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The dissertation project is a piece of advanced, independent scholarship & research work that you will carry out individually. It is the module that builds on, and elevates the knowledge, skills, and capacities developed across other modules, into a sustained, systematic and comprehensive piece of work that demonstrates the achievement of the learning outcomes for the MSC Social Research programme. In the project, you will be expected to critically engage with academic, public, and other literatures and sources, relating to the relevant theories, concepts, and models covered during the programme. The project also enables you to illustrate and utilise a range of transferable skills that you will have developed during workshops and peer activities across the programme. These skills and interpersonal capacities form a bedrock of professional attitudes in any workplace. You will be matched with a Dissertation Mentor best placed to guide you through the project. We have a wealth of expertise in the social sciences but where appropriate, may offer supervision from colleagues, for example, in Criminology, Psychology, Health and Social Care, or Business.

The dissertation project that you will carry out will be structured according to your interests and post-graduation plans. For example:
• You may opt to design and execute a new research project and seek to disseminate the findings to the relevant audiences.
• If you have (or will undertake) work experience that is relevant to the programme of study, you may opt in to do practice-based project.

1. Evidence the appropriate depth of knowledge in a chosen field/topic, through a critical and comprehensive review of key texts and ongoing debates in the field.
2. Exemplify the complex theoretical and practical aspects, as well as for ethical and socio-political issues affecting the preparation, delivery, and dissemination of your project.
3. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of research and evaluation methods appropriate to the scope of your project, by preparing a range of related outputs from different stages of project development (e.g. topic presentations to a larger audience, a project impact plan, reports or other dissemination outputs, a dissertation).
4. Carry out a sustained, extended, independent research/scholarship/work-practice project. This will evidence a robust research design and its implementation plan through tailored data collection and analysis strategies, resulting in theoretically sound and empirically grounded scholarship.
5. Show effective project and time management skills, professional aptitudes, and conduct.