Independent study project in international management

Key information

Start date
End date
Year of study
Year 3 of 3 or Year 4 of 4
Duration
Full
Module code
151030016
FHEQ Level
6
Credits
30
Department
School of Finance and Management

Module overview

The Independent Study Project or dissertation provides students with the opportunity to complete a substantial piece of work on an approved topic in international management.

The relevance to a module or modules taught in the degree must be made evident. The exercise of writing the dissertation is designed to give students the skills and experience to work independently and to prepare them for management careers and/or further academic study.

The topic must may be based on any one or more of the following approaches:

  1. Original fieldwork.
  2. The critical analysis of statistical material.
  3. The critical analysis of research publications.
  4. Original synthesis of material derived from secondary sources.

Each student will be assigned an academic supervisor who will give academic guidance of up to a maximum of 3 hours in total. The dissertation topic should be consistent with the degree title and approved by the supervisor. The length of the dissertation should not exceed 10,000 words.

Objectives and learning outcomes

At the end of this module students will have demonstrated an ability to conduct an independent research project to collect data, analyse it, and present the results in an interesting manner. A successful dissertation will clearly demonstrate the capacity to undertake academic work independently.  

In sum, the student will demonstrate the capacities to:

  • write extended prose
  • select and read relevant academic and other materials
  • plan and develop a sustained train of logical thought
  • think critically and with some originality
  • show detailed understanding of theoretical issues
  • show a rigorous and critical use of data

Suggested reading

The reading list for any one dissertation will vary according to the subject chosen.

  • Students should read the SOAS Code of Practice Undergraduate Independent Study Project before the start of their final year of study
  • Mead, R and Andrews, T G 2009 International Management: Beyond Culture Chichester: Wiley/Blackwell

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules.