Sheffield Business School

MSc Finance & Banking Programme

Level 7

Dissertation (Thesis) Guide

January 2019 Cohort

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Module Overview

Module Title: Module Code:

Dissertation
44-705936
Academic Year: Level: 7 Credits: 60 Semester: 2 / 3
2018/19

Courses:
MSc Accounting and Finance, MSc Financial Management, MSc Forensic Accounting,
MSc Banking & Finance, MSc Finance and Investment and MSc Wealth Management

Module Leaders: Dr. Dora Chan and Dr. Jean-Philippe Serbera Module Team:

Dora Chan
Assessment
Credits Submitted When
Method Jean-Philippe
Serbera
1. Research
Methods - See Module guide
15
Research RM
Proposal

See Module guide

2. Dissertation 45
RM

Module team
During timetabled sessions, the module team will discuss with students any aspect
of the module. Outside of scheduled times, members of the team may be contacted
directly by telephone or email.

Tutor Telephone Email

Dr Dora Chan 0114 225 5029 [email protected]

Dr Jean-Philippe Serbera 0114 225 [email protected]

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In additional to the guidance provided to you during the taught Research Methods sessions,
the notes below are intended to give you additional guidance for the completion of your
Dissertation Thesis. They are designed, in particular, to provide you with some practical
guidance. Inevitably, they do not provide answers to all possible questions, and you should
consult your Dissertation Supervisor regarding any remaining questions you may have.

1. The need for a question.

Every dissertation should ask a key question. The title of the dissertation does not
necessarily have to be a question, but you need to identify, in the introduction to the
dissertation, what the underlying question is. According to this research question,
you will then identify clearly the research objectives that your study aims to fulfil.

The major advantage of a dissertation having a clear question is that it provides a

focus for the dissertation. Ultimately, what you have to do within the dissertation is
to answer that question. You have to build up, chapter by chapter, a thorough and
convincing answer to the question that you have set for it. The conclusions to the
dissertation should therefore constitute an answer to the question. Your dissertation
will be judged accordingly.

2. The need to ‘adjust’ the question.

When deciding what to do for the dissertation, it is fine to think in terms of a general
topic area to begin with. You then need to translate that into a question, though –
which will probably serve to make more precise what you are really intending to do.
However, you may well end up with a question that will not actually ‘work’ in practice
– in the sense of you not being able to access the information needed or it being too
broad. In addition, you need to make sure that you are able to exploit the material,
experience and links that you have got. In other words, be prepared to refine the
question until you get to a question that allows you to incorporate and exploit that
material, experience and links. Even after you start your research, you may need to
slightly adjust your question based upon your understanding and experience gained
at different stages of your research.

3. Identify how you are going to answer the question

When trying to identify, and when refining, the intended research question for the
dissertation, think in terms of how you are going to answer the question. Don’t, for
the time being, think in terms of the ‘structure’ of the dissertation. Think instead in
terms of the steps/stages, etc. that you need to go through in order to answer the
question. Think in terms of how the question can be broken down into ‘sub-
questions’ or ‘tasks’ which will have to be undertaken in order to answer the question.
Check that you can complete these tasks – in the sense that you have the knowledge
of theory, of the industry, etc. in order to complete the task; or that you have the
appropriate contacts in the relevant organisation(s), or you have, or else can obtain,
the key information that you need to complete the task. If you find that you are likely
to run up against obstacles, then go back to the question and revise it, then repeat
the process of splitting it up into a number of sub-questions/tasks.

4. “What? Why? How?” for each step

In order to be absolutely clear on how you are going to answer your research
question, the advice is that you carefully write out, for each step in how you are going
to answer your question, answers to What?, Why? And How?.

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 What? Write down exactly what you are going to do, what you are going to achieve,
by completing each step. This probably sounds really unnecessary. Experience
tells us it is not. It is a good way of being absolutely clear on what you are going to
do – and that often leads to some revision.

Why? Again, write down exactly why you are going to undertake that step. Explain
why it is essential in order to answer your overall research question. Also, explain
the position of that step in the overall sequence; for example, explain why Step 5
comes after Step 4 (because it builds on the output from Step 4), and must come
before Step 6 (or Step 7, 8 or whatever) because you can’t complete a later step
without that foundation. A key purpose of writing down Why? you are undertaking
each step is to make sure that everything you do within your research is actually
focused on answering your research question; you will quickly identify things that you
don’t really need to do. You should not waste your time, effort and words for the
dissertation on things that do not help to answer the research question.

