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• Theses & dissertations
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OU theses and dissertations

Online theses.

Are available via Open Research Online .

Print theses

Search for OU theses in the Library Search . To see only print theses click 'In the Walton Hall library' and refine your results to resource type 'Thesis'.

OU staff and research students can  borrow a consultation copy of a thesis (if available). Please contact the Library helpdesk giving the author and title of the thesis.

UK theses and dissertations from EThOS

The Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS) offers free access to the full text of UK theses.

• EThOS offers a one stop online shop providing free access to UK theses
• EThOS digitizes theses on request into PDF format, this may require payment
• EThOS is managed by the British Library in partnership with a number of UK universities
• EThOS is open to all categories of library user

What does this mean to you as a library user?

When you need to access a PhD thesis from another UK based HE institution you should check EThOS to either download a thesis which has already been digitised or to request that a UK thesis be supplied to you.

• For all UK theses EThOS will be the first point of delivery. You can use the online ordering and tracking system direct from EThOS to manage your requests for UK PhD theses, including checking the status of your requests
• As readers you will deal directly with EThOS so will not need to fill in a document delivery request
• OU staff and research students will still be entitled to access non-UK based PhD theses by filling in a document delivery request
• In some cases where EThOS is unable to supply a UK thesis OU staff and research students will be able to access it by filling in a conventional document delivery request. The thesis will be supplied through direct loan
• The EThOS system is both faster and cheaper than the previous British Theses service which was based on microfilm
• The British Library no longer arranges interlibrary loans for UK PhD theses
• Interlibrary Loan procedures for other types of request from the British Library (articles and books for example) will remain the same

If you have any queries about using EThOS contact the Document Delivery Team ( [email protected] or the Library Helpdesk ).

Note 13/03/2024: The British Library is continuing to experience a major technology outage affecting its websites and other online systems, due to a Cyber attack. as a result access to ETHOS might not be possible until the issue is fixed. 

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Find Dissertations and Theses

Explore University of Salford dissertations and theses using Library Search. Access resources and tips for finding other academic works.

Popular pages on the Library website

Find University of Salford dissertations and theses

During the course of your studies, you may find that you need to search for dissertations or theses. Maybe you would like to see what other research has been undertaken in relation to your topic, or perhaps you would like to see what a dissertation or thesis looks like? There are many reasons why looking for this type of research can be useful.

You can use Library Search to help you find them and there are a number of different ways to search, depending on what you want to find.

You can access dissertations and theses by previous University of Salford students. Use the 'Advanced Search' option in Library Search to find these, and take a look at our University of Salford e-theses collection . This collection covers mostly PhD level research.

Digital dissertations - University of Salford

For help accessing our University of Salford dissertations and theses, watch this video:

Finding University of Salford dissertations and theses

Use databases to find other dissertations and theses.

There are a number of dissertation and theses databases you can use to find dissertations and theses from other academic institutions. You can access these through Library Search .

Some of the databases you can access include:

• EBSCO Open Dissertations
• EThOS – Electronic Theses Online System
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

Find out more about the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database on our blog post: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

We also have a ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global LibGuide to help you find out more.

For help accessing the wide range of dissertation and theses databases, watch this video:

Helpful tips when looking for dissertations and theses

• Identify a couple of keywords to start with and use these when searching. Don't try to enter too many keywords all at once as it's often useful to see what else there is around your topic.  Also, entering too many keywords can make your search too specific and you may struggle to find what you need. Do not try searching using your whole dissertation topic title – this will not work!
• Can't find what you need? Many databases only contain PhD level manuscripts. Using 'Advanced Search' options within databases can sometimes allow you to specify other manuscript levels.
• Don't worry about topic area too much if you just want to see what a dissertation looks like and get a rough idea of layout and format.
• Ensure you are looking at the correct level of research for your study. There is a BIG difference between a Masters' dissertation and a PhD level thesis!
• Always check any guidelines you have been given by your school in regard to the layout, format and length of your own dissertation, so you know what to expect. If in doubt, speak with your supervisor.

Get help writing a dissertation

• Read our Dissertations and Theses guidance for help on writing and formatting a dissertation.
• Check out our Online resources for dissertation students Reading List – it contains links to really useful online dissertation resources and textbooks to help get you started.
• Contact your Academic Support Team for further help and advice.

Further recommended resources

The University of Leeds has a selection of dissertation examples with an indication of the mark awarded to the student. Additional support resources are located on their Final Chapter webpage.

Theses and dissertations

The library holds a large number of Bristol theses and dissertations, including many PhD and doctoral theses. Read our advice about how to locate theses from other institutions, both in the UK and internationally .

University of Bristol theses and dissertations

To find a University of Bristol thesis:

• If the thesis is held in the Research Reserve, it can be requested using the 'reserve a copy' button.
• If the thesis is held in the Research Reserve, use the online request form to request it.
• See below for details of how to access theses held in our other library sites.
• Recently submitted theses may be listed on Explore Bristol Research  though information about these is regularly added to Library Search.

Arts and Social Sciences

The collection includes theses from Arts Faculty, Social Sciences and Law Faculty, Physics, Mathematics, Biological Sciences, Geographical Sciences, Agricultural Science and the School for Policy Studies.

MA, MSc, MPhil and MLitts do not have to be deposited with the library under the Regulations, so our collections of these are incomplete. 

How to consult a thesis

• Arts and Social Sciences theses are now held in the Library's Research Reserve.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.
• We will notify you when the thesis arrives at the library.
• Thesis loans are for use in the Arts and Social Sciences Library only.

School of Chemistry PhD, MSc and DSc theses from 1910 to date.

Thesis loans are for use in the Chemistry Library only, though postgraduates with seats may keep a thesis at their desk. You may ask if a particular thesis can be kept behind the Issue desk if you will be using it repeatedly for a period of time. Other theses are kept in a Library Staff room and are not available during the evenings.

School of Education EdD, PhD, MPhil, and a selection of Masters theses. Many theses written before 2005 are located in the Research Reserve.

• The MSc and Masters theses are located in the Quiet Study Area;
• The MPhil, PhD and EdDs are located in Research Reserve.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.

The thesis collection from the Medical Library has been relocated to the library's Research Reserve. The collection includes: PhD, MD, MSc, ChM and DSc theses of staff and postgraduate students of the Health Sciences Faculty, from 1910 to date.

A card catalogue in the Medical Library contains details of the earlier theses, or you may check the  Card Catalogue Online .

• See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.
• We will notify you when the thesis arrives at the library;
• Theses are for use in the Medical Library only and you will be asked to sign a register.

School of Physics PhD, MSc and DSc theses from 1950 to date, with a few earlier ones. BSc and MSci projects are also held.

A card catalogue in the Physics Library contains details of the earlier ones.

• Ask at the Issue Desk to borrow a thesis, quoting author, year and category;
• Theses may be borrowed by staff and postgraduates as standard loans;
• Undergraduates may use theses in the library only;
• BSc and MSci projects may be borrowed by undergraduates: for the standard loan period.

Queens (Engineering, Mathematics, Computer science)

Engineering and Mathematics PhD theses are held in the Research Reserve, including Computer Science theses before the Department transferred to the Faculty of Engineering.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request these.

A card catalogue, on the right beyond the Issue desk, contains details of pre-1978 theses.

• It can take 2-3 working days for a thesis to arrive and you will be notified when they are available;
• PhD theses may not be borrowed by undergraduates; taught postgraduates or external members but may be consulted in the library.

MSc Projects

• Some early Engineering MSc projects (1914-1950) are available from the Research Reserve - please contact your  Subject Librarian

Undergraduate projects

• Individual and group projects from 2015/16 - 2019/20 academic years for Civil and Mechanical Engineering are available on the open shelves in the Gallery.
• Early projects from 1920 to 1949 have been moved to  Special Collections  in the  Arts and Social Sciences Library

Veterinary Sciences

MSc Meat Science theses from 1979 to date and a small number of PhD theses. The majority of veterinary sciences PhD theses are housed in the Research Reserve.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.

Theses are shelved in the Computer Room and are for use in the library only.

Wills Memorial (Law, Earth Sciences)

Collections of both Law and Earth Sciences theses.

Theses are confined to the library; please ask at the information desk if you wish to borrow one.

UK and international theses

Information about many UK and international theses can be found via  Library Search . If the thesis you are interested in is not available online, you can use our  inter-Library Loan service . Non-UK theses can be difficult to obtain: in some countries, universities are working together to make full text electronic collections available:

• Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS)  - a service provided by the British Library
• DART - Europe e-theses Portal
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
• PQDT Open  - open access dissertations and theses
• PQDT Global  -  a collection of dissertations and theses from around the world

Submit a thesis

Advice on how to submit a thesis for a higher degree can be found on the  Presenting and submitting your dissertation for examination  page. Information on how to submit a thesis to the library can be found on the Library's own Thesis Guidance  pages.

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• About the Department

Dissertations

The dv410 dissertation is a major component of the msc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education., research design and dissertation in international development.

The DV410 dissertation is a major component of the MSc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education. The objective of DV410  is to provide students with an overview of the resources available to them to research and write a 10,000 dissertation that is topical, original, scholarly, and substantial. DV410 will provide curated dissertation pathways through LSE LIFE and Methods courses, information sessions, ID-specific disciplinary teaching, topical seminars and dissertation worksops in ST. With this in mind, students will be able to design their own training pathway and set their own learning objectives in relation to their specific needs for their dissertation. From the Autumn Term (AT) through to Summer Term (ST), students will discuss and develop their ideas in consultation with their mentor or other members of the ID department staff and have access to a range of learning resources (via DV410 Moodle page) to support and develop their individual projects from within the department and across the LSE. 

Prizewinning dissertations

The archive of prizewinning dissertations showcases the best MSc dissertations from previous years. These offer a useful guide to current students on how to prepare and write a high calibre dissertation.

2023-GA (PDF) The Impact of "Beca 18" on Secondary Educational Attainment: Experimental Evidence from a Peruvian Scholarship Program Alexandra Gutiérrez Traverso Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Joint Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management   

2023-WB (PDF) Democracy Aid Effectiveness and Authoritarian Survival: Democracy Protests as Windows of Opportunity Ben Wolfrum Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management 

2023-ML (PDF) The Gendered Impact of Educational Devolution: Evidence from India’s Panchayat System Luke Martens Joint Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2023-MC (PDF) From Chains to Change: Gendered Problems and Blockchain Solutions in Jordan’s Refugee Camps Carys Milbourn Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2023-ZF (PDF) Transit Migration and Biopolitics of Movement: How Italy Uses Mobility as a Biopolitical Technology of Control to Reproduce Its Position of Transit Country Francesco Zinni Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2023-BR (PDF) A scoping review of the implementation of infectious disease early warning systems (IDEWS) for building health system climate change resilience Rachael Barrett Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2023-RC (PDF) Caring for Asylum Seekers with Chronic Conditions: A Case Study in New Mexico’s Borderlands Caylyn Rich Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development

Flushing Out Barriers: Identigying the Relationship Between School Sanitation and School Enrolment Jorin Wolff Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2023-BL (PDF) Competing for Land: A Spatial Investigation of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions, Their Target Context, and the Dynamics of Deforestation in Africa Luc Bitterli Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Studies

2022-OW (PDF) The Politics of Political Conditionality: How theEU Is Failing the Western Balkans Pim W.R.Oudejans Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management 

2022-GN (PDF) An Empirical Study of the Impact of Kenya’sFree Secondary Education Policy on Women’sEducation Nora Geiszl Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2022-JC  (PDF) Giving with one hand, taking with the other:the contradictory political economy of socialgrants in South Africa Jack Calland Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2022-GL (PDF) State Versus Market: The Case of Tobacco Consumption in Eastern European and Former Soviet Transition Economies Letizia Gazzaniga Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-ER (PDF) Reproductive injustice across forced migration trajectories: Evidence from female asylum-seekers fleeing Central America’s Northern Triangle Emily Rice Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-LICB  (PDF) The effects of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) on child nutrition following an adverseweather shock: the case of Indonesia Liliana Itamar Carillo Barba Winner Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 2022-SC (PDF) Fiscal Responses to Conditional Debt Relief:the impact of multilateral debt cancellation on taxation patterns Sara Cucaro  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2022-RM  (PDF) Navigating humanitarian space(s) to provideprotection and assistance to internally displacedpersons: applying the concept of ahumanitarian ‘micro-space’ to the caseof Rukban in Syria Miranda Russell  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-CC  (PDF) International Remittances and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Resilient Remittance Flows from Italy during 2020 Carla Curreli Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance and Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2021-NB  (PDF) Reluctant respondents: Early settlement by developing countries during WTO disputes Nicholas Baxtar Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management (Specialism: Applied Development)

2021-CD  (PDF) One Belt, Many Roads? A Comparison of Power Dynamics in Chinese Infrastructure Financing of Kenya and Angola Conor Dunwoody  Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Studies

2021-NN  (PDF) Tool for peace or tool for power? Interrogating Turkish ‘water diplomacy’ in the case of Northern Cyprus Nina Newhouse Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2021-CW  (PDF) Exploring Legal Aid Provision for LGBTIQ+Asylum Seekers in the American Southwest from 2012-2021 Claire Wever Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-BP  (PDF) Instrumentalising Threat; An Expansion of Biopolitical Control Over Exiles in Calais During the COVID-19 Pandemic Bethany Plant Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-HS  (PDF) A New “Green Grab”? A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Exclusion in the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) Project, Kenya Helen Sticklet Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-GM  (PDF) Fuelling policy: The Role of Public Health Policy-Support Tools in Reducing Household Air Pollution as a Risk-Factor for Non-Communicable Diseases in LMICs Georgina Morris Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 

2021-LC  (PDF) How do women garment workers employ practices of everyday resistance to challenge the patriarchal gender order of Sri Lankan society? Lois Cooper Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development 

2020-LK  (PDF) Can international remittances mitigate negative effects of economic shocks on education? – The case of Nigeria Lara Kasperkovitz Best Overall Performance Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

“Fallen through the Cracks” The Network for Childhood Pneumonia and Challenges in Global Health Governance  Eva Sigel Best Overall Performance Health and International Development 

