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Final year projects –
trying to keep everyone happy
Dr John Maskall
School of Geography, Earth and
Environmental Sciences
University of Plymouth
Project Choice
Preference
Career
Contact with for particular
Enhancement
External Adviser Project
Organisation Logistics
Staff Expertise
Knowledge and Interests
Development
Skills Staff
Acquisition Availability
Interest in Project Department or
School
topic
Choice Resources
Allocation Model
Allocation Model
• Perceived disadvantages were:
– ‘Ownership’ of projects
– Range of titles
– Oversubscription and reallocation
– Student preference for particular staff
Theme-based model
Environmental Science Themes
• Water Quality • Contaminated Land
(Freshwater) Management
• Water Quality (Coastal • Waste Management
and Marine) • Environmental Impact
• Land Quality Assessment
• Air Quality • Nature Conservation
• Ecology (Terrestrial) (Terrestrial)
• Ecology (Coastal and • Nature Conservation
Marine) (Coastal and Marine)
• Climate Change • Environmental
Management Systems
• Carbon Abatement
Staff Confidence
14
Number of Responses
12
10
8
6
4
2
0 Strongly Disagree
Neutral
Agree Strongly
“ I feel confident to advise a project in the following subject area”
Agree Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
Demand versus Supply
2
1.8
1.6
Relative Demand/Supply
1.4
1.2
1 Relative Demand
0.8 Relative Supply
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
WQ WQ LQ AQ E (T) E CC CLM WM EIA NC (T) NC EMS CA
(F) (C/M) (C/M) (C/M)
Theme
• Relative demand based on total number of first choices for each theme
• Relative supply based on sum of confidence scores for each theme
Outcome
60
• All 78 students
received their first 50
choice of theme
40
Number of projects
• High proportion of
projects were 30
allocated to staff
20
with a high
confidence score 10
• Mean score = 4.5 0
5 4 3 2 1
Staff Confidence Score
Student Perceptions
Strongly 5
Agree
4
Mean-SD
Neutral
3
Mean
Mean+SD
2 n =19
Strongly
Disagree 1
Areas of interest? Happy with Significant student Prefer allocation Sufficient time to
proposal? influence? model? consider?
Student Perceptions
• “not enough contact time with lecturers and
perhaps previous students”
• “I really didn’t know where to start in picking a
topic”
• “an opportunity to see previous dissertation
projects would have been a great help”
• “I would additionally appreciate project ideas”
Staff Perceptions
5
4
Response
3
Mean+SD
Mean
Mean-SD
2
n =15
1
Workable student Staff areas of interest? Significant student Prefer allocation
ideas? influence? model?
5 = Strongly Agree 3 = Neutral 1 = Strongly Disagree
Staff Perceptions
Advantages of theme-based Disadvantages of theme-based
• High potential for students • Can require considerable
to have a significant staff effort to help develop
influence on project design student’s ideas
• Illustrates the broad range • Students may be unfamiliar
of topics available
with some topics at time of
• Offers more flexibility for project choice
matching students with staff
experienced in certain areas • Limited opportunity to offer
• Eliminates choice based on projects related to staff
preference for particular research interests
staff member
Conclusions
• Theme-based approach addresses most negative issues
identified with allocation system.
• Flexibility of theme-based approach helps with alleviating
mismatches in supply and demand
• Theme-based approach requires some support for
students at time of project choice e.g. elaborating themes
• Staff can use negotiation phase to:
– adopt a more interventionist approach with weaker
students
– offer projects based on their research interests where
appropriate and if desired
Any Questions or Comments?
