Dissertation Plan/Work Project/Internship Plan

Code:

2FI18

Acronym:

DWPIP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Management Studies

Instance: 2012/2013 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Management
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Finance

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIF	32	Bologna Official Syllabus	2	-	7,5	56	202,5

Teaching language

English

Objectives

To allow students to make use of the knowledge learned (in the first year of the Finance Master programme) in preparing their dissertation plan.
At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
• understand some basic concepts of research and its methodologies,
• identify appropriate research topics and a research problem
• prepare a project dissertation proposal.

At the final essay, the student is expected to:
• clearly identify the research question(s) and discuss the gap/opening question he wants to study in its master dissertation;
• fully perform a literature review and systematize the relevant literature in a main framework;
• justifiably identify the methodology suitable to analyze the problem in research (based in the relevant literature)
• plan the research work through a chronogram.

Program

1. How to write a scientific paper/research
2. Bibliographic and Statistical databases
3. Quantitative research methods. Data analysis.

Mandatory literature

Saunders, Mark; Lewis, Philip and Thornhill, Adrian; Research Methods for Business Students, Prentice-Hall, Edinburgh, 2002
Bryman, Alan; Bell, Emma; Business Research Methods, Financial Times / Prentice Hall, London, 2006
TBA – Quantitative research methods

Teaching methods and learning activities

• Teaching sessions.
• Tutorial sessions for reflection, discussion and motivation for future work of dissertation project.
• Presentation and discussion of dissertation themes, intermediate dissertation project draft and final project.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	54,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Calculation formula of final grade

Calculation of final grade
0,05*1stEssay + 0,05*ThemePresentation + 0,05*PaperPresentation + 0,15*2ndEssay + 0,1*ProjectPresentation + 0,45*FinalEssay + 0,15*OralExamination

Deadline / Percent final grade / Subject
- Sep. 23 / 5% / 1st essay delivery: 1 page resume - research topic, purpose and relevance
- Sep. 26 / 5% / Students’ oral presentation of the themes. 5 minutes presentation
- Oct. 31 and Nov. 7 / 5% /Student’s one paper oral discussion. 10 minutes presentation
- Nov. 11 / 15% / 2nd essay delivery: max. 8 pages report - research topic (reformulated, if needed), purpose and relevance, literature review and main research question(s)
- Nov.14 and Nov. 21 / 10% / Students’ oral presentation of the project. 10 minutes presentation
- Dec. 9 / 45% / Final essay delivery (Dissertation proposal): max. 15 pages report - research topic, purpose and relevance, the literature review (more complete), main research question(s), methodology and chronogram
- Jan. /15% / Students’ oral examination of the dissertation project. 15 minutes presentation.

Comments
- Passing the Dissertation/Work Project/Internship Plan course requires Final Essay (Dissertation Proposal) to obtain a minimum score of 10 points (out of 20).
- If the student fails an essay delivery date or is not present in an assessment session, he has a classification of zero points (out of 20) in the corresponding assessment.
- The panel of judges may suggest reformulating the Dissertation proposal. In that case, the student has one month to submit the new version.

Criteria for evaluation of the (written) Essays (brief guidelines):
It is expected that the student produces a proposal for research with high scientific accuracy and constituting a scientific contribution to the Finance field. The evaluation reports will thus be guided by the following criteria:

1st Essay:
- Research topic justification (30%)
- Purpose of the research (30%)
- Relevance of the research (30%)
- Rigor, quality and diversity of references/citations, text quality and clarity (10%)

2nd Essay:
- Research question framed in the literature, structure/coherence of the literature review (25%)
- Contribution of the research/main gap to be filled in to/within Finance literature (20%)
- Definition of key concepts (20%)
- Integration and critical interpretation of the distinct contributions in the literature (25%)
- Rigor, quality and diversity of references/citations, text quality and clarity (10%)

Final Essay:
- Research question framed in the literature, structure/coherence of the literature review (20%)
- Contribution of the research/main gap to be filled in to/within Finance literature (20%)
- Integration and critical interpretation of the distinct contributions in the literature (30%)
- Methodology's coherence with research question (20%)
- Rigor, quality and diversity of references/citations, text quality and clarity (10%)

Oral Presentations:
- Organization and structure of the presentation (40%)
- Clarity of the presentation (60%)