2020-AB  (PDF) Fighting the ‘Forgotten’ Disease: LiST-Based Analysis of Pneumonia Prevention Interventions to Reduce Under-Five Mortality in High-Burden Countries Alexandra Bland Best Dissertation Prize  Health and International Development   

2020-TP  (PDF) Techno-optimism and misalignment: Investigating national policy discourses on the impact of ICT in educational settings in Sub-Saharan Africa Tao Platt Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2020-HS  (PDF)  “We want land, all the rest is humbug”: land inheritance reform and intrahousehold dynamics in India Holly Scott Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies   

2020-PE  (PDF)  Decent Work for All? Waste Pickers’ Collective Action Frames after Formalisation in Bogotá, Colombia  Philip Edge Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management

2020-LC  (PDF)  Variation in Bilateral Investment Treaties: What Leads to More ‘Flexibility for Development’? Lindsey Cox Best Dissertation Prize Development Management

2019-GR (PDF) Political Economy of Industrial Policy: Analysinglongitudinal and crossnationalvariations in industrial policy in Brazil andArgentina Grace Reeve Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2019-MM (PDF) The Securitisation of Development Projects: The Indian State’s Response to the Maoist Insurgency Monica Moses Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies 

2019-KM (PDF) At the End of Emergency: An Exploration of Factors Influencing Decision-making Surrounding Medical Humanitarian Exit Kaitlyn Macneil Best Overall Performance Prize Health and International Development

2019-KA (PDF) The Haitian Nutritional Paradox: Driving factors of the Double Burden of Malnutrition Khandys Agnant Best Dissertation Prize Health and International Development   

2019-NL (PDF) Women in the Rwandan Parliament: Exploring Descriptive and Substantive Representation Nicole London Best Dissertation Prize Development Management 

2019-CB (PDF) Post-conflict reintegration: the long-termeffects of abduction and displacement on theAcholi population of northern Uganda Charlotte Brown Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-NLeo (PDF) Making Fashion Sense: Can InternationalLabour Standards Improve Accountabilityin Globalised Fast Fashion? Nicole Leo Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-AS (PDF) Who Controls Whom? Evaluating theinvolvement of Development FinanceInstitutions (DFIs) in Build Own-Operate (BOO)Energy Projects in relation to Market Structures& Accountability Chains: The case of theBujagali Hydropower Project (BHPP) in Uganda Aya Salah Mostafa Ali Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2019-NG (PDF) Addressing barriers to treatment-seekingbehaviour during the Ebola outbreak in SierraLeone: An International Response Perspective Natasha Glendening India Best Overall Performance Prize African Development 

2019-SYJ (PDF) The Traditional Global Care Chain and the Global Refugee Care Chain: A Comparative Analysis Sana Yasmine Johnson Best Dissertation Prize Best Overall Performance Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

2018-JR (PDF) Nudging, Teaching, or Coercing?: A Review of Conditionality Compliance Mechanisms on School Attendance Under Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Jonathan Rothwell Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2018-LD (PDF) A Feminist Perspective On Burundi's Land Reform Ladd Serwat Best Overall Performance African Development 

2018-KL (PDF) Decentralisation: Road to Development or Bridge to Nowhere? Estimating the Effect of Devolution on Infrastructure Spending in Kenya Kurtis Lockhart  Best Dissertation Prize and Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-OS (PDF) From Accountability to Quality: Evaluating the Role of the State in Monitoring Low-Cost Private Schools in Uganda and Kenya Oceane Suquet Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-LN (PDF) Water to War: An Analysis of Drought, Water Scarcity and Social Mobilization in Syria Lian Najjar Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2018-IS  (PDF) “As devastating as any war”?: Discursive trends and policy-making in aid to Central America’s Northern Triangle Isabella Shraiman  Best Overall Performance  International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2017-AR (PDF) Humanitarian Reform and the Localisation Agenda:Insights from Social Movement and Organisational Theory Alice Robinson Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-ACY (PDF) The Hidden Costs of a SuccessfulDevelopmental State:Prosperity and Paucity in Singapore Agnes Chew Yunquian Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Managament 

2017-HK  (PDF) Premature Deindustrialization and Stalled Development, the Fate of Countries Failing Structural Transformation? Helen Kirsch Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme Development Studies

2017-HZ  (PDF) ‘Bare Sexuality’ and its Effects onUnderstanding and Responding to IntimatePartner Sexual Violence in Goma, DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DRC) Heather Zimmerman Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-KT  (PDF) Is Good Governance a Magic Bullet?Examining Good Governance Programmes in Myanmar Khine Thu Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme Development Managament 

2017-NL  (PDF) Persistent Patronage? The DownstreamElectoral Effects of Administrative Unit Creationin Uganda Nicholas Lyon  Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme African Development 

2016-MV  (PDF) Contract farming under competition: exploring the drivers of side selling among sugarcane farmers in Mumias             Milou Vanmulken  Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation                                                      Dev elopment Management                

2016-JS  (PDF) Resource Wealth and Democracy: Challenging the  Assumptions of the Redistributive Model              Janosz Schäfer  Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Studies                

2016-LK   (PDF) Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction             Lajos Kossuth Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance                                     Development Studies  

2015-MP (PDF) "Corruption by design" and the management of infrastructure in Brazil: Reflections on the Programa de Aceleração ao Crescimento - PAC.             Maria da Graça Ferraz de Almeida Prado                                                          Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                          Development Managment                                                                                  

2015-IE (PDF) Breaking Out Of the Middle-Income Trap: Assessing the Role of Structural Transformation.                                                                               Ipek Ergin                                                                                                   Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2015-AML (PDF) Labour Migration, Social Movements and Regional Integration: A Comparative Study of the Role of Labour Movements in the Social Transformation of the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community.             Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen                                                                                Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                   Development Management

2015-MM (PDF) Who Bears the Burden of Bribery? Evidence from Public Service Delivery in Kenya                     Michael Mbate                                                                                                   Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Management

2015-KK (PDF) Export Processing Zones as Productive Policy: Enclave Promotion or Developmental Asset? The Case of Ghana. Kilian Koffi Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation African Development

2015-GM (PDF) Forgive and Forget? Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Biafra Nigeria. Gemma Mehmed Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2015-AS (PDF) From Sinners to Saviours: How Non-State Armed Groups use service delivery to achieve domestic legitimacy. Anthony Sequeira Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2014-NS (PDF) Anti-Corruption Agencies: Why Do Some Succeed and Most Fail? A Quantitative Political Settlement Analysis. Nicolai Schulz Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

2014-MP (PDF) International Capital Flows and Sudden Stops: a global or a domestic issue? Momchil Petkov Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

2014-TC (PDF) Democracy to Decline: do democratic changes jeopardize economic growth? Thomas Coleman Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

2014-AK (PDF) Intercultural Bilingual Education: the role of participation in improving the quality of education among indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Anni Kasari Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Management

2014-EL (PDF) Treaty Shopping in International Investment Arbitration: how often has it occurred and how has it been perceived by tribunals? Eunjung Lee Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Management

2013-SB (PDF) Refining Oil - A Way Out of the Resource Curse? Simon Baur Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

2013-NI (PDF) The Rise of ‘Murky Protectionism’: Changing Patterns of Trade-Related Industrial Policies in Developing Countries: A case study of Indonesia. Nicholas Intscher Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Studies

2013-JF (PDF) Why Settle for Less? An Analysis of Settlement in WTO Disputes. Jillian Feirson Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2013-LH (PDF) Corporate Social Responsibility in Mining: The effects of external pressures and corporate leadership. Leah Henderson Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2013-BM (PDF) Estimating incumbency advantages in African politics: Regression discontinuity evidence from Zambian parliamentary and local government elections. Bobbie Macdonald Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP145 (PDF) Is History Repeating Itself? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Women in Climate Change Campaigns. Catherine Flanagan Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP144 (PDF) Disentangling the fall of a 'Dominant-Hegemonic Party Rule'. The case of Paraguay and its transition to a competitive electoral democracy. Dominica Zavala Zubizarreta Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP143 (PDF) Enabling Productive Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Critical issues in policy design. Noor Iqbal Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP142 (PDF) Beyond 'fear of death': Strategies of coping with violence and insecurity - A case study of villages in Afghanistan. Angela Jorns Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP141 (PDF) What accounts for opposition party strength? Exploring party-society linkages in Zambia and Ghana. Anna Katharina Wolkenhauer Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP140 (PDF) Between Fear and Compassion: How Refugee Concerns Shape Responses to Humanitarian Emergencies - The case of Germany and Kosovo. Sebastian Sahla Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Management

WP139 (PDF) Worlds Apart? Health-seeking behaviour and strategic healthcare planning in Sierra Leone. Thea Tomison Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP138 (PDF) War by Other Means? An Analysis of the Contested Terrain of Transitional Justice Under the 'Victor's Peace' in Sri Lanka. Richard Gowing Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

WP137 (PDF) Social Welfare Policy - a Panacea for Peace? A Political Economy Analysis of the Role of Social Welfare Policy in Nepal's Conflict and Peace-building Process. Annie Julia Raavad Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP136 (PDF) Women and the Soft Sell: The Importance of Gender in Health Product Purchasing Decisions. Adam Alagiah Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Management

WP135 (PDF) Human vs. State Security: How can Security Sector Reforms contribute to State-Building? The case of the Afghan Police Reform. Florian Weigand Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP134 (PDF) Evaluating the Impact of Decentralisation on Educational Outcomes: The Peruvian Case. Siegrid Holler-Neyra Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Management

WP133 (PDF) Democracy and Public Good Provision: A Study of Spending Patterns in Health and Rural Development in Selected Indian States. Sreelakshmi Ramachandran Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP132 (PDF) Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: a Reassessment of the Current Debate Marco Valenza Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP131 (PDF) Traditional or Transformational Development? A critical assessment of the potential contribution of resilience to water services in post-conflict Sub-Saharan Africa. Christopher Martin Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

WP128  (PDF) The demographic dividend in India: Gift or curse? A State level analysis on differeing age structure and its implications for India's economic growth prospects. Vasundhra Thakurd Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP127  (PDF) When Passion Dries Out, Reason Takes Control: A Temporal Study of Rebels' Motivation in Fighting Civil Wars. Thomas Tranekaer Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP126  (PDF) Micro-credit - More Lifebuoy than Ladder? Understanding the role of micro-credit in coping with risk in the context of the Andhra Pradesh crisis. Anita Kumar Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation Development Management

WP124 (PDF) Welfare Policies in Latin America: the transformation of workers into poor people. Anna Popova Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

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UCL dissertations and theses

The Library holds a copy of most research degree theses completed by students registered at UCL. Print copies of research theses are catalogued by author in  Explore ; electronic versions are in many cases available on open access in  UCL Discovery .

The Library does not normally have copies of UCL:

• MA, MSc, MRes, LLM theses
• Diploma theses
• Undergraduate dissertations

However the following libraries have small local theses collections covering their own subject areas, please contact the relevant library directly for more information:

• Bartlett Library : select exemplars of Masters dissertations are available through UCL's Open Educational Repository .
• Ophthalmology Library  has a very small collection of PhD, MD and MSc dissertations.
• Institute of Orthopaedics Library  has BSc and MSc theses.
• School of Pharmacy Library  has a small collection of MRes theses which date from 2011 – 2014  for reference use in the library. 
• UCL Institute of Education Library  has selected masters dissertations, which are findable in  Explore . Those published after 2000 are openly accessible in the library. All others must be requested in advance. 
• Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health Library has examples of past MSc and MRes dissertations.
• The UCL Institute of Archaeology make some available on the dissertation module page in their Moodle.

Some departments may also maintain their own collections. For further details, please contact your departmental administrators. 

• Theses Further Information on repositories and databases for accessing theses held by other institutions.
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• Last Updated: Aug 22, 2024 3:08 PM
• URL: https://library-guides.ucl.ac.uk/dissertations

UCL Department of Economics

The MSc Dissertation

From June – early September students undertake a research project, lightly supervised by a member of faculty , and submit a 10,000 word dissertation on or before the deadline in early September. A good dissertation will be a piece of original research, the best dissertations are published . The three-months dissertation project gives you the opportunity to acquire and enhance a number of skills including research skills, project management, organisation, software and writing.

The research methods course supports you in this project, providing training in:

• Research and academic writing skills
• Software (Matlab, Python, R, and Stata)
• Empirical econometric skills.

In total, over 30 hours of lecture support skill acquisition directly relevant to the dissertation project. Helpdesks are also provided during the dissertation writing period. Dissertations fall into four categories:

Empirical Empirical dissertations typically take an econometric model from an existing paper and applying it to a new data set and / or extending it. Such a project involves:

•     A brief critical literature review of your chosen area
•     Finding and understanding your dataset
•     Learning the appropriate software
•     Implementing your model
•     Understanding, criticising and checking the robustness of your results.

Examples of recent empirical dissertations are:

•     Corruption and Education in the Developing World
•     Analysis of Chinese Stock Market Efficiency
•     UK Wage Flexibility in the Aftermath of the Great Recession
•     Hedonistic wage estimation and the market for head teachers: Evidence for England
•     Does Microcredit Crowd Out Traditional Moneylending? An Example From Hyderabad.
•     Estimating the Competitive Structure of the UK Petrol Retail Industry
•     The impact of paid work on women’s empowerment.

Theoretical Theoretical dissertations typically take model from an existing paper and extending it in some interesting way. Such a project involves:

•     Acquiring a deep understanding of your model, in the context of the core material you’ve covered

Examples of recent theoretical dissertations are:

•     An Investigation of a Network Targeting Model with Bounded Rational Consumers
•     The finite sample performance of single equation models of ordered choice
•     Rotating Savings and Credit Associations: A Theoretical Analysis
•     News aggregators and search engines: Thumping entrants in the newspapers industry
•     Disaster risk in a New Keynesian model

Policy Policy dissertations undertake a critical analysis of some previously unexplored policy or policy issue. Such a project involves:

•     A description of the economic principles involved in the policy decision
•     A critical appraisal of existing or proposed policies.

