1.General Assessment Guidance
- Your summative assessment for this module is made up of this single submission which accounts for 100% of the marks
- The deadline for submission is March 16th 2021 Please note late submissions will not be marked.
- You are required to submit all elements of your assessment via Turnitin online access. Only submissions made via the specified mode will be accepted and hard copies or any other digital form of submissions (like via email or pen drive etc.) will not be accepted.
- For coursework, the submission word limit is 7000 words. You must comply with the word count guidelines. You may submit LESS than 7000 words but not more, but you must do at least 5000 words. Word Count guidelines can be found on your programme home page and the coursework submission page.
- Do not put your name or contact details anywhere on your submission. You should only put your student registration number (SRN) which will ensure your submission is recognised in the marking process.
- A total of 100 marks are available for this module assessment, and you are required to achieve minimum 50% to pass this module.
- You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission. Any content which is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of plagiarism.
You can find further information on Harvard Referencing in the online library on the VLE. You can use the following link to access this information: http://bpp.libguides.com/Home/StudySupport
- BPP University has a strict policy regarding authenticity of assessments. In proven instances of plagiarism or collusion, severe punishment will be imposed on offenders. You are advised to read the rules and regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion in the GARs and MOPP which are available on VLE in the Academic registry section.
- You should include a completed copy of the Assignment Cover sheet. Any submission without this completed Assignment Cover sheet may be considered invalid and not marked.
MSc Accounting & Finance
Business Project
Please Note: You must achieve a pass (50% or above) in the summative coursework to pass the module.
Task
To produce Research Project up to 7000 words on a topic of your choice. The Research Project should provide some insight into an area of study relating to any topic or theme covered within the Accountancy qualification you are taking or have taken. The Research Project should also be of Postgraduate quality in terms of the quality of analytical content produced regardless of whether it utilises Primary or just Secondary data and you have to underpin all your decisions with theoretical concepts or model frameworks. Effective Referencing via Harvard and usage of appendices are both prerequisites within your work. There is a minimum word count of 5000 words which must be reached to be able to pass.
Guidelines
The Research Project should include the following elements:
a)An introduction that briefly outlines the Research Project. This should state what emerging theme/ topic you have chosen and why you are investigating this particular theme / topic. (approx. 500 to 750 words) – e.g. if you wish to investigate Strategic Management for example, you should evaluate journal articles and books that have been written on this topic to provide an overview of your topic to the reader and then give a reason why this topic is worthy of investigation i.e., a gap or to extend the knowledge on the subject, or application in an organisational context, or hypothesis testing.
b)Your project must include research objectives, questions or hypotheses for your project. From your literature review you should develop an overall aim for your project and specific research objectives or hypotheses. For example, you may be replicating a study in a new context or you may have chosen to focus on a gap you identified in the literature; ultimately your choice will be influenced by what research has been undertaken before and the research design and approach you have chosen to adopt. (approx. 100 -200 words)
c)Literature Review. This should synthesise key academic and practitioner literature on the topic related to your own project. (approx. 1000 -1500 words)
d)You must state your proposed research Methodology design and approach. In this section you should discuss: if the research is exploratory or explanatory; the research design (e.g. case study, action research); the time frame (cross-sectional or longitudinal); and whether you are adopting a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approaches. You should also briefly explain the method(s) you are going to use to collect your data e.g. face to face interviews, online survey, or secondary data searches etc., and justify your choice by drawing on best practice. You need to justify these decisions by referring back to the literature on the subject. If your work is mainly Secondary data biased then the Methodology will be relatively straightforward in terms of what is expected you will cover and talk about. (approx. 300 -500 words)
e)Analysis –The main focus regardless of the work undertaken must ensure that it is Analysis and Description of events that you are putting forward. You need to justify your work by referring back to the literature on the subject you pointed out in your earlier review with extensive referencing being expected by the reader to bring credibility to your work. (approx. 3000 -4000 words)
f)Conclusion – This needs to tie together what you set out in the original project objectives looking at how successful you were in achieving them. (approx. 300 -500 words)
g)References / Bibliography – This must be presented according to the Harvard Referencing System. You must include the papers, books etc. you have used in your report. So if for example you use a phrase from Creswell, (2009) in your report to support your choice of research approach, then Creswell (2009) should be listed in your reference list. The list must be in alphabetical order.
Presentation of your project - Your proposal should be presented as a report with:
- A cover page.
- Table of contents.
- Each section must have a numbered heading.
- Page numbers.
- Bibliography.
Please use a font of 12 point or larger, margins and a minimum of 1.5 spacing.
Word count
You must comply with the word count guidelines. You may submit LESS than 7000 words but not more. Cover page, Tables, diagrams, bibliography/references, appendices and headings are NOT included within word count calculations. You must specify total word count on the front page of your report.
Marking criteria
This assignment will be marked out of 100. The marks will be broken down as follows. We have also included the generic marking criteria to guide the marking:
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Knowledge & Understanding
- Knowledge and Understanding of the topic under consideration. Clear evidence of an understanding of thoughts and practices in relation to the topics main theoretical concepts and frameworks being looked at.
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45%
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Argumentation
- Precision, accuracy and reasoning in analysis, synthesis and/or evaluation. Evidence of an overall convincing argument with clear use of information gathered. Appropriate use of a wide range of relevant research which is methodologically sound and critically evaluated.
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45%
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Presentation & Referencing skills
- Has the student applied Harvard Referencing to both the reference list and in text references?
- Is the referencing coherent throughout the text?
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10%
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Further guidance on these categories is provided below:
Knowledge & Understanding
When you start looking at the knowledge relevant to your area of interest and when you have developed it your research question (or chosen format), you might first have somewhat of a list. Move on from that list by working out what themes and core messages there are in the different perspective. Approaches can include comparing practitioner with academic, recently views with older views, and critical views with established institutional views. Do not expect your supervisor to be an expert in your subject area (they might be, but it does not matter if they are not). Instead the supervisor will be looking for how you have sourced knowledge and understood it well enough to use it to present a case for your research question and how to use the extant knowledge to help analyse your data.
Argument
Do not have any gaps in your argument. Your introduction should place your review of knowledge in a practical and professional context, your review of knowledge should lead to your research question, your choices around methods should be well defended and also be the starting point for the limitations of your research, the reader should see an audit trail from source data through to analysed data through to findings, discussion and conclusion.
Think of what counter arguments you might wish to consider to show you are producing an effective argument.
Presentation & Referencing skills
Utterly ensure you are using Harvard referencing. Google Scholar now provides Harvard referencing as an option when you click on the cite option if you do not want to set up a referencing system.
Fails will be difficult to understand, have inaccurate referencing, fail to include diagrams and other infographics, not include evidence of having collected data in the appendices.
The project will be disjointed with the reader, for example, unable to easily find within the structure the discussion that supports a conclusion, or the academic theory used to analyse some data. The structure and presentation will this not give the reader the confidence that the research is systematic and professional.
The summative and graded elements are awarded a percentage grading according to the Level 7 (Masters) Marking Criteria contained in your programme handbook.
Each assessment is marked on a percentage basis and combined as a final module grade. For the classification of your degree (Distinction, Pass) the final module grades will be combined according to the Diagram of Outcomes Leading to Award, detailed in your programme handbook.
