Dissertation

The specific requirements for a School of Management taught postgraduate dissertation are explained below.

Further advice and detailed instruction will be provided over the course of the year as part of the Dissertation Module. Initially, you will be advised into MN5499, which is the module code for the individual dissertation module and all teaching will take place as part of this module during the first two semesters of the year. At the beginning of the dissertation (summer) period, students who chose to undertake a group dissertation will be re-advised into MN5498, the Group Dissertation module.

Dissertation topic

The School strongly advises you to be thinking about the topic of your dissertation as early as possible during your year as a postgraduate student. You will be asked to submit your dissertation proposal including your choice of topic for approval in Semester 2 and you will be allocated a supervisor. The School makes every reasonable effort to allocate appropriate supervisors to you and although you may request a particular member of staff as your supervisor, it is not always possible for such requests to be met.

Choice of dissertation – Group or Individual

You will have the option to undertake either a Group or an Individual Dissertation. You will be required to indicate your choice when you complete the dissertation proposal form. The exception to this is the MSc Banking & Finance programme, where students must undertake individual dissertations according to the programme regulations.

Dissertation groups must designate a group leader who will be the main point of contact with your supervisor and the Module Coordinator for the dissertation module. For Group Dissertations there is an additional requirement for each individual to submit a separate essay (the 'individual element' of the group dissertation) of no more than 3,000 words, which is related or linked to the Group Dissertation research topic and must be academic in nature, rather than reflective. Students should choose their own topic for the individual element of the group dissertation, which should be agreed with their supervisor during the supervision process. Dissertation groups are also required to keep an accurate record of group meetings. The record of group meetings should be submitted with the hard copy of the group dissertation.

Group Dissertations will be marked on a 70/30 basis: 70% Group Dissertation, 30% Individual Element.

Ethical approval for your dissertation research

As your dissertation research may include data obtained from living human subjects – for example through conducting interviews, undertaking a survey, or focus groups – it may therefore come within the scope of the University's policies and procedures concerning the ethical approval of such research activities. This is overseen by the University's Teaching and Research Ethics Committee (UTREC).

UTREC focuses on academic activity involving living human subjects, human tissues and other human samples. All research and teaching activities of all staff and students in all Schools and Units of the University that involve living human subjects, tissues and/or other samples will require formal approval from UTREC.

To find out more please refer to the UTREC web pages.

The Dissertation Module includes teaching and information on the requirements for obtaining ethical approval for your dissertation research.

All School of Management students are required to submit an application for ethical approval in early June; you will be advised of the exact date. Submission for ethical approval is open before June and you are encouraged to submit your application well ahead of the final date. Based on the applications submitted, the School Ethics Committee will determine which dissertation projects require ethical approval and which do not. If you require ethical approval, once the application has been reviewed and approved, you will be issued with a letter confirming ethical approval has been obtained. This letter must be bound into your dissertation, normally as an appendix to the dissertation. Should your dissertation not require ethical approval, no letter will be issued; therefore you will not be required to include reference to this in your dissertation.

As part of your ethical application, you will be required to submit a working title for your dissertation. This is only a working title for the purposes of your ethical application and as long as your topic and approved research method does not change, you are permitted to update or change the title of your dissertation prior to submission.

Dissertation submission

The dissertation should be submitted as follows:

Dissertations should be submitted no later than 12 noon on Tuesday, 13 August 2024. The deadline for submission is not flexible and neither your supervisor nor other staff in the School are in a position to grant extensions. Extensions are only possible in extreme extenuating circumstances, substantiated either by a doctor or other official means. If you feel you are experiencing such circumstances and therefore have reason to request an extension, you must make the request to the Director of Postgraduate Programmes by email as early as possible in advance of the dissertation submission date.
Dissertations must be submitted in PDF format and uploaded to MMS. During the day of submission, there will be many users on the University server and it may take longer than expected to upload your dissertation. You should make every effort to leave time for the submission of your dissertation to ensure you do not miss the deadline. It is good practice to submit earlier than the deadline, leaving extra time in case you experience any problems.
For Group dissertations: The Group Dissertation Module code is MN5498. Prior to the deadline, all students undertaking group dissertations will be removed from MN5499 and advised into MN5498. The complete and final version of the group dissertation must be uploaded to MN5498 in MMS on behalf of all of the group members by the designated group leader. Each group member should upload their own individual element of the group dissertation to MMS in the space provided for this. Dissertation group activity logs should also be submitted by email to manpgt@st-andrews.ac.uk at the time the dissertation is submitted.