Note policy dissertations may often involve an empirical component Examples of recent dissertations are:

•     An assessment of the second round of quantitative easing policy in the UK: A BVAR approach
•     Capital controls on outflows during financial crises: Are they effective?
•     The technological factors in the economies of developing countries: Comparison of the effectiveness of public policies on innovation in Chile for local research and inward technology transfer
•     Welfare participation by immigrants in the UK
•     A study upon market structure characterised by regulation: Information and oligopoly conditions.

Analytical Survey An analytical survey dissertation provides a clear outline of the intellectual development of the a particular area. Such a project involves:

•     A thorough understanding of the literature in your chosen area
•     Explaining the extent to which different contributors were addressing similar of different questions and in what sense and how far one contribution marks a significant improvement over earlier ones.
•     Critically assessing the different contributions and of the field as a whole.

Examples of recent dissertations are:

•     Heterogeneous Adaptive Learning in Real Business Cycle Models
•     The Great Moderation: A critical survey since the crisis
•     What are the social costs and benefits of reversing innovations in mortgage markets?
•     What explains the top income surge?
•     A survey on observational learning and informational cascades: Are observational conditions simple enough to warrant simple predictions?

"I feel the course provided me with a far more sophisticated understanding of macroeconomic policy and a wealth of useful technical econometrics skills"

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UCL Graduate Prospectus

Still have questions?  Follow the link below to a list of frequently asked questions.  

Economics Handbook for MSc Students

If you have any questions please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions section of this website.

For further information please see the UCL pages for current students , or contact: [email protected]

Scheme of Award

Department of Economics

4: dissertation and project guidelines, dissertation and project guidelines, dissertation guidelines for msc economics and msc economics and international financial economics.

The main aim of the dissertation is to encourage independent study and to provide a foundation for future original research. In terms of learning, the dissertation should provide you with a number of research skills, including the ability to:

• Define a feasible project allowing for time and resource constraints;
• Develop an adequate methodology;
• Make optimal use of library resources;
• Access data bases, understand their uses and limitations and extract relevant data;
• Work without the need for continuous supervision.

Topic selection and allocation of supervisors

Your first task is to determine your dissertation topic and possible supervisor. Topics will be suggested by module lecturers, especially on the optional modules, and by members of faculty. In the Spring Term you will have Research Methods lectures that explicitly direct you to sources of inspiration. Alternatively, you may already know the topic you wish to pursue. A word of advice: it is critical that you choose a topic that you are really interested in and not something that you think sounds good.

Information on potential supervisors will be made available in a spreadsheet, which gives you a list of all supervisors available for 2023-2024, along with their main areas of interest and their suggested dissertation topics. Alternatively, you can browse the staff personal web pages for information, or approach members of staff directly with your research ideas.

Students need to approach their potential supervisor and confirm supervision with them in writing (an email is sufficient). Note that supervisors will only be able to accept a limited number of students each. If you have a preferred supervisor in mind approach them early with a clear idea of a topic you would like to pursue to avoid disappointment.

Once you have decided on a topic you should go to the online form on the dissertation webpage. On this form, you are asked to indicate:

(i) your thesis title, and

(ii) a short (max 200 words) description of your planned research.

(iii) your dissertation supervisor (if you have reached an agreement with a supervisor).

The deadline for submitting this form is 12.00 noon on Monday 8 April 2024 (week 28).

If you have not made an agreement with a supervisor then you will be asked to sign up for one of the remaining supervisors on Tabula, and the slots will be filled on a first-come first-served basis. You will be notified of the date and time for doing this by email.

By the start of week 34 of the Summer Term, i.e. Monday 20 May 2024 (week 34) , all students will be allocated supervisors.

Changes in title must be agreed with the supervisor. A request for a change in supervisor must be made directly to the Director of Graduate Studies (Taught Degrees). Changes will only be made if both original and new supervisor agree.

Timetable for Summer Term

Students are expected to stay in the UK during the Summer Term and will be delivering their presentations in-person.

Monday 8 April 2024 (week 28) - 12.00 noon

Deadline for submission of proposed title of dissertation and prospective supervisors online form Link opens in a new window .

Monday 20 May 2024 (week 34)

MSc dissertation supervisors announced.

Wednesday 29 May 2024 (week 35)

Deadline for submitting ethical scrutiny form (if applicable).

Monday 3 June - Fri 14 June 2024 (weeks 36/37)

During this period supervisors will arrange for all supervisees to give short in-person presentations of their ideas.

Monday 24 June 2024 (week 39)

Deadline for submitting Dissertation Proposal by e-submission.

Wednesday 11 September 2024 (week 50)

Dissertation submission deadline for MSc in Economics and MSc in Economics and International Financial Economics.

Wednesday 5 March 2025 (week 23)

Dissertation submission deadline (for resit candidates).

The role of the supervisor

The role of the supervisor is:

• To advise you on the feasibility of your chosen topic and ways of refining it;
• To provide some references to the general methodology to be used;
• To provide general guidance to the literature review and analysis of the chosen topic.

Supervision will take place mainly or entirely during the summer term. This means that both you and your supervisor need to use the time efficiently. The role of the supervisor during the summer term is to help you develop your dissertation proposal and then to mark and provide feedback on your proposal. During the summer vacation the expectation is that you will be working independently, and your supervisor’s role will be to read and make some comments on a final draft of your work.

Additional support to develop research skills

In the Spring Term we run Research Methods lectures and workshops to equip you with the necessary skills required for research and help to prepare you for your dissertation. The weekly sessions will explain the dissertation process, how to select your topic, what makes a good dissertation, how to complete literature reviews and identify your data. We will continue to build on your skills in econometrics packages with a session on STATA. A Library dissertation training session will explain available resources and how to access databases. A detailed schedule for the lectures and workshops will be announced in the Spring Term.

We provide weekly surgeries in the summer term and vacation to help answer queries about your topic and deal with software and econometric problems. Full details of this facility will be circulated in week 34 of the Summer Term.

It is very important that you identify appropriate data source(s) for your dissertation if you are doing an empirical topic, and you should discuss the availability of sources with your supervisor an early stage.

Some organisations will only supply data on the condition that it would be stored on the Department's secure servers and that the Department would take legal responsibility for it. Unfortunately, the Department is unable to meet these conditions, and in this situation, you would need to use an alternative data source.

Please also be aware that the Department does not typically pay for data sets or cover other costs relating to MSc dissertation data collection (for example, surveys). Therefore, please identify data that are already available or can be acquired free of change. Our Economics Academic Support Librarian, Jackie Hanes, is happy to help you find the information you need for your research, show you how to use specific resources, or discuss any other issues you might have. Her email address is [email protected].

Ethical scrutiny

At Warwick, any research, including dissertations for Masters degrees, that involves direct contact with participants, through their physical participation in research activities (invasive and non-invasive participation, including surveys or personal data collection conducted by any means), that indirectly involves participants through their provision of data or tissue, or that involves people on behalf of others (e.g. parents on behalf of children), requires ethical scrutiny.

Note that your research does not require ethical scrutiny if it does not involve direct or indirect contact with participants. For example, most research involving previously existing datasets where individual-level information is not provided, or where individuals are not identified, or using historical records, does not require ethical scrutiny, and this is likely to include most research conducted in the Department. Research involving laboratory or field experiments, or the collection of new individual level survey data, always requires ethical scrutiny.

It is your responsibility to seek the necessary scrutiny and approval, and if in doubt, you must consult your supervisor.

If your research work requires ethical scrutiny and approval, checks are conducted within the Department in line with rules approved by the University’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee. Please consult with your supervisor and complete the Department’s form for ethical approval of student research Link opens in a new window .

The form should be submitted to the Postgraduate Office by Wednesday 29 May 2024 (week 35).

The dissertation proposal

There are two parts to the dissertation proposal: a presentation and a written proposal.

First, you will be required to present your proposed topic to your supervisor and fellow students in a group. This will help you focus your ideas, especially via feedback from other students and your supervisor. Please note that some supervisors will organise individual meetings for presentations. The presentations should take the following format:

• The presentation will be delivered in-person.
• You will have 10-15 minutes each, comprising your 5-10 minute presentation followed by five minutes of discussion and comment;
• The presentation should either use Powerpoint or PDF;
• You must identify the title of your proposed research, the research objective, the data and any computing/statistical tools required (for example, Stata);
• The research objective should be briefly expanded into a justification of why you want to study this question — why it is important followed by a short description of what you intend to do;
• One slide is adequate for covering related literature.

Then, based on your presentation and any feedback you receive, you have to write a detailed dissertation proposal to include a literature review and research plan. This should be a maximum length of 1,000 words excluding all appendices, footnotes, tables and the bibliography.

Please note that your supervisor will not comment on a draft of your proposal before you submit it.

The dissertation proposal will be assessed and carries a mark worth 10% of the mark for the dissertation module as a whole. The deadline is Monday 24 June 2024 (week 39) and you should submit your proposal electronically via Tabula.

Dissertation format

The dissertation is worth 90% of the total mark for the dissertation module. There is no minimum word length and concise expositions are encouraged. The dissertation should be a maximum length of 8,000 words, excluding acknowledgements, appendices, footnotes, words in graphs, tables, notes to tables and the bibliography. Note there is a limit of 15 pages for the appendices, footnotes, and tables. Abstract words, quotations and citations count towards the word limit.

We recommend that you use Microsoft Word or Scientific Word, both of which can easily insert equations. The first page of the dissertation itself should include the title, your name, date and any preface and acknowledgements. Pages and sections must be numbered. We have no particular preference for how you format your dissertation. The structure of your dissertation will be decided upon by yourself and your supervisor. We have published some top past dissertations and proposals Link opens in a new window to show you what headings/sub headings other students have used, and how the dissertation might be organised. Every dissertation will normally include:

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Results/Discussion

References should be collected at the back in alphabetical order and should contain sufficient detail to allow them to be followed up if required: at a minimum you should cite author, date of publication, title of book or article, journal of publication or book publishing company.

Submitting your dissertation

Your MSc dissertation must be submitted electronically via Tabula under module code EC959. The name of the PDF file should be your student ID number. As well as the PDF of your dissertation, you should submit your “log” (output) file, noting that you will need to upload the .PDF file and the .txt output file at the same time – if you upload them separately the second file may overwrite the other. Please note that we reserve the right to ask to see further details of your data and any econometric and other programmes you have used to analyse it. So, we advise you to keep electronic copies of data and programs (including do-files if applicable) until after the Exam Board has met.

At the same time, you must also submit a completed Dissertation Submission Form Link opens in a new window . No paper copies of your dissertation are required.

Deadlines and extensions

There will be two deadlines each year for MSc dissertations. The September deadline applies to all MSc students who have passed their examinations at the first attempt and are not taking any re(sit) exams in September. The March deadline will be for those students who are doing re(sit) exams in September, and for those who may have asked for an extension due to mitigating circumstances.

Students who are doing one re(sit) exam and are able to hand in their dissertation for the September deadline will be permitted to do so, on the understanding that this is done at their own risk; the dissertation will not be considered if they have not met the criteria for the taught component of the MSc (see the section on MSc Exam Schemes Link opens in a new window ). In the case of two re(sit) exams, we strongly advise you to defer your dissertation until March of the following year. However, if you really feel you have to do your dissertation over the summer, for example, because you are going straight to a job, or for other reasons, you must discuss the situation with your supervisor, and obtain his/her agreement. Please note that we cannot give you a short deadline extension in September because you have got resit examinations. If you have failed or missed three or more exams, we require you to defer the writing of your dissertation until after the September exams, without any exceptions.

If you cannot make your September or March deadline due to medical, or other mitigating circumstances, you must fill in an extension request form, available on Tabula. If your application is approved, you will be permitted to submit your dissertation by the agreed extension date or the next biannual deadline (either March or September). You need to supply suitable medical or other evidence within one week of submitting the extension request. The evidence you provide should cover a substantial part of the dissertation period detailing why you were unable to work on the dissertation. Please note that extensions will not be granted for short-term illnesses or being in full- or part-time employment.

Assessment and feedback

To achieve at least a pass, a dissertation must demonstrate a high level of competence in both analysis and expression. This can be achieved in several ways, for instance by:

• Providing a critical survey of some area of the subject. This should be written in such a way as to take the non-specialist reader from the beginnings of the topic up to the frontiers. It should integrate and synthesise existing ideas, demonstrate the relationships between them and assess their significance. It is not enough to simply catalogue previous work. However lengthy the bibliography is, a dissertation which shows no deep grasp of the motivation, content and structure of the literature will fail. Though ‘originality’ in the sense of a demonstrable theoretical or empirical innovation is not required in order to pass, it is expected that some degree of original thought will be needed to place the ideas of others in a coherent setting;
• Applying techniques developed by others to a data-set not previously used for that purpose, with a clear motivation for doing so;
• Examining the robustness of an existing theoretical model to changes in its underlying assumptions, with a clear motivation for doing so.

At least two examiners will assess your dissertation. Markers will use the 20-point scale shown in the next section when marking the proposal and dissertation (though note that the final mark agreed by first and second dissertation markers is not restricted to the 20-point scale to enable averaging if appropriate).

No feedback on the result of your dissertation is possible until after the Exam Board meets in November 2024, when your mark and comments will be provided through Tabula. Second markers are not required to write comments, though they can do so if they wish. If the second marker does write comments these can be included separately, or they can be combined into a joint report.

20-point marking scale

Research project guidelines for MSc Behavioural and Economic Science

You will carry out novel research in the area of behavioural science. You will work within one of the departments’ labs, designing and running independent empirical work that addresses a current research question. You will have the support of experts in the field and will produce research suitable for publication in an international journal.

Projects are:

• Empirical (that is an experiment, computer program, survey or observational study);
• Physically safe and ethically acceptable (conform to the British Psychological Society Code of Conduct);
• Practical in terms of demands on time, equipment, number of subjects required and laboratory space.

Potential research project topics will be provided in the Spring Term. When the topics are published, please do contact supervisors. You will indicate your project preferences via an online form, with projects allocated centrally.

