The Government of the Russian Federation

The Government of the Russian Federation

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 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.

 

TERM PAPER SUBMISSION

6.1. Students must upload a.doc,.docx or.pdf file with the final text of their term paper through their personal profiles in the LMS no later than 7 days before the officially scheduled day of defense.

6.2. Students must submit a draft of their term paper to their supervisors ten days before the upload date. Students who fail to do so may receive a fail grade for their term paper from the supervisor.

6.3. Submission deadlines for term papers that are subject to defence cannot be extended. Failure to complete a term paper by the fixed deadline (as per Clause 6.1 or Clause 6.2) constitutes academic failure that can be remedied in autumn of the subsequent academic year, following the procedures established at HSE.

 

TERM PAPER STORAGE

The Study Office of the Master’s programme stores copies of coursework for 2 years (either in the form of hard copies or electronic files)

 

Appendix A.

Template for a Title List

St. Petersburg Branch

TERM PAPER’S TITLE

Term paper

Area of studies 38.04.08 «Finance and Credit»

Master Programme “Finance”

Reviewer[2] academic degree, position, department ____________________ Name Board members _________________ (name and signature) _________________ (name and signature) _________________ (name and signature) Grade for the defense ___________ Overall grade _________________ Date ________________________   _

Research Supervisor academic degree, position, department ____________________ Name

 

Saint Petersburg - 2016

Appendix B

References

Journal articles

1 Langetieg, T. (1978), “An Application of a Three-Factor Performance Index to Measure Stockholders Gains from Mergers”, Journal of Financial Economics, vol. 6, pp. 365-384

2 Agrawal, A., and Jaffe, J.F. (2003), “Do Takeover Targets Underperform? Evidence from Operating and Stock Return”, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, vol. 38, no. 4, p. 721-746.

Books or chapters:

3. Auerbach, A. (1988), Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, United States.

4. Chen, K.C.W., Chen, Z., Wei, K.C.J. (2003), “ Disclosure, corporate governance, and the cost of equity capital: evidence form Asia’s emerging markets ”, Proceedings of the 3^rd Asian corporate governance conference, Korea University and the Hong Kong University of science and technology.

Sources in Russian language [3]:

5. Ovchinnikova T. I., Pakhomov A. I., Bulgakova I. N. Sovershenstvovanie organizatsionnoi struktury pishchevykh predpriiatii na osnove otsenki deiatel'nosti personala [Improving the Organizational Structure of Food Companies Based on the Evaluation of Staff]. Kadry predpriiatiia, 2005, no. 8, pp. 10–12. (In Russian).

6. Monitoring «Ob itogakh sotsial'no-ekonomicheskogo razvitiia Rossiiskoi Federatsii v 2014 godu» [Monitoring “On the Results of Socio-Economic Development of the Russian Federation in 2014”]. Minekonomrazvitiia Rossii, 2015, 6 February. Available at: http://economy.gov.ru/minec/ activity/sections/macro/monitoring/monitoring2014 (accessed 07.07.2015). (In Russian).

Appendix C

Appendix D

The Provisional Timing for the Selection and Approval of the Term Paper Topic
No	Stage	Responsible entities	Period
1.	Topics proposals collection	Departments, research centres and Programme Office	September, 10 – October, 10
2.	Approval of topics by the Academic Council	Academic Director, Academic Council and Programme Office	October, 15
3.	Informing the initiators on approved and declined topics	Programme Office	One working day upon receiving the Academic Council’s decision
4.	Topics changing and finalizing	Departments, research centres, Academic Director and Programme Office	Three working days upon information distribution.
5.	Information on topics publishing at the programme website and in LMS	Programme Office	Before October, 25
6.	Collection of topics proposals from potential employers and students	Departments, research centres and Programme Office	Before November, 10
7.	Approval of initiated topics by the Academic Council	Academic Director, Academic Council and Programme Office	Before November, 20
8.	Selection of topics by students	Programme Office	Before December, 1
9.	Issuing of the order	Director, Dean, Academic Director, Programme Office	Before December, 15
10.	Topic change/clarification	Director, Dean, Academic Director, Academic Council and Programme Office	Not later than 1 month before the final version submission

Appendix E

Supervisor’s Review Template [4]

St. Petersburg Branch

Appendix F

Appendix G

The Government of the Russian Federation