Master Thesis - Research Design and Project Management

Knowledge

You will:

• know what the common pitfalls of designing a research project are;
• know well-established strategies for avoiding such pitfalls.

Skills

You can:

• develop and specify a research question at an advanced level;
• situate the research question in scholarly literature;
• identify key concepts, relevant theory and the appropriate logic of inference;
• justify a general choice of research design;
• develop a suitable research plan for case selection, time frame, data collection and choice of methods;
• develop an ethically responsible research project;
• draft a data management plan in line with EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

General competencies

You can:

• present a research plan to a group of peers;
• participate in academic discussion of research designs;
• reflect on your own research and writing process;
• plan a large-scale project for successful completion;
• deal with data protection and management issues in a responsible manner.

Lectures and seminars

Compulsory activities:

• attending all the seminar sessions (one during the first week and a 1 ½ day workshop during the sixth week);
• submission of two short memos
• oral presentation of MA research plan draft.

In the event of illness or other valid reasons, you can apply for a valid absence or postponement of compulsory activity.

Apply for valid absence from or need for postponement of compulsory activity

The week after the final sessions students submit their final master thesis research plan / pre-analysis plan.

You must have passed the compulsory activities in order to sit the exam.