You must read the British Psychological Society Code of Human Research Ethics. If you are conducting research using the internet, you must also read the British Psychological Society guidelines on internet mediated research. Both documents can be found on the BPS website Link opens in a new window .

At Warwick, any research that involves direct contact with participants, through their physical participation in research activities (invasive and non-invasive participation), that indirectly involves participants through their provision of data or tissue and that involves people on behalf of others (e.g. parents on behalf of children) requires ethical scrutiny. It is your and your supervisor’s joint responsibility to ensure that ethical approval is secured, and this should take place very early in the Summer Term.

If you consider that ethical approval is necessary, please consult with your supervisor and submit the relevant form for ethical approval to [email protected] Link opens in a new window . When there are multiple students on the same project, we will only require one form.

Format and submission

Projects might typically contain one or two experiments or a significant econometric analysis of a large data set. The research in the report should be of a publishable standard. This normally means that the research is relevant and innovative, that there are no major methodological flaws and that the conclusions are appropriate.

With your supervisor choose an appropriate target journal. The formatting of the dissertation must be as for submission to your target journal. Write up your report following the journal submission guidelines. Include on the front page of your report the name of the journal you select. Avoid writing in a more generic 'thesis style' as you may have done for past projects.

Project reports, excluding appendices, should not exceed 20,000 words, and should normally be much shorter. Your target journal may well have a word or page limit which you should follow.

Appendices of test material, raw data, protocols, etc. need not be submitted with your project, but copies of these materials must be given to your supervisor (see below).

No paper copies are required. Please submit online through Tabula as a PDF.

You must retain all of the data that you collect. You must submit all of your data directly to your supervisor when you submit your project. Ideally, you should also submit R scripts (or another language) for the complete analysis of your data.

There will be two deadlines each year for MSc projects. The first will be in August and the second one will be in March. The August deadline will be for all MSc students who have passed their examinations at the first attempt and those with the option to proceed to the project. The March deadline will be for those students who are required to do one or more re(sit) exams in September, either for core modules, or for optional modules where a mark of less than 40 was achieved at the first attempt. The March deadline is also for those who may have asked for an extension due to mitigating circumstances.

Students who are required to re(sit) one exam and are able to hand in their project for the August deadline will be permitted to do so, on the understanding that this is done at their own risk; the project will not be considered if they have not met the criteria for the taught component of the MSc (see the section on Exam Schemes Link opens in a new window ). In the case of students being required to take two re(sit) exams, our advice is that you defer your project until March of the following year. Please note that we cannot give you a short deadline extension in August/September because you have got resit exams. If you have failed or missed three or more exams, we require you to defer the writing of your project until after the September exams, without any exceptions.

If you cannot make your August or March deadline due to medical, or other mitigating circumstances, you must fill in an extension request form, available on Tabula. If an application is approved, the student will be permitted to submit their dissertation by the agreed extension date or the next biannual deadline (either March or August). You need to supply suitable medical or other evidence within one week of submitting the extension request. The evidence you provide should cover a substantial part of the project period detailing why you were unable to work on the dissertation. Please note that extensions will not be granted for low-level and short-term illnesses, or being in full- or part-time employment.

References should be in the style of your target journal. Minimally they should contain the author, date of publication, title of book or article, journal of publication and volume or book publishing company. Almost all journals are very specific about referencing. If there is no guidance (very unlikely) follow the APA conventions.

Assessment is based upon the project report. In assessing reports, some of the points markers will have in mind are:

• How well has the student been able to formulate the research question or hypothesis and establish why it is an important question to ask? How precise is the hypothesis?
• How well does the student know relevant theoretical and empirical literature and can they frame the research question in the light of such literature?
• How clearly has the student described the design and procedure of the investigation and specified the subject sample(s) investigated? (Could the reader replicate the investigation on the basis of the information given?)
• How clearly and how thoroughly has the student been able to describe and analyse the data obtained? How well does the student understand the logic of descriptive and inferential statistics? Can the student explore findings intelligently and not simply number-crunch?
• How well does the student interpret the findings in relation to the original rationale for the investigation? How aware is the student of limitations in the design of the investigation (also important for meta-analysis and analysis of existing data sets) or in the way the research question was formulated? How well can the student point to what might next be done in the light of what has been learned from the investigation?
• What is the overall quality of writing, presentation, organisation and attention to detail?

At least two examiners will assess your project, employing the criteria described elsewhere in this handbook. No feedback on the result of your project is possible until after the Exam Board meets in November 2024, when your mark and comments will be provided through Tabula. Second markers are not required to write comments, though they can do so if they wish. If the second marker does write comments these can be included separately, or they can be combined into a joint report.

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Postgraduate research theses contain ‘a wealth of data… which can shed light on very interesting areas’ (The British Library, 2014).

You can find theses submitted by University of Manchester postgraduate research students from the late 19th Century to the present day using the Library Search box above. Or try the Advanced Search for more options (select 'Theses' from the drop-down list for ‘Material type’).

Follow the links below for more information about accessing theses submitted by Manchester researchers, as well as theses from authors all over the world.

Access to British Library EThOS - March 2024

Access to British Library EThOS  is currently unavailable due to a major technical outage affecting several of their online services.

View news and updates on the British Library website

Manchester eTheses

Doctoral theses submitted from 2010 onwards which are currently Open Access are available to view via the University’s Research Explorer.

eTheses submission

Supporting Postgraduate Research Students, Supervisors and Administrators with the submission of electronic theses.

Search ProQuest for digitised pre-2010 Manchester doctoral theses, as well as over four million theses and dissertations from institutions around the world.

Theses Library Guide

Consult our Theses Library Guide for guidance on how to locate and access theses from UK and International institutions.

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• Search e-books
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• Search journal articles
• Subject guides
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• Preparing your thesis

Master's dissertations

‌‌‌‌For a full list of departments with MScs and dissertations in Spiral, see  Theses

Depositing Master's dissertations in Spiral

The deposit of Master's dissertations is managed by departments and is not mandatory. 

Administrators in each department are responsible for collating all dissertations as PDF files and for creating their bibliographic data. ICT then upload the files and data to Spiral.

If your department would like to do this, please note:

• your departmental administrators will be responsible for the data entry
• you must use the Masters dissertations template  (Excel) for data entry
• you must follow the data entry and upload guidelines, see  Guidelines for uploading Master's dissertations to Spiral (pdf)
• you must upload the files and completed spreadsheet to OneDrive, as per the upload guidelines

For further assistance contact your librarian

• Schools & departments

Useful resources for accessing Theses.

China Doctoral and Masters Dissertations Full-text Database (Simplified Chinese Version )

China Doctoral and Masters Dissertations Full-text Database (Traditional Chinese Version)

China Doctoral and Masters Dissertations Full-text Database (English version)

DART Europe E-Theses

Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA)

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online Service

History Theses 1901-2014: Historical research for higher degrees in the universities of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland

Available via British History Online in two parts: 

https://eux.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/theses-1901-70

https://eux.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/theses-1970-2014

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

Open Access Theses and Dissertations

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global is a key resource

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global

Proquest dissertations & theses global via web of science.

UK Research Councils

Related Links

More information about theses

This article was published on 2024-08-21

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A complete guide to writing a master’s thesis

Speak right now to our live team of english staff.

If you’re reading this because you have been accepted onto a master’s programme that requires you to write a thesis – congratulations! This is a very exciting time in your life.

Hopefully what we’re about to tell you doesn’t come as too much of a surprise – as part of your master’s course you are going to be spending a considerable amount of time working on a single written submission. In fact, your master’s thesis may be the longest and most detailed piece of writing that you have ever been asked to complete.

With that in mind, getting some guidance before you begin is an important first step.

As you progress through your degree, you may have questions on exactly how to write a master’s thesis and are thus looking to obtain some thesis writing tips to help you on your way.

This post is designed to provide you with a comprehensive guide to writing a master’s thesis in the UK context. It will help you not just now, but will also be something you can refer back to throughout the duration of your master’s studies. If you haven’t already, we strongly recommend bookmarking this post so can you find it easily when you inevitably have questions during the thesis writing process.

In this post, we’ll clue you in to some strategies best suited to master’s students trying to complete a thesis. We’ll focus on what to expect at each stage, including creating a working plan, doing your reading, undertaking research, writing your master’s thesis, editing it, and leaving time to finish and proofread.

Hopefully, by the time you have finished reading, you will have the confidence and motivation to get going on a path that will lead to ultimate success in your thesis writing.

Start with a plan (and stick to it)

OK, we realise we may be teaching your grandma how to suck eggs here – starting with a plan is the obvious first step in any piece of academic writing.

And yet, as good as everyone’s intentions may be when students start writing a master’s thesis, circumstances (nearly) always arise that make sticking to the plan much more challenging.

So, first tip: when writing your thesis, make sure that your plan is flexible , and allows time for dealing with unexpected circumstances.

Next, reconsider your research proposal. It is likely you had to write one before you were accepted onto your master’s programme. If this was your first time producing a research proposal, you may read it back now and find it’s a little over-ambitious in its claims about what you planned to do. It’s a common trap to fall into, so don’t despair! Book some time with your research supervisor to determine whether your research proposal is actually realistic for your master’s thesis. If you claimed that you were going to do qualitative interviews of 200 participants across the UK, and you only have a year to complete your master’s, you might want to rethink your project and scale it to something that is achievable and not setting you up for failure.

Another tip on supervisors: make sure that you ask them questions about their expectations throughout the thesis writing process. Will they want to see drafts of your chapters as they’re written? If the answer is yes, finding out these dates will help you to develop a plan to achieve this without scrambling at the last minute.

Another tip for planning how to write your master’s thesis is to set yourself a goal of doing a little bit each day. Framing your thesis in your mind as a long-term project with a deadline very far away in the future will only encourage you to put off writing it. Then ‘far away in the future’ will all of a sudden be ‘next month’ and major panic will set in, and the lack of time at your disposal will make for rushed, compromised writing.

Set yourself milestones: a realistic plan for writing certain chapters by certain dates. Then within these milestones, commit to writing an amount of words per day, or per week. Then be disciplined and stick to your plan. Avoiding procrastination isn’t easy, but will very much work in your favour in the long run.

A final tip when devising your plan: it is easy to go back and delete words that you do not need during the editing process. Conversely, having to add thousands of words at the last minute will be stressful and sometimes impossible. Plan to start writing early, and budget for, say, 1000-2000 words every day. Not only will you then reach the full word count of your master’s thesis quickly, but you’ll leave yourself plenty of time to edit it, remove sections that aren’t working, and add more words that strengthen the overall assignment, all long before the deadline arrives.

Do your reading

The trick here is to find a balance between reading enough and not spending too much time doing so. There is so much reading to do and it can be easy to drift off topic.

Doing your reading and producing the final literature review are important components of a master’s thesis, but if you spend too much time reading there won’t be ample time for the data collection process and the writing up phase.

Here are some steps you can take to ensure that your reading process is both effective and efficient.

Step 1 – Understand your research questions

The first step in the reading phase of your master’s thesis is knowing what research questions you are trying to answer. Hopefully you have identified these questions with your supervisor before you started to work on your thesis. If you do not have a clear research question, your reading strategies will be severely hindered.

There are certain databases that are going to be more relevant to your area of study. Getting research from these databases is going to streamline the writing process for you to ensure that your project is focused within the context that it needs to be. A research librarian can likely help you focus this search, making the process significantly easier.

Step 2 – Make reading easier

There are several challenges associated with reading. First, it is easy to get distracted, especially if your reading material is lengthy and complex. So you want to keep your reading blocks short and sweet. ‘Chunk’ your reading. Spend 20 to 25 minutes reading without distraction (it hurts we know, but putting your phone on flight mode and leaving it in another room will ultimately help) and then take a 5 to 10 minute break (on your phone, if you must!) before starting up again.

Furthermore, whilst there is a lot of reading to do, it is unrealistic to spend your whole day doing it. Earmark just a portion of the day for reading, then make sure that you have other things that you can do with the rest of your time (like completing your ethics forms, or starting to create your research instruments). By dividing up your time, you are going to be able to keep your focus for longer, making you more productive and efficient overall.

Step 3 – Take good notes

It’s always worth remembering the forgetting curve – ah that’s a paradox if we ever saw one. The forgetting curve is the amount of information you will forget as time passes. It can be quite steep, and after a month passes you likely won’t remember much about what you have previously read. This could lead to disaster when writing up your literature review, so make sure that you take good, thorough notes throughout the reading process.

A good idea is to build out an excel spreadsheet or other list that documents your reading in a detailed and organised manner. You can keep track of key information, such as:

• Location of research
• Sample size
• Research methods
• Main findings

Not only will this help slow the curve of your inevitable forgetfulness, but crucially, it will also make referring back to your reading much easier when you move on to writing your overall literature review.

A note to remember: not everything that you read will end up in your literature review. The purpose of reading is to make sure that you, as a researcher, understand how your project is positioned within your area of study. The literature review explains this to the reader but in much simpler terms. So to reiterate, the reading process is for your own benefit, not solely to find studies to include in your literature review.

Do your research

Even if you did research as part of your undergraduate work, research for a master’s thesis is a whole different story. As an undergraduate, your project was likely quite small or it was significantly guided by a faculty member; as a master’s student, this is typically your first opportunity to do research on a topic that you have chosen to pursue. While this is an exciting step, it also means that you are accountable for your actions.

Your research type and tools

The first step in the research process is deciding on what type of research you will do. Is it going to be qualitative or quantitative? Maybe it will be a combination of the two. You have likely documented this in your research proposal, but your answer to this question will have implications about how you will organise and analyse your data once it is collected.

Regardless of what route you choose, you will need software to help you manage your data. Many universities have free data management software tools available, and if that is the case for your institution then use them –tools available otherwise can rack up quite a hefty bill.

The most common tools are SPSS, which deals primarily with quantitative data, or NVivo which focuses more on qualitative measures. There are numerous other software packages available, and your supervisor may have suggestions about which management tool is most suitable for your project.

