MA International Social Policy Dissertation (60)

Code

SOCI4060

School

Sociology and Social Policy

Level

4

Credits

60

Semesters

Summer UK

Summary

For the dissertation, each student explores a topic of their choice under the supervision of a designated member of staff. The subject matter must be relevant to the student's Honours subject. During the Autumn and Spring semester the student will have identified a topic and decided on an appropriate strategy of enquiry and analysis and written a dissertation proposal. The student will then complete the research and writing-up during the summer semester.

Target Students

Only available to MA in International Social Policy students who are studying SOCI4034 Research Methods and Research Management (20).

Co-requisites

Modules you must take in the same academic year, or have taken in a previous year, to enrol in this module:

• Research Methods and Research Management (20) (SOCI4034)

Classes

Independent study - dissertation.

Assessment

• 100% Coursework: 12,000 words.

Assessed by end of summer vacation

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the module students will have developed:

Knowledge and Understanding

• An imaginative appreciation of key concepts used in the analysis of social problems and social need.
• Complex insights into key theories of welfare and of their relationship to more general issues in social, political and economic theory.
• A well-developed understanding of the framework, operation and financing of the policy process.

Intellectual Skills

• A highly developed sense of critical analysis which enables policy initiatives and proposed solutions to social problems to be explored.
• An ability to seek appropriate evidence and analyse its relevance to policy-related issues with care and precision.
• An ability to conceptualise and integrate the technical, normative, moral and political aspects of policies and their consequences.
• A capacity to incorporate an understanding of cutting-edge theories into a skilled analysis of social issues and social policies.
• An ability to evaluate the interventions of government and other organisations with some degree of originality.
• The capability of identifying, applying and criticising a range of methodological approaches with creativity.

Professional and Practical Skills

• An ability to formulate appropriate questions and conduct social research at an advanced level, demonstrating evidence of independent thought and research and ability to critically evaluate scholarly work and to convincingly challenge the ideas of established authorities in the discipline.
• A capacity to employ the terms and concepts of Social Policy with dexterity and ingenuity.

Transferable/Key Skills

• An innovative competence in handling, analysing and presenting quantitative and qualitative data.
• An ability to employ a broad range of IT skills, including word-processing, e-mail, information retrieval from Internet sources and from academic databases; an ability to read, articulate and assess written evidence and argument with depth and invention.

Conveners

• Mrs Libby Steel