How? Write down exactly how you are intending to complete each step. For some
steps, this will be straightforward – for example, it will be making use of academic
literature – but do make sure that the academic literature does exist, and so it may be
appropriate to actually specify some items of academic literature. For other steps, it
will be much less straightforward; you will need to write down exactly how you intend
to obtain information and data you will require. It is important that you are objective
and realistic; you really don’t want to get to (say) Step 8 and find that you were
hopelessly optimistic about the way you were intending to have hour-long interviews
with the CEOs of the 5 largest UK banks . . . For other steps, an important aspect of
how you are going to complete those steps will be around how you are going to
analyse that information and data. If you are going to collect statistics, do you know
sufficient about statistics to be able to meaningfully analyse those statistics? Do you
know enough about the relevant software packages to process those statistics? If
the step involves using a particular academic framework, will you be able to utilise
that framework in an effective fashion? Ultimately, you have to convince yourself
that you really can complete all the steps in your research process within the time
and resources available.

5. The first written bit [the ‘2-pager’]

Having identified a question, having adjusted it to fit your resources, contacts, etc.
and having identified how you are going to answer the question, you then need to put
that on paper. In not more than two sides of A4, identify what the research question
is, explain how you are going to break the question down into a number of sub-
questions/tasks, explain how you are going to answer those sub-questions/tasks, and
explain how it will all come together in order to answer the key research question.
When you have done that, pass it through your supervisor, in order to see if s/he can
identify any problems with it or to suggest some alternatives and developments.
Once you have got this ‘two-pager’ sorted out, it will be the plan for the completion of
the project.

We very strongly recommend that you do not start on any other part of the
dissertation until you have completed this ‘2-pager’ to your, and to your
supervisor’s, satisfaction. It is your ‘road map’ for the completion of the
dissertation – and you must have it sorted out to know where you are going!

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6. The dissertation structure.
Note that this is not the same thing as the 2-pager in 5 above. We recommend you
to produce the 2-pager without referring to ‘chapters’ or things like that; concentrate
on working out how you are going to answer the question. Once you have got the 2-
pager finalised, then it is appropriate to think about how you are going to structure
the dissertation, in terms of splitting it down into chapters, sections, etc. In most
instances, the sub-questions and tasks identified in the 2-pager will convert into
chapters quite neatly with a bit of adjustment – but it really is much better to think in
terms of sub-questions and tasks first, and to forget about sections and chapters to
begin with. There is no particular optimal number of chapters for a Master's
dissertation of this nature, and it will depend very much on the subject matter
involved.

We do not have a fixed structure for dissertation that every student must adopt.
There is some flexibility in terms of the number of chapters that you may have in your
dissertation. The important thing is that you must have the following required content
in your dissertation:

 A cover page showing your name, student number, course, research

question/title and the date of submission.
 The Author's Declaration - see an example below.
 An abstract of your dissertation.
 Content list showing the content and page numbers.
 Introduction.
 Literature review.
 Analysis of empirical data.
 Discussion of the key findings.
 Conclusions and recommendations.
 Discussion of the limitations of your research
 Bibliography (the literature that you have USED/CITED in your dissertation).
 Appendices (if you have any).
 Evidence of empirical investigation, such as questionnaire responses and
interview transcripts and recording - they can be saved onto a CD.

It is your decision if you want to put the literature review in one or two chapters.
Likewise, it is your decision if you want to put the analysis of empirical data and
discussion of the findings (relate them to previous studies) in the same or separate
chapters. Acknowledgement is optional and again, it is your decision.

Sheffield Hallam University's Academic Conduct Regulations can be found using the
following link:
https://students.shu.ac.uk/regulations/conduct_discipline/Academic%20Conduct
%20Regulations%202018-19.pdf

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 Example of The Author's Declaration

I, XXX (insert your name), understand and adhere to the Academic Conduct
Regulations of Sheffield Hallam University. I confirm that this dissertation is my own
work, except the materials which have been appropriately referenced. The materials
in this Dissertation have not been submitted, in part or whole, in support of another
assessment or publication.

Signature: _____________________

Date:_________________________

7. The Introduction Chapter

All dissertations should have an Introduction in order to set the scene for your
research. Your introduction should do three things:

1. Outline what the research question is, as distinct from the title of the project.

2. Explain why the research question is worth asking – in other words, set the
context of the question.

3. Outline how, within the dissertation project, you are going to answer that
question. In other words, explain the structure of the project – so that the reader
knows what is coming and has something like a road map in order to understand
how he/she is going to be taken to the answer to the question.