Planning ahead for better outcomes

The second step in the process is to think about timing and distribution. If you are planning a qualitative study, perhaps using interviews, remember that you will need to transcribe all of the words that are contained in the interview. While some programmes allow speech-to-text translation, it is not always accurate. The process of transcription takes considerable time, and therefore, as a researcher, you should consider how many participants you are looking to have in your project.

While a quantitative project may not have the same level of detail in the data input process, there are likely to be more participants and a wider range of outcomes. As a researcher, you must recruit these participants and ensure that they meet the criteria for inclusion. Finding people who are willing to participate in this type of project (often volunteering their time for free) can be challenging, and so as a researcher, it can be useful to have a minimum number of participants that you believe (based on past research) will give you findings that can be reliable and valid within your context.

It is also worth mentioning that you will likely end up with a lot of data, much more than can actually be presented in your master’s thesis.

One of the challenging pieces of the research process is deciding which findings make the cut for your thesis and which get saved for a later date. While your data are probably very interesting to you, it is important that you do not overwhelm the reader or deviate from the research questions that you set out to answer.

To sum up, the process of actually carrying out research and distilling it for the writing part of your thesis takes time. You need to carefully plan your research steps to ensure not only that you cover everything you intend to, but that you also do it in good time, leaving yourself ample space in your schedule to write up your thesis.

Write your Master’s thesis: the right structure

It’s helpful to start here by going over the structure of a master’s thesis. The precise way that different master’s theses are structured is largely going to depend on the discipline area. But most of the time, empirical dissertations follow a format including:

• Table of contents
• List of tables/figures
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Before you start writing

Before you start to write, draft an outline of your approach to each section including the word count you expect to have (total word counts also vary by discipline).

Within each section you should also include all the major subheadings that you plan to include in the final version.

Before writing any of the sections, meet with your supervisor to ensure that your outline generally conforms to their expectations. Supervisors are the experts in the field and have likely seen many master’s theses, so they will be able to tell you if you are on the right track.

Beginning to write

It’s worth noting here that the order in which you write all the sections of your master’s thesis can vary depending on your process and preferences.

Once you have a detailed outline, there is no rule that says you have to start with the introduction and end with the conclusion. While the reader will inevitably read your thesis this way, you are free to write the ‘easy’ sections first and then move on to ones that you find more challenging.

For many students, beginning with the methodology chapter makes the most sense, as this allows the project to be framed around the steps that you, as a researcher, will take. The methodology usually includes:

• The research question(s).
• Any hypotheses that you might have.
• Your theoretical framework, and the methods that you will use to collect your data.
• Often, but not always, it includes ethical considerations, especially if you are working with human participants.

For many writers, the methodology chapter is written prior to the collection of data, whereas other chapters may be written after the data have been collected and analysed.

The same can be said for writing the literature review . For some writers, the literature review begins to take shape early in the project, but others choose to leave the writing until after data collection has occurred.

Both strategies have value. Writing the literature review early can give a researcher a clear indication of what data already exists and how this could relate to the potential project. The downside is that if the findings from the current project do not match the historical findings from the literature, the whole chapter may need to be revised to better align with the current findings.

Leaving the literature review until after the data collection means a bigger gap between when the reading was actually done for the project and the writing up period, meaning that the sources may need to be consulted repeatedly. In addition, leaving all the writing to the end of the project may seem tedious for some writers.

Another element that you will need to consider is how to present your findings . For some researchers, combining the findings and discussion sections makes logical sense, whereas for others, this presentation makes the chapter unwieldy and difficult to read.

Staying on track

There is no universal approach to writing a master’s thesis, but there are a lot of people out there who are willing to help you along the way. You will put yourself in a really good place if you seek advice at multiple stages in the process and from multiple different sources.

Your university library is going to be a useful source for research and reference, whereas your supervisor can give more discipline-specific advice on writing. Your university will likely have a writing centre too that can offer suggestions on how to improve your writing and make sure that you are staying on track. Making appointments at your writing centre can also help with accountability, as you will have to actually complete parts of your writing in order to discuss them with others.

Finishing and proofreading

When you write those last few words of your conclusion and you have made it to the end of your thesis (hopefully in one piece – you, not the thesis), there may be a sense of finality. It’s a huge feat you’ve just overcome and for that, you deserve a pat on the back.

But finishing writing your master’s thesis is a little like reaching Camp 4 on an Everest summit trek. Without wanting to sound too ominous, there is still a considerable amount of work to do – chiefly, putting the finishing touches on your thesis through editing and proofreading.

Hopefully, during the process of writing your thesis, you sent drafts to your supervisor for review. These drafts may have included individual chapters or various sections within the data set that required clarification. Your supervisor would have provided feedback on these drafts either through written or verbal comments. It is essential that you keep track of these comments, as they will become crucial for the final stages prior to submission.

There are two ways that you can approach the editing of your master’s thesis. Both have value and it depends on how you view the process of writing. These are:

• Individually edit sections as they are returned from the supervisor.
• Edit at the very end, so that the editing can be consistent across sections.

With the first strategy, the editing process is broken up into manageable chunks, but at the end you will have to go back and re-edit sections to improve the clarity and flow.

With the second strategy, you may be able to achieve better flow, but the number of edits at the end may seem overwhelming and take up considerable time.

These challenges bring us back to the importance of a timeline. Leaving several weeks for the editing process is necessary because editing can take longer than you think . Also, once you have made these necessary edits, you will need to go through and proofread your document to make sure that the fine details are consistent across chapters. This includes things like making sure acronyms are clearly defined, tables are appropriately numbered/titled, that punctuation and syntax are accurate, and that formatting and alignment is consistent.

Something you may find challenging during the finishing process is knowing when to stop. With writing there are always changes that can be made – ideas or sentences that can be written just a little bit better or slightly more clearly. You could spend years (really!) refining your work – writing and rewriting sections to make them exactly how you want them – but the simple fact is: you do not have time for that.

Use the time that you do have for editing your thesis to the best of your ability, but also be willing to say “this is good enough” and submit your work.

Handing something in that you have worked diligently on for a long time is a truly satisfying feeling, so try to cherish that moment when it comes.

Also, it goes without saying but is always worth the reminder: the expert editors we have on board here at Oxbridge Editing can not only relieve a phenomenal amount of effort in this final hurdle of your assignment, but, thanks to their experience and skill, they will also ensure your thesis is flawless and truly ready for submission. You can find out more about thesis editing here .

Read Also : How to Improve English Punctuation

Final words

Hopefully, by reading this post you have identified some tips for writing your master’s thesis that you can apply in your own context.

While the finished product will vary by discipline, the strategies listed above can apply across a wide range of contexts.

Above all else: start early and stick to the plan.

There are many examples of master’s dissertations that you can refer to for guidance so that you can identify the appropriate thesis structure for your project. By doing a little bit each day and by keeping track of your reading, you can ensure that you remain organised and efficient with your work.

Remember that writing your master’s thesis is your first opportunity to demonstrate to the academic community that you are a proficient scholar in your field. A UK master’s dissertation is no easy task, but there are lots of people and resources available to help you. Take guidance from your supervisor and use the facilities that exist on your university campus, including the writing centre and the library.

Best of luck!

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• Researching and Writing a Masters Dissertation

Written by Mark Bennett

All Masters programmes include some form of extended individual project. Research-focussed programmes, such as an MRes , may include multiple independent research components. Taught courses usually culminate with a substantial research task, referred to as the Masters dissertation or thesis.

This article talks about how long a Masters dissertation is and the structure it follows.Before you get started on your dissertation, you'll usually need to write a proposal. Read our full guide to Masters dissertation proposals for more information on what this should include!

On this page

What’s the difference between a masters dissertation and an undergraduate dissertation.

The Masters thesis is a bridge between undergraduate study and higher level postgraduate degrees such as the PhD .

A postgraduate dissertation may not look that different to its undergraduate equivalent. You’ll likely have to produce a longer piece of work but the foundations remain the same.

After all, one of the purposes of an undergraduate dissertation or final year project is to prepare you for more in-depth research work as a postgraduate. That said, there are some important differences between the two levels.

So, how long is a Masters dissertation? A Masters dissertation will be longer than the undergraduate equivalent – usually it’ll be somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 words, but this can vary widely between courses, institutions and countries.

To answer your overall research question comprehensively, you’ll be expected to identify and examine specific areas of your topic. This can be like producing a series of shorter pieces of work, similar to those required by individual modules. However, there’s the additional requirement that they collectively support a broader set of conclusions.

This more involved Masters dissertation structure will:

• Give you the scope to investigate your subject in greater detail than is possible at undergraduate level
• Challenge you to be effective at organising your work so that its individual components function as stages in a coherent and persuasive overall argument
• Allow you to develop and hone a suitable research methodology (for example, choosing between qualitative and quantitative methods)

If the individual topics within your overall project require you to access separate sources or datasets, this may also have an impact on your research process.

As a postgraduate, you’ll be expected to establish and assert your own critical voice as a member of the academic community associated with your field .

During your Masters thesis you’ll need to show that you are not just capable of analysing and critiquing original data or primary source material. You should also demonstrate awareness of the existing body of scholarship relating to your topic .

So, if you’ll excuse the pun, a ‘Masters’ degree really is about achieving ‘mastery’ of your particular specialism and the dissertation is where you’ll demonstrate this: showing off the scholarly expertise and research skills that you’ve developed across your programme.

What’s the difference between a dissertation and a thesis?

A dissertation is a long piece of (usually) written work on the same topic. A thesis is a little more specific: it usually means something that presents an original argument based on the interpretation of data, statistics or content.

So, a thesis is almost always presented as a dissertation, but not all dissertations present a thesis.

Masters dissertation structure

As you can probably imagine, no two dissertations follow the exact same structure, especially given the differences found between Masters programmes from university to university and country to country .

That said, there are several key components that make up the structure of a typical Masters dissertation

How long is a Masters dissertation?

Most dissertations will typically be between 15,000 and 20,000 words long, although this can vary significantly depending on the nature of the programme.

You should also check with your university exactly which sections of the dissertation count towards the final word count (the abstract, bibliography and appendices won’t usually be included in the total).

Usually around 300 words long, the abstract is meant to be a concise summary of your dissertation. It should briefly cover the question(s) you aim to answer, your primary argument and your conclusion.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to provide context for the rest of the dissertation, setting out your aims and the scope of what you want to achieve with your research. The introduction should give a clear overview of the dissertation’s chapters and will usually be around 1,000 words long.

Literature review

This part of the dissertation should examine the scholarship that has already been published in your field, presenting various arguments and counter-arguments while situating your own research within this wider body of work.

You should analyse and evaluate other publications and explain how your dissertation will contribute to the existing literature in your subject area. The literature review sometimes forms part of the introduction or follows immediately on from it. Most literature reviews are up to 1,000 words long.

Research methodology

Not all dissertations will require a section covering research methodology (Arts and Humanities dissertations won’t normally undertake the kind of research that involves a set methodology). However, if you are using a particular method to collect information for your dissertation, you should make sure to explain the rationale behind your choice of methodology. The word count for this part of the dissertation is usually around the 1,500 mark.

Those in the Arts and Humanities will usually outline their theoretical perspectives and approaches as part of the introduction, rather than requiring a detailed explanation of the methodology for their data collection and analysis.

Results / findings

If your research involves some form of survey or experiment, this is where you’ll present the results of your work. Depending on the nature of the study, this might be in the form of graphs, tables or charts – or even just a written description of what the research entailed and what the findings were.

This section forms the bulk of your dissertation and should be carefully structured using a series of related chapters (and sub-chapters). There should be a logical progression from one chapter to the next, with each part building on the arguments of its predecessor.

It can be helpful to think of your Masters dissertation as a series of closely interlinked essays, rather than one overwhelming paper. The size of this section will depend on the overall word count for your dissertation. However, to give you a rough idea for a 15,000-word dissertation, the discussion part will generally be about 12,000 words long.

Here you should draw together the threads of the previous discussion chapters and make your final concluding statements, drawing on evidence and arguments that you’ve already explored over the course of the dissertation. Explain the significance of your findings and point towards directions that future research could follow. This section of the Masters thesis will be around 1,500 words long.

References / bibliography

While planning and writing your dissertation, you should keep an extensive, organised record of any papers, sources or books you’ve quoted (or referred to). This will be a lot easier than leaving all of it until the end and struggling to work out where a particular quotation is from!

Appendices won’t be necessary in many dissertations, but you may need to include supplementary material to support your argument. This could be interview transcripts or questionnaires. If including such content within the body of the dissertation won’t be feasible – i.e. there wouldn’t be enough space or it would break the flow of your writing – you should consult with your supervisor and consider attaching it in an appendix.

It’s worth bearing in mind that these sections won’t always be discretely labelled in every dissertation. For example, everything up to ‘discussion’ might be covered in introductory chapter (rather than as distinct sections). If you’re unsure about the structure of your Masters dissertation, your supervisor will be able to help you map it out.

How does supervision work for a Masters dissertation?

As a Masters student at the dissertation stage you’ll usually be matched with an academic within your institution who will be tasked with guiding your work. This might be someone who has already taught you, or it may be another scholar whose research interests and expertise align well with what you want to do. You may be able to request a particular supervisor, but taught postgraduates are more likely to be assigned them by their department.

Specific arrangements with your supervisor will vary depending on your institution and subject area. They will usually meet with you at the beginning of the dissertation period to discuss your project and agree a suitable schedule for its undertaking. This timetable will probably set dates for:

• Subsequent discussions and progress checks
• The submission of draft chapters or sections
• Feedback appointments

Though your supervisor is there to help and advise you, it is important to remember that your dissertation is a personal research project with associated expectations of you as an independent scholar.

As a rule of thumb, you can expect your supervisor to read each part of your dissertation once at the draft stage and to offer feedback. Most will not have time to look at lots of subsequent revisions, but may respond favourably to polite requests for exceptions (provided their own workload permits it).

Inundating your supervisor with emails or multiple iterations of draft material is best avoided; they will have their own research to manage (as well as other supervision assignments) and will be able to offer better quality feedback if you stick to an agreed schedule.

