ES50156: Practice track
[Page last updated: 14 August 2024]
| Academic Year: | 2024/25 |
| Owning Department/School: | Department of Economics |
| Credits: | 30 [equivalent to 60 CATS credits] |
| Notional Study Hours: | 600 |
| Level: | Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7) |
| Period: |
|
| Assessment Summary: | CWOI 20%, CWRI 80% |
| Assessment Detail: |
|
| Supplementary Assessment: |
|
| Requisites: | |
| Learning Outcomes: |
By the end of the unit students should be able to:
* Design and conduct a research project on practice based business issues * Evaluate and critically assess the particular challenges confronting actual businesses * Evaluate different sources of relevant data * Support their arguments with relevant empirical evidence * Interpret the significance of findings from relevant sources of quantitative and/ or qualitative evidence to inform decision making * Create viable alternatives and how they would contribute to business solutions and systems * Take initiative to act on perceived opportunities while considering various risk factors * Create a plan for an activity * Carry out a plan, acting on any deviations from the intended outcomes * Reflect critically on the outcomes of an activity and the processes that led to those outcomes * Present reflections in written and oral form * Identify literature relevant to a chosen business/technology/consultancy issue, thereby appreciating the relationship between business/organisational practice and theory * Systematically research and review relevant literature * Develop an argument with references to appropriate theory and/or linking together arguments from disparate literatures or interdisciplinary perspectives |
| Aims: | The unit is intended to allow students to conduct research-based projects applying the skills, concepts, and techniques acquired in the taught programme to practice-based economic, business, and technical challenges, including: a case study involving a real-world challenge and a self-managed project.
As such, the unit allows students to relate economic, business, and technical challenges to the available academic literature, to define an associated and well-defined research question, research and review the relevant literature on the topic with the purpose of understanding and critiquing the current state of the research, and to develop a structured commentary leading to well-supported opinions and prescriptions. First, the students will be presented with a current economic, business, or technical challenge for which they will conduct appropriate research, collect, clean, and analyse data and present a viable solution. The students will be required to run their project within a pre-determined timeframe. Thus, the unit not only encourages students to conduct research and address actual business/technical problems through an interdisciplinary quantitative lens - it also encourages reflection on issues such as project management and group dynamics. The unit's objectives are designed for students to develop further their abilities to: * Collect, clean, and analyse data * Review literature * Make informed methodological choices * Present findings of their investigation and analyses * Present opinions and prescriptions. |
| Skills: | Intellectual skills
* Ability to formulate a research question * Ability to select, analyse and present numerical or non-numerical data * Capability to handle complex data sets * Critical analysis and application of existing theories and concepts * Ability to synthesise interdisciplinary perspectives on the same problem * Ability to use academic literature alongside real life cases Practical skills * Ability to engage with organisations * Ability to select and present material according to objectives and audience * Ability to produce work to agreed specifications and deadlines Transferable skills * Time management * Communication skills * Presentation skills * Writing skills * Ability to work independently, without close supervision or guidance |
| Content: | This is designed to be very applied, introducing students to a range of research strategies and techniques in the context of tackling real-world economic, business, and technical challenges. It will integrate academic content with practical skills such as interviewing, presenting and teamwork. Key aspects to be covered include: engaging with relevant academic literature and state-of-the-art techniques; understanding different methodologies and when they are appropriate; as well as more practical sessions on identifying and collecting relevant data and problem solving. |
| Course availability: |
ES50156 is a Designated Essential Unit on the following courses:Department of Economics
|
Notes:
|