Don’t do any substantive analysis within the Introduction; leave that for later
chapters. As a consequence, the Introduction tends to be shorter than most of the
other chapters.

8. The Conclusion
Every dissertation should have a Conclusions chapter. As a general guide, do not
introduce anything new in the Conclusion chapter; you should have completed all the
necessary analysis in earlier chapters. Concentrate on providing the answer to the
research question for the dissertation – which should be reasonably apparent by
then, but may need some bringing-together of various themes that have run through
the dissertation. Depending on the nature of the research question being asked
within the dissertation, the Conclusion can sometimes usefully include some
speculation on future changes/developments, and it can also usefully identify where
further research can profitably undertaken. Recommendations may be appropriate,
particularly for problem solving type of dissertations. It is appropriate to include a
discussion on the limitations of the dissertation. In any event, the chapter does not
need to be very long.

9. The individual chapters

It is a good idea for each individual chapter to have a clearly-identified sub-question
or task – for the same reasons that it is a good idea for the dissertation as a whole; it
allows for a clear focus and purpose. So, in the Introduction to each chapter, identify
what the sub-question/task is, and explain how you are going to answer that sub-
question/complete that task (i.e. outline the structure of the chapter). At the end of

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 the Chapter, have a Conclusion which provides the answer to the sub-question
and/or summarises the result of the ‘task’.

10. The structure of the individual chapters

Except for the Introduction and the Conclusion Chapters, the other chapters should
have a clear structure. The suggestion here is that the structure of each chapter
mirrors the structure of the dissertation as a whole – in other words, that there is a
brief Introduction (which identifies the sub-question/task for that chapter and how it
fits into the answering of the key research question for the dissertation – and outlines
the structure of the chapter.) You then have a number of sub-sections within the
chapter in which you progressively build up the answer to the sub-question posed for
the chapter, and finally have a brief Conclusion which provides the answer posed for
the chapter, and which explains how that conclusion lays the groundwork for the next
chapter (and hence remind the reader of how the overall argument within the
dissertation is going to progress).

11. Use of section numbers

Following on from 10 above, we would strongly recommend that you make use of a
numbering system for sections and sub-sections within each chapter of your
dissertation. The major advantage of doing so is that they force you, as the author,
to structure your material and argument together in a coherent fashion so that it ends
up being convincing.

We are often of the view that when a dissertation has been written which makes use
of sections, those section headings can often be removed without any loss of
readability – because the underlying material has been organised in a coherent,
logical and flowing fashion. Having said which, we would urge you to leave the
section headings in.

Within a Chapter, the Introduction becomes the first section. So, for Chapter 3 (say),
Section 3.1 is the Introduction. Following that, you will need to have a number of
‘substantive’ sections (4 or 5 is a sensible number) where you undertake the
substantive analysis and argument of the chapter. These would be labelled 3.2, 3.3,
3.4 and so on. Within each of these major sections of the chapter, it may be
appropriate to have sub-sections, in order to divide up the material and analysis in
manageable ‘chunks’. In that case, within Section 3.3, for example, you would have
sub-sections such as 3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.3 and so on. We would not recommend that
you go to any deeper levels of sectionalisation than this – otherwise you are in
danger of each sentence becoming a separate section . . .

12. Writing individual chapters

The approach to writing individual chapters needs to mirror the approach for the
dissertation as a whole. In other words, having sorted out a clear sub-question/task
for the chapter, you need to then work out how you are going to answer that sub-
question/complete that task. You need to identify the various steps and stages you
need to go through, and in what order – so that you end up with a plan for completing
the chapter. Then, you can translate that into a structure for the chapter, complete
with numbers and headings. We would strongly recommend that you do not start
writing any chapter until you have got this clear structure for the chapter written
down. A lot of time is wasted by people who start writing something without knowing
where they want to end up; self-discipline at this stage in terms of sorting out a clear
structure for each and every chapter will save you a lot of time and effort.

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13. When to do the fieldwork/primary research
There is a strong temptation to get going quickly with whatever fieldwork you intend
to undertake for the dissertation. While we would never advocate that people should
delay work on their dissertation project, do make sure that you are very clear on what
you want to gain from the research before you undertake it. We have seen many
instances of where people have sent out questionnaires before they have any clear
idea of what the central question for the dissertation is – let alone what the purpose
of the questionnaire is within the central question for the dissertation. Almost
inevitably, the questionnaires then have little use to the research as important
questions have not been asked. Similarly, we have seen interviews undertaken at
an inappropriate stage, with the consequence that the right questions have not been
asked – and it is invariably impossible to go back, saying: “Sorry, I didn’t ask you the
right questions – can I have another go, please?”

