Selection and approval of term paper topics

 

3.1. The faculty of St. Petersburg School of Economics and Management may develop a provisional list of term paper topics or research areas to be subsequently finalized by Academic Council of the Master Programme. Potential employers can also propose topics and research areas. Academic Council also can consider topics that are proposed by students.

3.2. The Programme Office collects proposals (if any) for term paper topics or research areas and publishes them on the program website. Also the list of proposed topics is published in LMS system.

3.3. Students may choose any member of the faculty of the Program as their term paper supervisor, subject to this member’s consent. One supervisor may supervise up to five term papers per academic year.

3.4. Term paper topics are assigned to students upon their personal requests addressed to the Academic Director of the Programme. Requests must be signed by the respective term paper supervisors and submitted to the Programme Office. Term paper topic must be stated in the request. A template request for approval of the term paper topic is provided in Appendix C.

3.5. Requests signed by the respective supervisors must be submitted to the Programme Office no later than November 20 of the current academic year.

3.6. The list of term paper topics and supervisors must be finalized by the Academic Council by early December. Some term paper topics may be declined by the Academic Council if they are not suited to the field of study, purpose of a term paper or the level of complexity. In this case, the Academic Council must also provide a justification for its decision and recommendations on how to adjust the topic.

3.7. The Programme Office must notify students and their supervisors if their term paper topic was declined within one business day from such decision.

3.8. Students may submit a new request for the term paper topic to the Programme Office. The Academic Council must approve the final list of term paper topics and supervisors no later than December 10.

3.9. The students should submit a printed and filled in Term Paper Topic and Supervisor application form (Appendix C) to the program manager on the first week of December of the 1^st academic year. The form should indicate the term paper’s title and be signed by the supervisor.

3.9. Upon the approval of the chosen topic by the academic council of the Master’s program, the program manager issues an order on the topic and supervisor for each student. The order is prepared no later than December 15 of the current academic year. The information on timing is presented in Appendix D.

 

TERM PAPER SUPERVISION

4.1. Term paper supervisors appointed by the order, are responsible for direct supervision of term paper preparation.

4.2. Term paper supervisors have the following duties:

- Advise students on shaping the final topic of their term paper, drafting term paper outline and preparation schedule, and selecting scholarly literature and resources;

- Help students choose appropriate research methodology;

- Monitor the progress of term paper preparation against the established outline and schedule;

- Notify the Programme Academic Director and Programme Office if students are behind the schedule;

- Provide students with informed recommendations on the content of their term papers;

4.3. Term paper supervisors are entitled to

- Select a suitable mode of interaction with students, in particular, agree on the term paper preparation schedule and the frequency of face-to-face meetings or other communications;

- Request that students prepare and present a brief summary of the received recommendations and further steps in term paper preparation after each face-to-face meeting;

- Request that students pay close attention to the received recommendations and come to meetings well-prepared;

- Take into account compliance with the preparation schedule when grading student term papers.

4.4. Supervisors assess quality of term papers against fixed requirements. They must fill in a special form (see Appendix E) where they put their review and grade for the term paper.

4.5. Term paper supervisors must draw up an official memorandum to notify the Programme Academic Director and the Dean of plagiarism and any other violations of academic code of ethics committed by students.

4.6. Requests to change the term paper topic (Appendix F) signed by the supervisor and requests to change the term paper supervisor (Appendix G) signed by both supervisors and addressed to the Programme Academic Director may be submitted to the Programme Office no later than thirty days before the date of submission of the final draft of research proposal.