How is a Masters dissertation assessed and examined?

On most courses your dissertation will be assessed by an external examiner (as well as additional members of faculty within your university who haven’t been responsible for supervising you), but these will read and critique the work you submit without personally questioning and testing you on it.

Though this examination process is not as challenging as the oral defence or ‘ viva voce ’ required for a PhD thesis, the grading of your Masters dissertation is still a fundamental component of your degree.

On some programmes the result awarded to a student’s dissertation may determine the upper grade-band that can be awarded to their degree.

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How to write a masters dissertation or thesis: top tips.

It is completely normal to find the idea of writing a masters thesis or dissertation slightly daunting, even for students who have written one before at undergraduate level. Though, don’t feel put off by the idea. You’ll have plenty of time to complete it, and plenty of support from your supervisor and peers.

One of the main challenges that students face is putting their ideas and findings into words. Writing is a skill in itself, but with the right advice, you’ll find it much easier to get into the flow of writing your masters thesis or dissertation.

We’ve put together a step-by-step guide on how to write a dissertation or thesis for your masters degree, with top tips to consider at each stage in the process.

1. Understand your dissertation or thesis topic

There are slight differences between theses and dissertations , although both require a high standard of writing skill and knowledge in your topic. They are also formatted very similarly.

At first, writing a masters thesis can feel like running a 100m race – the course feels very quick and like there is not as much time for thinking! However, you’ll usually have a summer semester dedicated to completing your dissertation – giving plenty of time and space to write a strong academic piece.

By comparison, writing a PhD thesis can feel like running a marathon, working on the same topic for 3-4 years can be laborious. But in many ways, the approach to both of these tasks is quite similar.

Before writing your masters dissertation, get to know your research topic inside out. Not only will understanding your topic help you conduct better research, it will also help you write better dissertation content.

Also consider the main purpose of your dissertation. You are writing to put forward a theory or unique research angle – so make your purpose clear in your writing.

Top writing tip: when researching your topic, look out for specific terms and writing patterns used by other academics. It is likely that there will be a lot of jargon and important themes across research papers in your chosen dissertation topic. 

2. Structure your dissertation or thesis

Writing a thesis is a unique experience and there is no general consensus on what the best way to structure it is. 

As a postgraduate student , you’ll probably decide what kind of structure suits your research project best after consultation with your supervisor. You’ll also have a chance to look at previous masters students’ theses in your university library.

To some extent, all postgraduate dissertations are unique. Though they almost always consist of chapters. The number of chapters you cover will vary depending on the research. 

A masters dissertation or thesis organised into chapters would typically look like this: 

Write down your structure and use these as headings that you’ll write for later on.

Top writing tip : ease each chapter together with a paragraph that links the end of a chapter to the start of a new chapter. For example, you could say something along the lines of “in the next section, these findings are evaluated in more detail”. This makes it easier for the reader to understand each chapter and helps your writing flow better.

3. Write up your literature review

One of the best places to start when writing your masters dissertation is with the literature review. This involves researching and evaluating existing academic literature in order to identify any gaps for your own research.

Many students prefer to write the literature review chapter first, as this is where several of the underpinning theories and concepts exist. This section helps set the stage for the rest of your dissertation, and will help inform the writing of your other dissertation chapters.

What to include in your literature review

The literature review chapter is more than just a summary of existing research, it is an evaluation of how this research has informed your own unique research.

Demonstrate how the different pieces of research fit together. Are there overlapping theories? Are there disagreements between researchers?

Highlight the gap in the research. This is key, as a dissertation is mostly about developing your own unique research. Is there an unexplored avenue of research? Has existing research failed to disprove a particular theory?

Back up your methodology. Demonstrate why your methodology is appropriate by discussing where it has been used successfully in other research.

4. Write up your research

For instance, a more theoretical-based research topic might encompass more writing from a philosophical perspective. Qualitative data might require a lot more evaluation and discussion than quantitative research. 

Methodology chapter

The methodology chapter is all about how you carried out your research and which specific techniques you used to gather data. You should write about broader methodological approaches (e.g. qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods), and then go into more detail about your chosen data collection strategy. 

Data collection strategies include things like interviews, questionnaires, surveys, content analyses, discourse analyses and many more.

Data analysis and findings chapters

The data analysis or findings chapter should cover what you actually discovered during your research project. It should be detailed, specific and objective (don’t worry, you’ll have time for evaluation later on in your dissertation)

Write up your findings in a way that is easy to understand. For example, if you have a lot of numerical data, this could be easier to digest in tables.

This will make it easier for you to dive into some deeper analysis in later chapters. Remember, the reader will refer back to your data analysis section to cross-reference your later evaluations against your actual findings – so presenting your data in a simple manner is beneficial.

Think about how you can segment your data into categories. For instance, it can be useful to segment interview transcripts by interviewee. 

Top writing tip : write up notes on how you might phrase a certain part of the research. This will help bring the best out of your writing. There is nothing worse than when you think of the perfect way to phrase something and then you completely forget it.

5. Discuss and evaluate

Once you’ve presented your findings, it’s time to evaluate and discuss them.

It might feel difficult to differentiate between your findings and discussion sections, because you are essentially talking about the same data. The easiest way to remember the difference is that your findings simply present the data, whereas your discussion tells the story of this data.

Your evaluation breaks the story down, explaining the key findings, what went well and what didn’t go so well.

In your discussion chapter, you’ll have chance to expand on the results from your findings section. For example, explain what certain numbers mean and draw relationships between different pieces of data.

Top writing tip: don’t be afraid to point out the shortcomings of your research. You will receive higher marks for writing objectively. For example, if you didn’t receive as many interview responses as expected, evaluate how this has impacted your research and findings. Don’t let your ego get in the way!

6. Write your introduction

Your introduction sets the scene for the rest of your masters dissertation. You might be wondering why writing an introduction isn't at the start of our step-by-step list, and that’s because many students write this chapter last.

Here’s what your introduction chapter should cover:

Problem statement

Research question

Significance of your research

This tells the reader what you’ll be researching as well as its importance. You’ll have a good idea of what to include here from your original dissertation proposal , though it’s fairly common for research to change once it gets started.

Writing or at least revisiting this section last can be really helpful, since you’ll have a more well-rounded view of what your research actually covers once it has been completed and written up.

Masters dissertation writing tips

When to start writing your thesis or dissertation.

When you should start writing your masters thesis or dissertation depends on the scope of the research project and the duration of your course. In some cases, your research project may be relatively short and you may not be able to write much of your thesis before completing the project. 

But regardless of the nature of your research project and of the scope of your course, you should start writing your thesis or at least some of its sections as early as possible, and there are a number of good reasons for this:

Academic writing is about practice, not talent. The first steps of writing your dissertation will help you get into the swing of your project. Write early to help you prepare in good time.

Write things as you do them. This is a good way to keep your dissertation full of fresh ideas and ensure that you don’t forget valuable information.

The first draft is never perfect. Give yourself time to edit and improve your dissertation. It’s likely that you’ll need to make at least one or two more drafts before your final submission.

Writing early on will help you stay motivated when writing all subsequent drafts.

Thinking and writing are very connected. As you write, new ideas and concepts will come to mind. So writing early on is a great way to generate new ideas.

How to improve your writing skills

The best way of improving your dissertation or thesis writing skills is to:

 Finish the first draft of your masters thesis as early as possible and send it to your supervisor for revision. Your supervisor will correct your draft and point out any writing errors. This process will be repeated a few times which will help you recognise and correct writing mistakes yourself as time progresses.

If you are not a native English speaker, it may be useful to ask your English friends to read a part of your thesis and warn you about any recurring writing mistakes. Read our section on English language support for more advice. 

Most universities have writing centres that offer writing courses and other kinds of support for postgraduate students. Attending these courses may help you improve your writing and meet other postgraduate students with whom you will be able to discuss what constitutes a well-written thesis.

Read academic articles and search for writing resources on the internet. This will help you adopt an academic writing style, which will eventually become effortless with practice.

Keep track of your bibliography 

The easiest way to keep the track of all the articles you have read for your research is to create a database where you can summarise each article/chapter into a few most important bullet points to help you remember their content. 

Another useful tool for doing this effectively is to learn how to use specific reference management software (RMS) such as EndNote. RMS is relatively simple to use and saves a lot of time when it comes to organising your bibliography. This may come in very handy, especially if your reference section is suspiciously missing two hours before you need to submit your dissertation! 

Avoid accidental plagiarism

Plagiarism may cost you your postgraduate degree and it is important that you consciously avoid it when writing your thesis or dissertation. 

Occasionally, postgraduate students commit plagiarism unintentionally. This can happen when sections are copy and pasted from journal articles they are citing instead of simply rephrasing them. Whenever you are presenting information from another academic source, make sure you reference the source and avoid writing the statement exactly as it is written in the original paper.

What kind of format should your thesis have?

Read your university’s guidelines before you actually start writing your thesis so you don’t have to waste time changing the format further down the line. However in general, most universities will require you to use 1.5-2 line spacing, font size 12 for text, and to print your thesis on A4 paper. These formatting guidelines may not necessarily result in the most aesthetically appealing thesis, however beauty is not always practical, and a nice looking thesis can be a more tiring reading experience for your postgrad examiner .

When should I submit my thesis?

The length of time it takes to complete your MSc or MA thesis will vary from student to student. This is because people work at different speeds, projects vary in difficulty, and some projects encounter more problems than others. 

Obviously, you should submit your MSc thesis or MA thesis when it is finished! Every university will say in its regulations that it is the student who must decide when it is ready to submit. 

However, your supervisor will advise you whether your work is ready and you should take their advice on this. If your supervisor says that your work is not ready, then it is probably unwise to submit it. Usually your supervisor will read your final thesis or dissertation draft and will let you know what’s required before submitting your final draft.

Set yourself a target for completion. This will help you stay on track and avoid falling behind. You may also only have funding for the year, so it is important to ensure you submit your dissertation before the deadline – and also ensure you don’t miss out on your graduation ceremony ! 

To set your target date, work backwards from the final completion and submission date, and aim to have your final draft completed at least three months before that final date.

Don’t leave your submission until the last minute – submit your work in good time before the final deadline. Consider what else you’ll have going on around that time. Are you moving back home? Do you have a holiday? Do you have other plans?

If you need to have finished by the end of June to be able to go to a graduation ceremony in July, then you should leave a suitable amount of time for this. You can build this into your dissertation project planning at the start of your research.

It is important to remember that handing in your thesis or dissertation is not the end of your masters program . There will be a period of time of one to three months between the time you submit and your final day. Some courses may even require a viva to discuss your research project, though this is more common at PhD level . 

If you have passed, you will need to make arrangements for the thesis to be properly bound and resubmitted, which will take a week or two. You may also have minor corrections to make to the work, which could take up to a month or so. This means that you need to allow a period of at least three months between submitting your thesis and the time when your program will be completely finished. Of course, it is also possible you may be asked after the viva to do more work on your thesis and resubmit it before the examiners will agree to award the degree – so there may be an even longer time period before you have finished.

How do I submit the MA or MSc dissertation?

Most universities will have a clear procedure for submitting a masters dissertation. Some universities require your ‘intention to submit’. This notifies them that you are ready to submit and allows the university to appoint an external examiner.

This normally has to be completed at least three months before the date on which you think you will be ready to submit.

When your MA or MSc dissertation is ready, you will have to print several copies and have them bound. The number of copies varies between universities, but the university usually requires three – one for each of the examiners and one for your supervisor.

However, you will need one more copy – for yourself! These copies must be softbound, not hardbound. The theses you see on the library shelves will be bound in an impressive hardback cover, but you can only get your work bound like this once you have passed. 

You should submit your dissertation or thesis for examination in soft paper or card covers, and your university will give you detailed guidance on how it should be bound. They will also recommend places where you can get the work done.

The next stage is to hand in your work, in the way and to the place that is indicated in your university’s regulations. All you can do then is sit and wait for the examination – but submitting your thesis is often a time of great relief and celebration!

Some universities only require a digital submission, where you upload your dissertation as a file through their online submission system.

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Dissertation examples

Listed below are some of the best examples of research projects and dissertations from undergraduate and taught postgraduate students at the University of Leeds We have not been able to gather examples from all schools. The module requirements for research projects may have changed since these examples were written. Refer to your module guidelines to make sure that you address all of the current assessment criteria. Some of the examples below are only available to access on campus.

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Students in the School of Economics at the University of Nottingham consistently produce work of a very high standard in the form of coursework essays, dissertations, research work and policy articles.

Below are some examples of the excellent work produced by some of our students. The authors have agreed for their work to be made available as examples of good practice.

Undergraduate dissertations

• The Causal Impact of Education on Crime Rates: A Recent US Analysis . Emily Taylor, BSc Hons Economics, 2022
• Does a joint income taxation system for married couples disincentivise the female labour supply? Jodie Gollop, BA Hons Economics with German, 2022
• Conditional cooperation between the young and old and the influence of work experience, charitable giving, and social identity . Rachel Moffat, BSc Hons Economics, 2021
• An Extended Literature Review on the Contribution of Economic Institutions to the Great Divergence in the 19th Century . Jessica Richens, BSc Hons Economics, 2021
• Does difference help make a difference? Examining whether young trustees and female trustees affect charities’ financial performance. Chris Hyland, BSc Hons Economics, 2021

Postgraduate dissertations

• The impact of Covid-19 on the public and health expenditure gradient in mortality in England . Alexander Waller, MSc Economic Development & Policy Analysis, 2022
• Impact of the Child Support Grant on Nutritional Outcomes in South Africa: Is there a ‘pregnancy support’ effect? . Claire Lynam, MSc Development Economics, 2022
• An Empirical Analysis of the Volatility Spillovers between Commodity Markets, Exchange Rates, and the Sovereign CDS Spreads of Commodity Exporters . Alfie Fox-Heaton, MSc Financial Economics, 2022
• The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season and Labour Market Transitions . Edward Allenby, MSc Economics, 2022
• The scope of international agreements . Sophia Vaaßen, MSc International Economics, 2022

Thank you to all those students who have agreed to have their work showcased in this way.