You must sort out the question for the dissertation, how you are going to answer that
question, and the structure of the dissertation before you undertake the fieldwork. In
many instances, you will need to complete one or two of the early stages of the
dissertation before you can determine what it is you really need from the research.
All of which points to the need to actually make some early progress on the
dissertation in terms of really getting the question and structure of the project sorted
out, so that you don’t run out of time for the fieldwork. Gaining a reasonably good
level of understanding of the relevant theory and literature is crucial before you start
the fieldwork as the questions you are going to ask should be developed from the
relevant theoretical concepts and/or prior research findings.

14. The need for fieldwork to collect primary data

You don’t have to undertake fieldwork in the sense of collecting primary data,
whether that is by means of interviews, questionnaires, making observations of
whatever nature, and so on. You can complete a dissertation on the basis of
secondary research – and there have been a good number of excellent dissertations
that have made use of only secondary research. A major reason for this is, of
course, that (depending upon the research question being asked for the dissertation)
primary research would not be appropriate or possible. The key thing to do is to
think in terms of answering the research question that you have set for the
dissertation, and use whatever research method(s) that is(are) most appropriate for
the effective answering of that research question. [Note again, in this context, point
3 above; you may have manipulated the research question for the dissertation in
order to best make use of the contacts that you can use for the fieldwork]. Given
the need to answer the research question posed for the dissertation, however, it is
almost axiomatic that you will have to undertake research in order to answer that
question in a convincing manner.

Do try to be clear on where the research and fieldwork fits in to the answering of the
question set for the dissertation. It can sometimes be useful to think in terms of the
early chapters of a dissertation undertaking the preliminary analysis of the chosen
research question, and coming to some sort of ‘tentative conclusions’. These
conclusions may be ‘tentative’ in the sense that there is some missing evidence or
updated information that would complete the picture. The research or fieldwork that
you undertake can then be used to supply that missing information or evidence, and
hence be used to strengthen, or modify, those preliminary ‘tentative’ conclusions.

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15. Evidence of fieldwork
If you have undertaken fieldwork, such as questionnaire or interview, you
need to submit with your dissertation evidence of the completed
questionnaires or transcripts of the interviews. It is not an issue if the
questionnaires are completed or the interviews are conducted in a language
other than English. The transcripts of the interviews should be in English.

16. Literature Reviews

A MSc finance, accounting, banking or wealth management dissertation requires
academic input. It is insufficient to build a dissertation solely on industry information
or findings from your own empirical work. Reviewing relevant academic literature
and incorporating some relevant theory and findings from prior literature into your
dissertation is critically important. The knowledge and information provides you with
some sort of 'theoretical answers' to your research question and enables you to draw
some sort of 'tentative conclusions' (as was discussed in 14 above).

Doing literature review is not about listing or stating what previous research studies
have said and found. It requires you to analyse, synthesise, compare and/or contrast
the views, theories and/or findings of these previous studies. You can agree or
disagree with these views and/or findings. Literature review aims to help you to
answer the question set for your dissertation. The knowledge and information gained
from such review supports your choice of the appropriate research method(s) to
collect the empirical information, as was mentioned in 14 above.

You may put all your literature reviews in one chapter. Alternatively, you may spread
it over two, three or whatever number of chapters as you like in order to improve the
clarity of your dissertation.

17. Methodology chapter

One of the assessment criteria for the dissertation is on Methodology. Hence, your
Methodology chapter needs to explain and justify the appropriateness of the various
methods chosen for your research.

Please be aware of the fact that the Methodology chapter is not about reviewing all
possible research philosophies, approaches, strategies and methods. You need to
focus on explaining and justifying the methodology and methods that you
adopted for your dissertation. In doing so, it may be appropriate to make some
reference and comparison to other methods that you could have adopted. However,
you should avoid going too far down that road. It is invariably appropriate to include,
within the dissertation (perhaps in the Conclusion chapter), some evaluation of the
methodology that you adopted by asking questions like “how well, in the end, did the
methodology suit the question being asked – and how would you alter the
methodology in the light of experience?”

18. Appendices
Resist the temptation to dump a lot of material in the appendices. In overall terms,
there are three types of material when considering what to include in a dissertation:

A. There is material that really does need to be in the dissertation – so include it in

the main body.

