequacy of the literature review and the appropriateness of the data and methods used. The feedback that you will receive is not intended to be detailed or exhaustive, but rather to give you a broad indication of how you might improve your dissertation. The supervisors will not be able to provide the indication of the dissertation mark which the draft is likely to attract.
Friday, 4 September 2020, 12:00
Dissertation submission deadline
The dissertation must be submitted by this deadline (see Section 5 below for submission procedure details). The deadline is strictly enforced and failure to meet it will result in your mark being capped. If your dissertation is of an empirical nature and involves statistical analysis of data, you should submit the dataset employed in the analyses together with the online submission of your dissertation via the submission links on ELE. Failure to submit your dataset along with your dissertation will be treated like any other delayed submission or nonsubmission of the coursework and penalties for late or non-submissions are applied.
Additional training
As of February 2020, you will be offered the opportunity to participate in additional training sessions helping you in the process of preparing the dissertation. These may include topics like searching appropriate literature to support your study and accessing financial databases. The details of these sessions will be announced in a due course on the Dissertation module site on ELE.
Finally, examples of empirical dissertations and a proposal from past years can be found on ELE.
3. MODULE READING AND THE DISSERTATION PROCESS
The reading list for your dissertation will largely depend on the topic chosen. All supervisors provided a brief reading list relevant in the information about the topics supervised. These reading lists contain only some introductory readings and are neither exhaustive nor sufficient for successful completion of your dissertation.
General dissertation materials will be accessible via your student portal online learning tab. No hardcopies of any dissertation reading materials will be provided by the School.
More information about various stages of the process of preparing your dissertation can be found in the separate document available on ELE.
4. MODULE ASSESSMENT
The module assessment is outlined in the module description at the beginning of this handbook (see PART 1).
There is no examination assessment in this module.
5. MODULE DEADLINES
Online topic preference form (Friday, 7 February 2020, 17:00)
• The form is to be completed on ELE.
Dissertation proposal (Friday, 6 March 2020)
• Students must submit an electronic copy through ELE only. This electronic submission is then put through the plagiarism-detection software.
• The submission deadline for the dissertation proposal is 12:00 (midday) on
Friday, 6 March 2020.
Dissertation (Friday, 4 September 2020)
• Students must submit an electronic copy through ELE only. This electronic submission is then put through the plagiarism-detection software.
• The submission deadline for the dissertation is 12:00 (midday) on Friday, 4 September 2020.
All the deadlines are strictly enforced and penalties for late submissions are applied.