Course Overview

The course is designed for the fourth year students of Urban and Rural Planning Discipline. Students of this course are expected to conduct an individual research on their field of specialisation.

Course Objectives

The objective of the course is to develop the students’ ability to conduct a theoretically-informed research related to a particular policy issue arising from a course or multiple courses of Urban and Rural Planning Discipline. The students will be assessed on two types of output and on some aspects of the process leading to these outputs:

·       We expect the students to collect and analyze quantitative or qualitative data or both and write a theoretically-informed dissertation   

·       The students will also be assessed on the quality of public presentations of their argument and on their ability to answer the questions asked by jury members.

·       Among the process aspects the supervisors of this course can usefully distinguish between aspects of the student’s learning attitude and the significance of his/her learning process, i.e. the difference between the initial and the final understanding of the issue(s) each student has inquired into.  

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

 Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

·       Demonstrate a capacity for in-depth critical thinking through research;

·       Discern the value of information and knowledge from a wide variety of sources and experiences and reflect on and evaluate their application in Dissertation/Thesis;

·       Apply a range of social science research methods to conduct research and undertake policy development that consider theoretical, historical, local and international contexts for decision making;

·       Draw on available theory and debates, submit them to a critical analysis based on primary and/or secondary data and on a review of the literature, and from this draw conclusions and offer recommendations;

·       Communicate ideas using diverse formats and strategies to academic audiences within and external to the discipline;

·       Reflect on the interconnectedness of environmental, social, economic systems both locally and nationally and apply in professional practice or further study.