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 B. There is material that does not really need to be in the dissertation in order to
answer the research question convincingly – leave it out altogether.

C. There is a very limited amount of material that falls between A and B above – and
that is what goes into the Appendices.

A good example of material to go in an Appendix is a copy of the (blank)

questionnaire that you have used. You don’t want to include this in the main text –
but it could usefully be included in the dissertation, for reference purposes.

We would advise against putting diagrams and tables in Appendices. Often,

diagrams and tables are really important as a means of making and supporting a
discussion point; putting them in Appendices risks them not being consulted
adequately, and in addition there is the frustration of shuffling through pages to find
the right Appendix, flicking back to the main text, etc. In general, put important
diagrams and tables in the main text (even if they take up a whole page or more).

19. Referencing
Getting into boring detail here; but do follow the standard guidelines for referencing.
You should follow the APA system for referencing. Appropriate referencing is an
important part of academic writing. Failing to do so may lead to plagiarism
investigation.

Full details of the APA system have been given to you in the context of other
modules. Information on this system is also available from the Library Gateway. By
using the following link, you can get access to the "Help on Reference".

http://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing

20. Assessment criteria

You need to understand the assessment criteria as the assessors use them to judge
your dissertation. Major weaknesses in one or more of these assessment criteria
will reduce the chance of you passing the dissertation. A copy of the assessment
criteria can be found in the Dissertation Blackboard site.

21. Word limits

The guidance for the dissertations on the MSc Finance Programme is that they
should be minimum 13,000 words and maximum 15,000 words. The
acknowledgement, author's declaration, content list, bibliography and appendices are
NOT counted towards the word limit. Questionnaire responses and interview
transcripts are NOT included in the word count. They are empirical work evidence
and should be submitted either in electronic format on a memory stick/CD or in hard
copy put in the appendix.

You need to ensure that the materials included in the main body of the dissertation
are concise and relevant to answering your research question. If you think that you
are likely to exceed the word limit, discuss it with your supervisor before the
submission.

22. Bold/underling/italics.
The general point is that where you need to make some emphasis, then provide that
emphasis by making use of underlining, or putting words into bold, or italics. It
really does help you to get your point across – and is very under-utilised within what
students write (and not just dissertations, in that respect). This guide has made

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 repeated use of italics and putting words into bold; ask yourself if the points would
have been made as well if the italics and bold had not been there.
23. Font size
Although it is essentially up to you, we would recommend you to use size 11 or 12 so
that the assessors can read your dissertation comfortably.

24. Line spacing

It is advisable to make use of 1.5 spacing. Don't use double spacing - that goes too
far and uses too much paper.

25. Single or double sided printing

It is your decision if you choose single or double sided printing. If you choose double
sided printing, please ensure that the paper is thick enough to prevent the ink from
one side going through to another as it will affect the presentation of your work and
make reading your work difficult.

26. Number of copies for submission

You need to submit two hard copies of your dissertation to SHIP for marking. You
need to bind these two copies. You can choose either soft or hard binding. The
University's Print Unit provides this kind of services.

27. Marking
Marking of dissertations is undertaken by the supervisor and by a second marker
who marks the dissertations entirely independently. The two markers then meet to
agree on the mark and feedback. The second marker is usually one of the other
dissertation supervisors on the programme. In rare cases where the two markers
cannot agree on the mark for a dissertation, it will go to a third marker. Differences
in marks of more than a few marks are rare – not least because the dissertation is
being assessed against a set of assessment criteria.

28. Plagiarism and cheating

The definition of plagiarism and the need to avoid doing it within any element of
assessed work has been repeatedly emphasised throughout the course, and we
therefore do not repeat it here. All of what has been said applies to the dissertation
also. In simple terms, the message is:

Do not plagiarise or let other people to do part or all of the

work for you. It must be your OWN work as it is your OWN
MSc.
If you are in any doubt about what plagiarism and other forms of cheating constitute,
then consult your supervisor and the SHU regulations (use the following link). The
penalties for misconduct in a dissertation are severe.

https://students.shu.ac.uk/regulations/conduct_discipline/Academic%20Conduct
%20Regulations%202018-19.pdf

29. Proof-reading
Before submitting the dissertation, you must proof-read the dissertation very
carefully. Do not rely solely on the 'spell-checker' within the word-processing
software - a lot of errors will not be picked up by this. Just because a word is spelt
correctly, does not necessarily mean that it is the right word! It may be useful to get
someone else to proof read the dissertation for you.

