Federal State Autonomous Institution for Higher Professional Education National Research University Higher School of Economics

St. Petersburg Branch

St. Petersburg School of Economics and Management

 

GUIDELINES FOR PREPARATION, DEFENSE AND PROCESSING OF TERM PAPER

MASTER’S PROGRAMME “MASTER IN FINANCE”

 

Area of Studies: 38.04.08 “Finance and Crefit”

Level: masters

 

Recommended by the Head of the Students’ Office for Master’s programme “Master in Finance”

Aksenov I.V. __________________________ “___” ________ 20__

 

Approved by the Academic Council of Master’s programme “Master in Finance”

Chair: Rogova E.M. __________________________ “___” ________ 20__

Minutes ____

 

St.Petersburg, 2016

GUIDELINES FOR PREPARATION, DEFENSE AND PROCESSING OF TERM PAPER AT MASTER’S PROGRAMME “MASTER IN FINANCE”

 

 

GENERAL PROVISIONS

 

1.1. These Guidelines have been developed on the basis of the Regulations for Term Papers and Theses Prepared by Students of the Bachelor’s, Specialist and Master’s Level at the National Research University Higher School of Economics approved by the HSE Academic Council, minutes No.08 dated November 28, 2014.

1.2. Term paper is prepared and defended at the 1^st academic year. The term paper has a value of 6 ECTS.

1.3. According to the program’s curriculum the term paper submission falls on Quarter 4 during the 1^st academic year.

1.4. According to the HSE regulations the term paper’s supervisor gives a grade for successful term paper completion. Term papers prepared on master’s programs are defended at the Defense Board.

1.5. Term paper is completed in English. It could be prepared individually or in groups.

 

TERM PAPER STRUCTURE, CONTENT AND FORMAT

2.1. Term Paper is a structured paper in a format of an academic article. It should be 40 000 to 60 000 character-long (with spaces). It contains a part of the future master dissertation.

2.2. The structure of the term paper’s content must include the following main sections:

- title page with student name, title of the research project, and name of research supervisor (the template is provided in Appendix A)

- abstract of the paper and the list of key words (up to 6 words or phrases). The abstract should be no less than 300 words and should not exceed 500 words.

- introduction containing the research goal and objectives, arguments for the topicality of the research, the brief description of its distinctive features, the structure of the paper

- literature review

- methodology

- provisional methods of data sampling

- preliminary results and their discussion

- contribution of the paper to the theory and its possible practical implications

- references (in Harvard style; the provisional template is provided in Appendix B).

2.3. The text of the term paper must be structured according with the parts mentioned above. Each part should have an appropriate heading. All headings should use initial capitals only.

2.4. The term paper should be computer printed on white A4 paper in Times New Roman 12pt, 1.5 space intervals, single-sided. Single spacing should be used for footnotes and references.

Margins should be 2.5 cm on all sides. Paragraphs should be indented. Pages should be numbered at the bottom in the centre using Arabic numerals starting with the first page of the first page of the introduction.

Format your paper, using bold and italics as appropriate. Do not use any formatted styles other than bullets or numbers where required for lists. The text may contain appropriate figures and tables.

2.5. Figures should be numbered consecutively throughout the paper and not numbered according to the section in which they appear. Figure captions should appear below the figure.

2.6. Tables should be set as ”Autofit to contents” and centred on the page. If your table runs over two pages, please ensure that headings are also carried over. Do not allow rows to split across pages.

2.7. Use footnotes if necessary (Times New Roman 11 pt), endnotes are not permitted.