Course Catalogue

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This course has been designed to offer students an applied research project that is relevant to their degree as an alternative to the traditional dissertation model.

The model allows students to develop a research project in collaboration with a non-academic partner to address a question that is directly relevant to the latter's mission. Research projects will be topical and relevant to the broader academic learning of the programme and will be identified by academic staff, external organisations or from students themselves with support from College Student Experience Team and/or relevant academic staff from the School of Law as coordinated by the course convenor. A collaborative LLM dissertation remains a major piece of independent work and will include the delivery of an academic dissertation and a policy brief. Students may also agree with the non-academic partner to deliver a presentation that describes the main conclusions of the research, but this will not be part of the assessment.

Training:

Training on the writing of the academic dissertation will be provided by the subject area in line with their existing dissertation training schedule.

Additional training will be provided by the College Student Experience Team (CSET). In particular, there will be compulsory training to support the production of the Policy brief. The CSET will also offer training on the delivery of oral presentations to support those participating students who agree to present their research to the non-academic partner. This training draws on existing College Employability Programme courses. (ie. "Writing a Policy Brief"; "Practical Presentation Skills"). Students can complete these online, asynchronous. tutor-moderated courses in either Semester 1 or 2. Each course will require 8-10 hours of student learning.

Research:

Approximately 10 weeks of self-directed research.

Students would normally select/be assigned to a collaborative project around March/April to fit the schedule of the ordinary LLM dissertation.

Supervision:

Supervision meetings will take place between May and August.

Under Article 7.1 of the generic regulations for taught Master's degrees, a candidate will be permitted to progress to preparation of the dissertation (the substantial independent work required by the degree), only if they have obtained a grade point average of 12.0 or above in the taught courses with at least 75% of the credits at grade D3 or above and all credits at grade F3 or above. Students who do not achieve this GPA at the Spring exam diet will be advised to pause their progress on the dissertation and granted an opportunity to resit taught course examinations at the August exam diet. If successful at achieving the required GPA from this diet, students will then be permitted to progress to the dissertation and recommence their substantial independent work (this is called 'late progress'). The exam diet for late-progress students on the dissertation course runs from early September to November.

LLM dissertation LAW5054P

None.

The aim of this course is to allow students to apply the diverse knowledge and skills gained throughout their studies to "real world challenges". Students will analyse and synthesise relevant literature and will undertake research to solve a live real-world problem facing the non-academic partner. These challenges may be set by academic staff or by external organisations or developed by the students themselves.

The students will also develop practical communication skills through their development of policy briefs for non-academic audiences and their presentation of their findings to their peers.

Aims:

■ Enable students to connect theory and practice

■ Enable students to apply their knowledge to address an issues-based or organisational challenge relevant to their academic programme

■ Develop students' professional competence and creativity to find new and effective solutions to contemporary social issues or organisational challenges

■ Develop students' standards in writing and communicating the findings of their research to non-academic audiences (ie. through policy brief)

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

1. Identify creative and innovative research-based approaches to respond to issues-based and organisational challenges and provide practical solutions which draw on the available evidence

2. Identify, analyse and synthesise a range of data sources (including from research databases and other academic and industry sources of information)

3. Formulate appropriate research questions and hypotheses 

4. Produce an academic report linking theory and practice and critically discussing the available evidence 

5. Apply consistent rules of presentation of bibliographical materials, appendices and footnotes, using recognised academic standards.

6. Produce an evidence-based Policy Brief which effectively communicates key research findings and proposes clear recommendations to a non-academic audience.

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