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 If you use proof-reading services, you must keep the original work (in
electronic copy or in hard copy). If your supervisor wants to check how your
chapters have changed from your original writing to the final version through the help
of the proof reader(s), you need to be able to provide such evidence. The different
stages of the proof reading must be kept as evidence for future checking by the
supervisor or anyone from the University. Proof readers should NOT help you to
write your dissertation. You are the author of the Dissertation, not the proof
reader.

30. SHU's on-line academic writing feedback services - Studiosity

The University has launched a pilot project called Studiosity which aims to help
students with their assignments and dissertation.

Studiosity service allows students to submit their drafts on-line (2,500 words
maximum for each submission) and within 24 - 76 hours receive written feedback
about your academic writing. Feedback will cover areas such as:

 structure
 language choice
 argument development
 referencing
 highlighting examples of spelling and grammar issues

The Studiosity tutors will not proofread your work in detail, but they will be able to
point out any reoccurring problems and make helpful suggestions about how you can
make your work better before you actually submit your work for marking by the
academics at Sheffield Hallam.

When you log into Blackboard, you will see an icon for Studiosity. Students need to
self-enrol onto the Studiosity Blackboard site which enables you to submit your drafts
on-line.

Each student can submit up to TEN times per academic year, with each submission
2,500 words maximum. Students cannot send the whole dissertation to Studiosity in
one go, but in smaller chapters/chucks.

31. Supervisor-Student contact

Under the Business School regulation, students need to have a minimum of four
meetings with the supervisor before the submission. Witten work needs to be
submitted to the supervisor for comment for each of these meetings. If a student
needs to go back to his/her home country or go to another country to conduct the
research, some of these meetings can be conducted through SKYPE, telephone
and/or email. You and your supervisor should agree on how the supervision works.

If a dissertation is submitted with no or insufficient supervision and engagement (i.e.

with less than four meetings and points of work submission), it will be awarded 0%.
The policy is to ensure that students engage in, and benefit from, the supervision
process. If a student fails to make contact with the supervisor, s/he will not get the
support needed. On our side, we have no proof that the student has actually done
the work. Or if a student only contacts the supervisor just before the submission,
s/he will not have enough time to make changes if problems are found in the draft. It

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 will then influence the student's and the Dissertation module's performance. All in all,
it wastes resources and undermines the supervision system.

A Supervisor-Student Contact Record Form must be filled in (see the template on

next page). Whenever your supervisor meets you (or communicates with you) and
comments on your work, s/he will sign the form (can use electronic signature). This
Record Form needs to be submitted with the Dissertation. If no Record Form is
submitted or if the Form has no supervisor signature on, a mark of 0% will be
awarded to your dissertation module. Please understand that this new regulation is
to ensure that students make the best use of the supervision support and make the
necessary changes at earlier stages of the supervision process.

32. Dissertation (Thesis) submission instructions and checklist

Submission deadline: SEE MODULE GUIDE

Word limit: Minimum 13,000 words and maximum 15,000 words.

Acknowledgement, content list, bibliography and appendices are NOT counted
towards the word limit. Questionnaire responses and interview transcripts are NOT
included in the word count. All the others counted towards the word count.

Number of hard copies of dissertation

You need to submit TWO hard copies to SHIP for marking. Please bind the copies -
soft or hard binding. The University Print Services provides the binding service.

Submission by post (2 hard copies)

The post must be sent out by the deadline. Please keep the receipt as proof.
Please ensure that the post arrives Sheffield in good time, otherwise it cannot be
marked and approved in time for the Assessment Board to approve student results.

Student Help Point, Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University,

Stoddart Building, Sheffield S1 1WB, United Kingdom.

Turnitin Submission
By the deadline, you ALSO need to submit an electronic copy of your dissertation to
the Turnitin FINAL Portal on the Assessment folder on the Blackboard site.

Supervisor-Student Contact Records Form

We require students to have at least four points of contact with their supervisor. At
each of these contact points, work must be submitted to the supervisor for comment.
Face-to-face, Skype/phone and email contacts are counted.

A completed and signed Supervisor-Student Contact Records Form (1 copy will do)
must be submitted with the dissertation to show the contact that you have had with
the supervisor throughout the dissertation process. The Contact Form is available
from the Assessment folder.

Evidence for primary research (e.g. interview or questionnaire) conducted

In order to help the markers and the external examiner to check the authenticity of
the primary research and its sources, students are required to provide proof.

