Course Catalogue

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Global Health MSc and MRes degrees culminate in a written dissertation of 12,000 words. Students will normally develop their dissertation proposals and be assigned a supervisor in Semester 2.

Students will normally meet with their supervisor at least once a month (and more often as required at key times e.g. during preparation for ethics submission and data analysis) from February to August. Supervision sessions are normally expected to last 30-60 minutes. In addition, a non-compulsory group dissertation information session will be held in Semester 1, and students will also be offered the opportunity to have one individual guidance meeting (20 mins) with the Dissertation Coordinator.

Students should be enrolled on the MSc in Global Health or MRes in Global Health and Research Methods

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The written dissertation (12,000 words) forms the main part of the summative assessment. However, there are two other components. First, towards the end of the dissertation period, students will give an oral presentation of their project (20%). Second, supervisors will be asked to assess student engagement throughout the dissertation process (10%).

The Global Health MSc and MRes dissertation offers students the opportunity to develop an original research proposal and conduct independent research on their chosen topic under the guidance of a supervisor. It acquaints them with a range of research methods and encourages them to identify and use the most appropriate method(s) to address their research questions/objectives. The aim is to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate that they can integrate the taught and research elements of the course and in the process to develop the skills needed to pursue postgraduate research.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• identify a topic worthy of social scientific inquiry;

• critically analyse and evaluate existing knowledge on that topic, through a review of relevant literature;

• formulate a coherent and answerable set of research questions;

• identify an appropriate research strategy and method, taking due account of any practical and ethical issues affecting the conduct of their research;

• collect and analyse primary or secondary sources;

• draw appropriate conclusions from their analysis;

• communicate their research through logically structured and properly referenced oral and written reports;

•work independently using their own initiative to produce work containing a substantial element of originality.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.