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Dissertation by Research Examples (MA and MSc)

Examples of previous dissertations on topics of hazard, risk and resilience. Many other options are possible to suit your interests.

Meteorological and climate change

• The Emergent Nature of UK Heatwaves: Identifying the Predictors of Risk Perception and Adaptive Behaviours Using the Health Belief Model
• An exploration into defining a heat-health season for Tokyo, Japan, using 15 years’ worth of daily climate and health data
• An Assessment of the Impact of El Niño Southern Oscillation on health in the Pacific Island Countries
• Hurricane Irma: Controls upon storm surge risk
• An investigation into the climatic influences on the spatial distribution of precipitation across the Guiana Shield
• Using satellite data to track tree mortality from drought events through analysis of canopy characteristics of beech forests
• An Investigation into the Effects of Climate Change on Flooding and Potential Mitigation through Natural Flood Management in Pendle Catchment
• Can sustainable urban drainage systems reduce flood risk
• Flood risk modelling: A Sensitivity Analysis of St Blazey, Cornwall.
• Spatial patterns of water routing and the connectivity of flood sources under projected climate change: implications for the management of future fluvial inundation risk in a north-west England (UK) river catchment
• Relationships between a rainfall-runoff model parameters and physical catchment characteristics for flood estimation in ungauged sites
• Urban Flood Risk Assessment: A Case Study of Edinburgh
• Hydrological Modelling of the Seti Catchment and Vulnerability Analysis of Pokhara City, Nepal
• Seismic Risk Assessment of Southern California: A Scenario Ensemble Model approach
• A Seismic Risk Assessment of Nepal
• Effect of Seismic Hazards on low-cost Mountain Roads
• Seismic vulnerability research on school buildings in greater Chengdu
• Ensemble Loss Modelling of Earthquakes in Java, Indonesia
• Landslide and debris flow impact to mountain roads in Nepal; consequences of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake
• Localising transient landslide rates
• Hazard mapping shallow landslides on the Isle of Wight
• Comparing Fuzzy Logic and the Factor of Safety to assess the Thirlmere-Helvellyn Landslides caused by Storm Desmond
• Understanding Data Quality within Tsunami Risk Maps of Vancouver, Canada
• Developing a windstorm map for La Reunion
• An investigation into the synoptic climatology that leads to tornadoes in the UK
• Climatic and Ecological Influences on Wildfire in the Great Basin: Understanding Risk and Predicting Future Change

Glacial-hazards

• Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Scenarios, Tsho Rolpa Lake, Nepal
• Hazard Assessment of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in the Shughnon District, south-eastern Tajikistan
• Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Hazard in the Tajik Pamir: An investigation of the Vanj Valley
• A Regional Scale, GIS-Based Investigation of the Risk Posed by GLOFs in the Central Swiss Alps
• An Assessment of the 2020 Chernobyl Power Plant Wildfire: Its Impacts and Predictability'
• A Critical Analysis of the Controversy Surrounding Subsidence Rates and the Implications on Coastal Policy in the Mississippi Delta

Fracking & Fossil Fuels

• An Environmental Risk Analysis of Hydraulic Fracturing
• Understanding the Risks associated with Oil and Gas exploration on the Environment: a case of the Albertine Graben, Uganda
• Modelling The Temporal and Spatial Variability of PM2.5 Pollution Risk in Xi’an, China
• A study of phosphorus flow and climate change using HBV-light
• Can global physiochemical data of volcanic ash be used to predict the characteristics of ash for future eruptions for respiratory health hazard assessment?
• Tropical Moist Deciduous Forest Cover Change in Bangladesh from 1974 to 2020: A Remote Sensing Approach
• Coastal Cliff Retreat Hazard Assessment in Norfolk - Spatial & Temporal Analysis Centred on the Extreme Winter Season of 2013-14
• Simulating Soil Erosion in Small-scale Watershed of Loess Plateau of China based on WEPP Model
• Exploring the Extension of Previous Shoreline Analysis Methods to Atoll Islands

Land-cover change

Multi-hazards

• Plugs and Floods: Assessing the Potential Hazard and Exposure of Coseismic Landslide Dam Outburst Floods in the Sindhupalchok District, Nepal
• The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant: Sea wall cost benefit analysis based on Earthquake/Tsunami recurrence intervals and sea level projections up to 2100

Vulnerability and Resilience

• Kashmir Earthquake- 2005: Private Housing Reconstruction in District Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan – A study of Owner Driven Approach
• Flood Risk and Resilience in the Greater Manchester area - A study of the impact on the elderly population
• An investigation into the impact of the equal vulnerability assumption
• The Roles of Indonesian NGOs in Building Community Resilience to Terrorism in Indonesia from 2012 to 2014
• Practical and innovative research for Community Flood Disaster Resilience Indicator System. A case Study of Walker, Newcastle
• Has the GPS-Tracking of Reindeer Enhanced the Resilience of Reindeer Husbandry in Northern Sweden?

Early warning systems

• Optimization of flood early warning system based on 2D Hydraulic Modelling—a case study of Morpeth, Northumberland
• Instrumenting Indigenous Knowledge: Low Cost Landslide Early Warning Systems in Nepal
• Increasing Flood Resilience in Pakistan: Strengthening Early Warning Systems in Muzaffargarh Punjab

Disaster Risk Management and Mitigation

• A Game Theoretic Approach to Disaster Risk Management
• Functionality of Open Spaces for Post-Earthquake Humanitarian Relief Activities in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
• Children’s Roles in Disaster Risk Reduction in the UK
• Colliding fields of risk: future based approaches to the intersection of disaster and disease
• Build Back Better: A Case-study of Reconstruction in Education Sector in Pakistan Administered Kashmir after the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake
• Risk and Resilience, and disaster risk management
• The Roles of District Government in Building Community Preparedness to Natural Disaster
• A gender perspective of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake disaster relief work and recommendations for future disaster management in China
• Putting the Sendai Framework to Work: Building Resilience Against Fire Hazards in Sinai Slums - Kenya Through Disaster Risk Reduction

General Risk Management

• Sea-Level Rise Related Risks in the United States and United Kingdom: An examination of the risk management process
• Evaluation of current practice to improve catchment and water management: The Case of Stung Pursat Catchment, Pursat Province, Cambodia
• Evaluating Exogenous Forces in Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study of Bandar Lampung, Indonesia
• Communications, Resilience and Disasters: A Case Study of Peru
• What Makes an Earthquake Interesting? An investigation into the controls on public attention towards earthquake events
• The Role of the Environment Agency’s Flood Hazard Maps in Flood Risk Communication
• Roles of Risk Communication in Risk Perception: A Case Study of the 2017 A/H7N9 Avian Influenza Outbreak in Human in China
• See it. Say it. Sorted.': The role of public vigilance campaigns in communicating risk and enacting responsibilisation
• Analysis of the change in the communication of risk within the media after a high impact natural event

Risk Communication

Risk Perception

• Secure the future from environment in urban city— study the risk perception in NCL city
• Humanitarian Workers' Experiences and Perceptions of Risk and Resilience
• Rethinking Flood Risk Perception and Communication, Lessons from Storm Desmond
• Perceptions of Risk Behaviour: Evaluating the links between Race and Risky Individuals in the American Education System

Participatory Research Methods

• A combined approach to assessing flood risk through quantitative, qualitative and participatory research methods: a case study of the Congresbury Yeo
• The Value of Physical Demonstration on Enhancing Earthquake Knowledge at Community Level in Nepal

Socio-economic

• Socio-Ecological Risks Associated With Oil and Gas Exploration, Drilling and Extraction in Albertine Region- Uganda
• Food vs. Fuel The Risks of Competing for Land Use
• An examination of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the socioeconomic interactions of the New Orleans Metro Statistical Area
• Risk, Security and Profit: The case of ENI's Oil Business Operations in Nigeria
• Analysis of the Socio-Economic Consequences of Storm Surge Inundation on the Wirral Peninsula
• Assessing the financial feasibility of flood risk reduction strategies for Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria
• Understanding the Relationship between Water Security and Poverty: The Case of Urban Slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh  
• From Risk to Opportunity: Climate Change and Flood Policy in Bangladesh
• An investigation into attitudes towards muslims in Britain

Geo-political

• Risk Imaginaries of War from the Cold War Nuclear Threat to the War
• A critical perspective on the use of foreign military assets in international disaster relief
• An analysis of immigration discourse in British Parliamentary Debate
• The Political Ecology of Highland Conflict: A Contextual Investigation into the Interrelationships between Scottish Grouse Moors, Peatlands and Climate Change
• Risk and the War on Terror: Securing Civil Aviation after 9/11
• Analysing the Risk of State Failure in Tajikistan: A Study of Economic, Political, and Religious Factors
• China-Kazakhstan Transboundary Water Governance Under the Framework of the Belt and Road Initiative: A case study of Horgos River
• The visualisation and analysis of maritime boundary delimitation from geographical and social perspectives
• Risk, Response and Responsibility: Civil Enrolment in World War Two and the 21st Century
• The future of the minority group in Hong Kong and resilience of the next generation
• Race and Security in Policing Risk Assessment Policies in England
• The Liberal Government of Fire on the London Underground through Risk and Uncertainty
• Uncertainty & Governance: An Analysis of the Global Risk Dashboard
• Risk & Activism in City Plaz
• Engineering and Anticipating Risk: Comparing the Impact of Machine Learning Algorithms and Big Data in Political Campaigns and Security Practices
• Creating the future: the impact of machine learning and data mining on risk and uncertainty
• Business Consulting and Big Data Analytics: A New Variant of Risk?
• More Than Face Value: An Exploration into the Emerging Use of Facial Recognition Technology Across the UK
• Rethinking Risk and Resilience through the Smart Grid - How the introduction of the ‘Smart Grid’ changes the approached to (critical) infrastructural and security
• Opportunities and risks of a new digital world: Is the smart grid an infrastructure of the Anthropocene?
• Governing the Cyborg: Social Media Data and the August Riots

Digital risks

Insurance and capital

• Donations from the economy to natural disasters (2006-2011)
• Governing people’s behaviours: A case study of garbage clinical insurance in Malang, Indonesia
• Safety in Numbers: An Evaluation of Regional Risk Pooling in the Caribbean
• Selling Sustainability: a Critical Evaluation of the Role of Sustainability & Climate Change Consultants in Developing a Business Case to Go Green. A PWC Study
• The Financialization of Climate Change Security
• Disasters and their Relationship with the Insurance Cycle
• Social Vulnerability to Flood Risk in the Fenland Basin: Refining the Approach to Index Construction
• Insurance and business
• Explore the impacts of the Flood Insurance Reform on Housing Market across the Vulnerable Communities
• Insurance – A Technology of Power? A Critical Analysis of Climate Risk Insurance in the Context of the Developing World
• The Insurance Industry: Governing through Data
• The relationship between state and insurance industry: a comparison of UK and China's flood insurance systems
• Bridging the Urban/Rural Divide: Investigating the Role of Social Capital in Trinidad and Tobago - A Case Study of two areas
• The Social and Political Implications of the Securitisation of Europe in Reaction to the Migrant Crisis: An Investigation
• Lockdown London? Reviewing the Security, Surveillance Practices, and Legacies of the London 2012 Olympic Games
• Safe Enough to Shop: The Commercialisation of Airport Border Security
• A Neo Liberal Approach to Security? Micro and Macro Politics of Kidnap and Ransom Insurance
• Proportionality in the UK legislative response to terrorism 2001-2005: Rule of Law v ‘Rule of Risk’
• Counter Terrorism Risk Governance: Forecasting Unkniwns Through Online Social Network Analysis
• Securitisation Theory and Migration: The response of FRONTEX to the migrant crisis
• The Construction of Risk in Britain's EU Referendum
• The No-Fly List: an apparatus of disciminatory punishments masquarading as an 'inconvenience'
• Factors Influencing Individuals Risk Preparedness: A Case Study of flash flood Management in Sultanate of Oman
• Building Climate Change Resilience: The engagement of communities in the French Alps with the building of climate change resilience in alpine tourism
• The London Urban Heat Island: Investigations of the Relationship between Urban Heat and Mortality
• Flood Risks and Children with Disabilities in the United Kingdom: Insights from York
• Visual Impairment in England: An Analysis of Socioeconomic Risk Inequalities
• Analysis on potential influencing factors of sex difference in childhood obesity in Guangdong Province, China
• Ecological Niche Model for Phlebotomus orientalis (Diptera: Psychodidae) under climate change scenarios: Risk Map for Visceral Leishmaniasis in Sudan
• Health Inequalities among Residents with Different Household Registration Status in Wuhan,China and the Impacts of Hukou Institution upon it
• Socio-economic factors affecting the knowledge, awareness and risk of snake bite in India taking the case study of Jasdan Taluka
• Understanding of Temporal and Spatial Variability of PM2.5 pollution and health risk in Tianjin, China
• Child Marriage in Nepal: Risks and Consequences on Reproductive Health of Women
• Lived experiences of the healthcare workers sustaining needle stick injuries in the hospital setting in Palpa, Nepal
• Socio-economic risk imbalance for the Deaf community in England
• Maternal and Child Health Services in Nepal: Analysis of Absolute and Relative Inequalities and Impacts of Current Efforts to Address Disparities
• Risk factors associated with hospitalization due to diarrhoeal disease in children aged 2-59 months at Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Kabul, Afghanistan

Economics MSc

1 year full-time, starting in september 2025.

Develop your understanding of the core tools and approaches needed to be a professional economist or to progress to doctoral study.

Our MSc Economics course will provide you with rigorous training in the three main strands of economics:

• microeconomics
• macroeconomics
• econometrics

Alongside these core topics, you will be able to explore specialist areas to enhance your skills around your interests and career aspirations. These include:

• macroeconomic or public policy economics
• investment decision-making
• environmental and behavioural economics
• machine learning methods in economics

Watch our webinar about this course

Dissertation or consultancy project

The course culminates with either a traditional dissertation or a consultancy project.