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If you have done interviews, in the appendix of the dissertation please provide the
details of the interviewees, e.g. names, position, organisations and contact - phone
number, email and/or postal address.

Also, please put the transcripts of interviews (even if they are in a non-English
language) in the appendix. Alternatively, you can save the transcripts and interview
recording on a CD and submit the CD with your dissertation.

If you have done questionnaire survey, the completed questions (in paper or in files)
must be submitted you’re your dissertation. You can save the responses on a CD
and submit it with your Dissertation (1 copy will do).

If the information from the interviews/questionnaires is confidential, you can mark

confidential on your dissertation so that only the two markers, the external examiner
and I as the Module Co-ordinator can see the information.

Secondary data and referencing

In the main body of the Dissertation, you must clearly reference/cite the sources of
any secondary data you use. In the bibliography, full details of your sources must be
provided. The statistical tables/print-out and interview transcripts must be included in
the appendices.

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 Postgraduate Finance & Banking Programme
Supervisor-Student Contact Record Form

Note:
 Students must keep a record of emails which show work is submitted to
the supervisor for comment.

Summary of the meeting/contact made Supervisor

face-to-face meeting, email, telephone ) signature and date
Date (.conversation, etc to confirm if the
meeting has taken
Please state what work has been submitted for place and written
comment work submitted

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 Sheffield Business School
Postgraduate Finance and Banking Programme

Dissertation assessment criteria and feedback

Student name and student number:

Dissertation topic/research question:

Turnitin Final Submission score: %

Has a Supervisor-Student Contact Form been signed by the supervisor and

submitted with the dissertation? Yes / No

1. Identification and justification of the aims and objectives of the research

project and evidence of the ability to manage that research project.

2. Critical understanding of the theories and academic literature relevant to the

research project.

3. Explanation, justification and evaluation of the methodology used.

4. Identification, generation and application of appropriate empirical data or

information.

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5. Systematic analysis, synthesis and evaluation, relevant to the aims and
objectives of the research project, to reach convincing and robust
conclusions.

6. Structure, coherence, clarity and the standard of academic writing.

7. Awareness of the implications of the conclusions and limitations of the

research project.

8. Degree of creativity, evidence of learning and potential for continuing

personal and professional development.

Agreed mark: %

The mark is provisional and is subject

to external moderation and the
confirmation by the Departmental
Assessment Board
First assessor name:

Second assessor name:

Your dissertation is independently marked by two staff members

and externally moderated by the Module External Examiner. Under
the University's regulations, students cannot challenge the mark.

17
 Dissertation assessment criteria and feedback
Student name:

Fail Fail Pass Merit Distinction Distinction

Assessment 0-39% 40-49% 50-59% 60-69% 70-79% 80-100%
criteria Work does not Work marginally Pass Pass Pass Pass
meet the below the Satisfactory Good quality Excellent work Outstanding work
requirements requirements work work
1. Identification Aims and Aims and objectives Aims and Aims and objectives Aims and objectives of An outstanding
and justification of objectives of the of the research objectives of the of the research the research project research project, with
the aims and research project project were not research project project were clearly were very clearly excellent justification
objectives of the were not clearly clearly identified were identified and identified and identified and justified and contextualisation
research project identified and/or and/or justified. The explained with justified within the within the context. of the aims and
and evidence of explained. No or research project was reasonable clarity. context. The Very good objectives. The
the ability to little justification of inadequately The research research project was management of the research project was
manage that why the research managed. project was well managed. whole research project professionally
research project. question was reasonably which has contributed managed which has
chosen. The managed. to the achievement of contributed to the
research project the research aims and achievement of the
was not well objectives. aims and objectives.
managed.

2. Critical A very low level of Inadequate level of Satisfactory level of A good level of A very good level of An outstanding level of
understanding of understanding of understanding of understanding of understanding of understanding of understanding of
the theories and relevant theories relevant theories and relevant theories relevant and updated relevant and updated relevant and updated
academic literature and academic academic literature and academic theories and theories and academic theories and academic
relevant to the literature which led which led to literature. The academic literature. literature. The literature. The
research project. to very weak inadequate research was built The research was research was built on research was built on
theoretical theoretical on reasonably solid built on sound rich theoretical outstanding theoretical
underpinning of the underpinning of the theoretical theoretical underpinning which led underpinning which led
whole research. whole research. underpinning. underpinning. to the achievement of to the achievement of
the research aims and the research aims and
objectives. objectives.