The following sections should be included at the beginning of ALL dissertations:

A title page with the title of the dissertation, your name, your matriculation number, the name of your supervisor, the name of the degree and the date of submission (specific format at student's own discretion). Students are not required to include the University crest on the title page of their dissertation. However should you wish to do so please follow the style guidelines for use of the University logo as outlined on the University website: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/brand/downloads/logos/

The following declaration in the case of an individual dissertation:

I hereby certify that this dissertation, which is approximately ….. words in length, has been composed by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. This project was conducted by me at [the University of St Andrews / another location] from [month/year] to [month/year] towards fulfilment of the requirements of the University of St Andrews for the degree of ……..under the supervision of …………. date …… signature of candidate ………

The following declaration in the case of a group dissertation:

We hereby certify that this dissertation, which is approximately ….. words in length, has been composed by us, that it is the record of work carried out by us and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. This project was conducted by us at [the University of St Andrews / another location] from [month/year] to [month/year] towards fulfilment of the requirements of the University of St Andrews for the degree of ……..under the supervision of …………. date …… signature of candidates (In exceptional circumstances one group member may sign on behalf of the dissertation group.) ………

All group dissertations must also include a declaration of responsibility, in order to comply with the University’s requirement for students working in groups to take responsibility for their individual input to the group dissertation. This declaration should take the form of a list of the dissertation sections and the corresponding group member who is primarily responsible for each section, for example:
- Introduction - E. Hemingway
- Literature Review - J. Steinbeck
- Methodology - C. Dickens.
This declaration should be signed by each member of the group. A student taking responsibility for a section will be held accountable should academic misconduct be detected within their section. In the case of shared responsibility for one or more sections of the dissertation, students should clearly state that the group members are jointly responsible for the section or part of the dissertation.

The School recognises that some postgraduates, such as those whose first language is not English or who have dyslexia, may wish to obtain additional assistance with their writing. As a general principle, such assistance must be limited to matters of style, idiom, grammar, syntax and spelling. If assistance of this kind is obtained by a student then this must be explicitly acknowledged in a further signed declaration at the front of the submitted dissertation as follows: “I, ……, received assistance in writing this dissertation with style, idiom, grammar, syntax or spelling, which was provided by [INSERT NAME].”

You are required to include a statement about inclusion of your dissertation in the Dissertation Library as part of the declarations when submitting your dissertation. See below for details.

You should not use the coursework hand-in sheet for submission of your dissertation.
Dissertations should be typed in 1.5 or double line spacing and the font size should be no less than 12. The margins should be no narrower than 30mm. The dissertation must not exceed 15,000 words (excluding only the bibliography, declarations and any appendices). This includes footnotes and edited original documents and texts, as well as all other parts of the dissertation. All other parts of the dissertation are included in the word limit. This word limit is set by the University and applies to all taught postgraduate dissertations. Students must comply with the word limit and no excess will be allowed.

Dissertations do not have minimum word requirements, however a very short dissertation (less than 12,000 words for example) may be an indication of an incomplete piece of work or one which has not been thoroughly researched. There are no specific rules or regulations about the titles and/or word lengths for individual chapters or sections of the dissertation. It is up to you as the author of your dissertation to take decisions about what to call these sections (e.g. “Literature Review” vs. “Review of Academic Literature” and so on) and also how many words are required for each section of the dissertation. Also, while it is normal practice to include an abstract when writing a piece of academic research, this is not a requirement and the decision as to whether or not to include an abstract and also for example any declarations is up to each individual student.

It is your responsibility to provide an accurate word count for your dissertation. Dissertations saved as PDF files may not accurately reflect the correct number of words, however the word count must be correctly listed in your declaration.
The School of Management maintains a digital library of past dissertations, all of which have achieved a 'distinction', which is a mark of 16.5 or better. Unless the School is notified otherwise, any dissertations receiving distinction-level marks may go into the School's dissertation library. Therefore, students who submit a dissertation which is of a confidential nature must include a note requesting their dissertation be withheld from the dissertation library.

The dissertation library will be available to current students electronically via a Moodle module. You will be required to self-enroll onto this module to access previous dissertations. Previous dissertations are only made available to staff and students in the School of Management. You are not permitted to print or copy any elements of the dissertations made available via the electronic library.

You will be required to submit a further declaration indicating your consent for your dissertation to be included in the dissertation library. This declaration should be worded as follows:

I am aware that the digital version of my dissertation may be made available online in the University's secure, password-protected intranet (the Virtual Learning Environment), where it will be read by staff and students authorised by the School of Management, and I do/ do not* [Please delete as appropriate] consent to this process.
Name ………………………..……………… Signature………………..…………………… Date ………………

Find University policy about PGT dissertations at Final module in a PGT programme (PDF).

Any specific questions about your dissertation that have not been answered above and cannot be answered by your supervisor should be sent by email to Julie Brooks, Director of Postgraduate Programmes on jfb9@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Dissertation

Dissertation topic

Choice of dissertation – Group or Individual

Ethical approval for your dissertation research

Dissertation submission

Mandatory declarations and title page

Dissertation length and format

Dissertation log: Record of meetings

Dissertation Library