MSc Dissertations Q&A

13/12/2024

Agenda

General Info about the dissertation allocation, supervision process and timeline
Questions to me
Academic English Language Provision
- Deak Kirkham
Coffee and Cake!

Projects are shared with you by end of Feb 2025
Majority led by School of Mathematics Supervisors
Minority externally led and competition based
Students submit their ranked preference list of 6 projects by the end of March via a MS Forms (to be shared)
We match you with a project within your ranked choice
If you applied for a CRDC or Competition Based project and you did not get answer by the expression of preference deadline, please submit your choices anyway
Promptly let me know of any Competition Based outcome
Dissertation allocation communicated to the students at the beginning of May 2025

Dissertation work starts in early June, after your last exam
Contact your supervisor before June to arrange an informal meeting
You and your supervisor(s) should arrange up to 6 hours of meetings (modalities to be agreed) - do this as soon as possible
Consecutive meetings should not be more than 2-3 weeks apart
Your supervisor will monitor your progress
Students are expected to be on campus during their dissertation work

Share a short report with your supervisor(s) ~2 days ahead of every meeting
Practice on using latex with the provided template on Minerva. A very good online tool is overleaf
Create a project on GitHub to share with your supervisor(s). (ABC for a Data Scientist!)
Learn how to use GitHub. Very good tutorials here: Atalassian and Software Carpentries

There will be a poster session to assess the ongoing students work
The poster session will take place between Wed 10th and Tue 16th July
We are planning to trial a mini viva after your submission (details TBD)
All students must be available on campus throughout this period
Deadline for submission of completed dissertations is end of August (TBD)

Deadline for submission of completed dissertations is the end of August (TBD)
The oral examinations and presentations are usually be held in the first half of September
Arrangements are flexible and to be agreed promptly with assessor and supervisors (more details in the handbook to follow)

Deak Kirkham
Lecturer in English for Academic Purposes
for the School of Mathematics

By Luisa Cutillo