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 Fail Fail Pass Merit Distinction Distinction
Assessment 0-39% 40-49% 50-59% 60-69% 70-79% 80-100%
criteria Work does not Work marginally Pass Pass Pass Pass
meet the below the Satisfactory Good quality Excellent work Outstanding work
requirements requirements work work
3. Explanation, Methodology used Methodology used Satisfactory Clear and convincing Very cohesive Excellent justification
justification and within the research within the research explanation, explanation, justification and and evaluation of the
evaluation of the project was not project was not justification and justification and evaluation of the methodology used.
methodology used adequately/ adequately evaluation of the evaluation of the methodology used. The choice of
convincingly explained, justified, methodology used methodology used The choice of methodology was very
explained or or evaluated. within the research within the research methodology was very appropriate to the
justified. project. project. The choice appropriate to the research question
of methodology was research question. which has contributed
appropriate to the to the achievement of
research question. significant research
outcomes.

4. Identification, Appropriate Appropriate empirical Sufficient level of A reasonably good A very good level of An outstanding level of
generation and empirical data and data and information appropriate level of appropriate appropriate empirical appropriate empirical
application of information for for completing the empirical data and empirical data and data and information data and information
appropriate completing the research project was information was information was was generated and was generated and
empirical data or research project inadequately generated and/or generated and applied to the research applied to the research
information was not generated identified, generated applied to the applied to the project. project which has led
and/or applied. and/or applied to the research project. research project. to achievement of the
. development of the aims and objectives of
research project. the research.

5. Systematic Little analysis, Limited analysis, Sufficient analysis, Good analysis, Very good analysis, Outstanding analysis,
analysis, synthesis synthesis and synthesis and synthesis and synthesis and synthesis and synthesis and
and evaluation, evaluation leading evaluation leading to evaluation overall, evaluation overall, evaluation, leading to evaluation, leading to
relevant to the to very weak unconvincing and leading to leading to generally very convincing and very convincing and
aims and conclusions. weak conclusions. reasonably convincing and robust conclusions. robust conclusions.
objectives of the convincing and robust conclusions.
research, to reach robust conclusions.
convincing and
robust conclusions

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 Fail Fail Pass Merit Distinction Distinction
Assessment 0-39% 40-49% 50-59% 60-69% 70-79% 80-100%
criteria Work does not Work marginally Pass Pass Pass Pass
meet the below the Satisfactory Good quality Excellent work Outstanding work
requirements requirements work work
6. Structure, A poorly structured A poorly structured Satisfactorily Good structured Excellent structure to Outstanding structure
coherence, clarity, and referenced dissertation, lacking structured dissertation, with a the dissertation, with to the dissertation, with
standard of dissertation, lacking clarity, with a low dissertation, with a good level of clarity cohesive progression very logical
academic writing clarity, with a very standard of satisfactory level of of expression and of argument, very progression of
low standard of academic writing. clarity and quality of quality of academic good level of clarity of argument. An
academic writing. Referencing was academic writing. writing. Referencing expression and quality outstanding level of
inadequately and/or Referencing was was done of academic writing. clarity of expression
inappropriately done. largely appropriately. Referencing was done and quality of
appropriately done. professionally. academic writing.
Referencing was done
professionally.
7. Awareness of A very low level of A relatively low level A satisfactory level A good level of An excellent level of An outstanding level of
the implications of awareness of the of awareness of the of awareness of the awareness of the awareness of the awareness of the
the conclusions implications of the implications of the implications of the implications of the implications of the implications of the
and limitations of conclusions and/or conclusions and/or conclusions and the conclusions and the conclusions. An conclusions. An
the research the limitations of the limitations of the limitations of the limitations of the honest reflection of the honest and holistic
project the research research project. research project. research project. limitations of the reflection of the
project. Some relevant Some relevant research project was limitations of the
recommendations recommendations conducted. Meaningful research project was
were provided. were provided. recommendations conducted. Insightful
were provided. recommendations
were provided.
8. Degree of Little evidence of Insufficient evidence Satisfactory Good evidence of Very strong evidence Excellent evidence of
creativity, evidence creativity, learning of creativity, learning evidence of creativity, learning of creativity, learning creativity, learning and
of learning and and potential for and potential for creativity, learning and potential for and potential for potential for continuing
potential for continuing personal continuing personal and potential for continuing personal continuing personal personal and
continuing personal and professional and professional continuing personal and professional and professional professional
and professional development was development and professional development was development was development was
development demonstrated. demonstrated. development was demonstrated. demonstrated. demonstrated.
demonstrated.

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