Dissertation

You can choose to do a dissertation on an economic area that interests you or that is most useful in your career. This will allow you to apply your newly acquired knowledge to a specific problem or debate.

Consultancy project

The consultancy project is practical an alternative to the dissertation. You’ll work on a project with an external organisation, helping them to address a real-world business challenge. You’ll conduct appropriate research and data analysis (if necessary), before presenting your findings as a written report and presentation.

Consultancy project numbers are limited each year. You’ll apply for a suitable project with one of our external partners and will receive support from us during this process. If a suitable project can’t be secured, you will complete a dissertation instead.

Find out more about consultancy projects

Learn from experts in the field

You’ll learn from experts in the core strands of economics, as well as a diverse range of specialist sub-areas. Their passion, knowledge and industry expertise shape their teaching to enhance your learning experience.

Use specialist facilities

You’ll have access to some of the latest industry-standard statistical, mathematical and econometric software in our computer labs, including EViews, Stata, Matlab and Python.

Access to top-tier international databases, including our Bloomberg Terminals, will allow you to access up-to-the-minute data on real-world trends to enhance your learning experience.

Gain important career skills

On successful completion of the course, you will be able to:

• analyse economic and financial data and critically evaluate existing research
• understand the key issues surrounding major economic debates and contribute to these
• apply economic concepts to specific economic and social policy questions
• formulate an original research question and write at an academic level

We limit student numbers on this course to ensure a collegiate atmosphere and a high degree of interaction between students and lecturers.

Graduate prospects

This course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and abilities required to secure work as a professional economist in government, research units or commercial enterprises. It also provides suitable preparation for doctoral study and future careers in academia.

Recent graduates have gone on to work in a number of different roles within economics across the world. These include:

• Principal Case Officer, Competition and Markets Authority (UK)
• Economic Advisor, Department for Education (UK)
• Chief Analyst, Enterprise Lithuania
• Senior Tax Consultant, KPMG (Kazakhstan)
• Investment Manager, private equity company (Czech Republic)
• Director, Regional Sector Research, Emirates NBD Global Markets and Treasury Department (United Arab Emirates)

Others have chosen to continue their careers in academia.

2024/25 Academic Year

Before you apply for a course, please check the website for the most recently published course detail. If you apply to the University of Bath, you will be advised of any significant changes to the advertised programme, in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.

We understand that you will want to know more about the shape of the academic year. We work hard and plan for different scenarios, to be able to welcome you to the University of Bath at the start of each semester.

• Course structure

Occasionally we make changes to our programmes in response to, for example, feedback from students, developments in research and the field of studies, and the requirements of accrediting bodies. You will be advised of any significant changes to the advertised programme, in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.

During Semester 2, you will take part in timetabled sessions designed to prepare you for your dissertation or consultancy project project. You will complete your dissertation or consultancy project during the summer after Semester 2.

Compulsory units

Econometrics, macroeconomics, microeconomics.

You'll choose 20 credits of optional units.

Advanced economic theory

Optional units, behavioural economics, economics of banking and financial institutions, economics of politics, environmental and natural resource economics, financial econometrics, introduction to programming and machine learning applications in economics and finance, investment banking, macroeconomic policy and institutions, public policy analysis.

You’ll complete a dissertation or Practice Track project.

Master’s dissertation

• Learning and assessment

You’ll be taught and assessed by a variety of methods and it will vary between units. These methods are designed to promote in-depth learning and understanding of the subject.

These lists are to give you an idea of some, but not all, of the learning and assessment methods used on this course. They are not exhaustive lists and methods are subject to change.

Learning and teaching

You are expected to spend approximately 35 hours per week studying. Around 15-17 of these hours will be in structured classes, depending on your choice of optional units.

These classes will be made up of a combination of lectures, seminars, computer lab sessions, and workshops. You will work as an individual and part of small groups.

Assessment breakdown

You will experience a balance of different forms of assessment designed to support your professional development. This will include examinations, such as multiple choice or short answer tests; coursework, which can be in the form of essays or projects requiring data analysis; presentations; and a dissertation or consultancy project. You will receive formative (unassessed) feedback on your progress in preparation for your graded assessments.

We can make reasonable adjustments to assessment procedures for students with disabilities. Read our Disability Service’s pages for information.

Recognition of professional qualifications

As well as being recognised as a higher academic qualification, a number of our degrees are also accredited by professional bodies in the United Kingdom. An accredited degree may entitle you to work in a specific profession within the UK, and abroad (where there are reciprocating arrangements with professional bodies in other countries).

The requirements to practise a profession vary from country to country. If you wish to practise your profession outside the United Kingdom, you are advised to confirm that the UK professional qualification you seek is valid in the country in which you are intending to work.

‘Economics and studying in Bath gave me a global outlook. All of my combined experiences motivated me to find solutions for affordable housing in the future.’

• Entry requirements

Origin of qualifications

British qualifications.

You should have a bachelor’s honours degree or international equivalent, typically a 2:1 or above.

To apply for this course, you should have an undergraduate degree in either economics, business or an appropriate quantitative subject such as engineering, computer science, mathematics or physics.

You are also expected to have successfully completed at least five quantitative units such as microeconomics, econometrics, macroeconomics, statistics, probability, algebra, calculus, data analysis, game theory, operational research, or financial engineering.

We may make an offer based on a lower grade if you can provide evidence of your suitability for the degree.

If your first language is not English but within the last 2 years you completed your degree in the UK you may be exempt from our English language requirements.

English language requirements

• IELTS: 6.5 overall with no less than 6.0 in all components
• The Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic): 62 with no less than 59 in any element
• TOEFL IBT: 90 overall with a minimum 21 in all 4 components

You will need to get your English language qualification within 24 months prior to starting your course.

If you need to improve your English language skills before starting your studies, you may be able to take a pre-sessional course to reach the required level.

Sri Lankan qualifications

You should have a four-year Bachelor degree (Special or Honours) or a Bachelor degree (Professional) with a final overall result of at least 60%.

Filipino qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (awarded from 2022 onwards) or a Master’s degree from a prestigious institution with a final overall score of 1.75 on a 5-point scale (where 1 is the highest mark) or 3.0 out of 4.0.

Ugandan qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least Class II Upper or GPA 4.0 on a 5-point scale.

Algerian qualifications

You should have a Licence, Diplôme in any specialised professional field, Diplôme d'Ingênieur, Diplôme d'Architecte d'État or Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures with a final overall score of at least 14 out of 20.

Slovene qualifications

You should have a Diploma o pridobljeni univerzitetni izobrazbi (University Degree), Diplomant or Univerzitetni diplomant with a final overall result of at least 8 out of 10 (prav dobro/very good).

South African qualifications

You should have a Bachelor Honours degree, Professional Bachelor degree or Baccalaureus Technologiae (Bachelor of Technology) with a final overall result of at least Second Class (Division One) or 70%.

Cambodian qualifications

You should have a Master’s degree from a recognised degree-awarding institution with a final overall result of at least 80%.

Chinese qualifications

You should have a four-year Bachelor degree with a final overall score of at least 75-80% depending on the institution attended.

Bangladeshi qualifications

You should have a Master's degree (following a 3 or 4 year Bachelor degree) with a final overall grade of at least 3.2 out of 4.0 (65% or B+). We may also consider a Bachelor of Architecture when studied for at least five years, or a Bachelor of Engineering when recognised by the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB) or accredited by the Board of Accreditation for Engineering and Technical Education (BAETE).

Brazilian qualifications

You should have a Titulo de Bacharel, Titulo de [subject area] or Licenciado/a with a final overall result of at least 7.5 out of 10.

Mexican qualifications

You should have a Título de Licenciado or Título (Profesional) de [subject area] with a final overall result of least 8 out of 10.

Colombian qualifications

You should have a Licenciado en, Titulo de, Profesional en, Maestro en or Diploma de [subject area] with a final overall result of at least 3.8.

Zimbabwean qualifications

You should have a Bachelor Honours degree with a final overall result of at least Upper Second Division (65%).

Bulgarian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least 5 out of 6.

French qualifications

You should have a Grade de licence / Grade de licence professionnelle with a final overall result of at least 13 out of 20.

Ghanaian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of Upper Second Class (60% or 3.25 on a 4-point scale).

Cypriot qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Ptychio) with a final overall result of at least 6.5 out of 10.

Italian qualifications

You should have a Laurea, Laurea in Ingegneria / Architettura, Diploma Accademico di Primo Livello, Diploma di Mediatore Linguistico or Licenza di Academia di Belle Arti with a final result of at least 102 out of 110.

Indian qualifications

Typically, you should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least First Class. However, due to the number of different grading scales in use, we ask that you upload a copy of the grading scale used by your institution, along with your transcript, when you submit your application.

If you have graduated within the last 5 years from an Indian university where the medium of instruction is English and have achieved the required level of English in your Indian 12th Standard examinations, we may be able to assess your English. More information can be found here .

Chilean qualifications

You should have a Grado de Licenciado with a final overall result of at least 5.5 on a 7-point scale.

Belgian qualifications

You should have a Bachelier, Licencié or Licentiaat and other two cycle diplomas with a final overall score of at least 16 out of 20.

Czech qualifications

You should have a Bakalár (Bachelor degree) with a final overall score of 1.5 on a 1-4 scale or Grade B. Please contact us if your institution uses a different grading scale.

Spanish qualifications

You should have a Título Universitario Oficial de Licenciado en (subject area) (Licenciatura), Título Universitario Oficial de Graduado en (subject area) (Grado), Título de Ingeniero or Título de Arquitecto with a final overall result of at least 7 out of 10 (Notable/Very Good).

Singaporean qualifications

You should have a strong Bachelor (Honours) degree when studied at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore Institute of Technology or Singapore University of Social Sciences with a final overall result of at least Second Class (Upper) Honours, or a strong Bachelor degree when studied at Singapore Management University (SMU) or Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Typically, we require a final overall result of at least Second Class (Upper) Honours, 60% or B, however we ask that you upload a copy of the grading scale used by your institution, along with your transcript, when you submit your application due to the range of grading scales used by different institutions.

Australian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor Honours degree with a final result of at least Second Class (Upper Division) or a Bachelor degree with a final result of Distinction or higher.

Austrian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree or Fachhochschuldiplom/Diplom (FH) with a final result of at least Gut.

Nigerian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least Second Class Honours (Upper Division).

Irish qualifications

You should have a Honours Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least Second Class Honours (Grade I).

Canadian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Honours) or Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least CGPA 3.0 on a 4-point scale (B or 70%). Please contact us if your institution uses a different grading scale.

Croatian qualifications

You should have a Baccalaureus or Baccalaurea with a final overall result of at least 4 out of 5.

Syrian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Licence/Al-ijâza) with a final overall result of at least 70-80% depending on the institution attended.

Danish qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree, Candidatus Philosophiae, Diplomingeniør (Engineer), Professionsbachelor (Professional Bachelor degree) or Korrespondenteksamen with a final overall result of at least 7 out of 10.

Taiwanese qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least 75%.

Albanian qualifications

You should have a Diplomë Bachelor or a Master i Shkencave with a final overall result of at least 8 out of 10. Please contact us if your institution uses a different grading scale.

Nepali qualifications

You should have a four-year Bachelor degree from a recognised university, or a Master's degree following a three-year or four-year Bachelor degree, with a final overall result of at least 65% or 3.25/4.0.

Tunisian qualifications

You should have a Licence, Maîtrise, Diplôme National d'Ingénieur, Diplôme National d'Architecture with a final overall result of at least 14 out of 20 (Bien).

Israeli qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least 80%.

Jamaican qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least Second Class (Upper).

Japanese qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Gakushi) with a final overall result of at least 3.0 out of 4.0 (B).

Kazakhstani qualifications

You should have a Bakalavr (Bachelor degree) or Specialist Diploma with a final overall result of at least 4.3 on a 5-point scale or 3.2 on a 4-point scale.

American qualifications

You should have an Honors Bachelor degree or Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least CGPA 3.0 on a 4-point scale.

Swedish qualifications

You should have a Kandidatexamen (Bachelor Degree) or Yrkesexamen (Professional Bachelor degree) with a final overall result of at least Grade B. Please contact us if your institution uses a different grading scale.

Swiss qualifications

You should have a Bachelor Degree (Baccalauréat Universitaire) with a final overall result of at least 5 out of 6.

Jordanian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of Very Good or GPA 3.0 on a 4-point scale.

Emirati qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least 3 out of 4, 80% or B.

Hungarian qualifications

You should have an Alapfokozt (Bachelor degree) or Egyetemi Oklevél (University Diploma) with an overall final result of 4 out of 5.

Hong Kongese qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Honours) with a final overall result of Second Class (Division 1) Honours or 3.0 out of 4.0.

Finnish qualifications

You should have a Kandidaatti / Kandidat (University Bachelor Degree), (Professional Title) (AMK/YH) (Bachelor degree from a University of Applied Sciences), Arkkitehti / Arktitekt / Diplomi-insööri / Diplomingenör / Proviisori / Provisor with a final overall result of at least 3.5 on a 5-point scale.

Icelandic qualifications

You should have a Baccalaureus or Candidatus/a with an overall final result of at least 7.25 on a 10-point scale.

Indonesian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Sarjana I) with a final overall result of at least 3.0 out of 4.0.

Iranian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor's degree or Professional Doctorate with a final overall result of at least 14 out of 20 when studied at a state university and 15 out of 20 when studied at a private university.

Kenyan qualifications

Lithuanian qualifications.

You should have a Bakalauro Diplomas or Profesinis Bakalauras with an overall final result of at least 8 out of 10.

Malawian qualifications

You should have a Master's degree with a final overall result of at least 70%.

Ukrainian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (awarded after 2007) or Specialist Diploma with a final result of at least 80% or 3.5 on a 4-point scale. Please contact us if your institution uses a different grading scale.

Norwegian qualifications

You should have a Bachelorgrad (Bachelor degree), Candidatus/a Magisterii, Sivilingeniør or Siviløkonom with a final overall result of at least B.

Other qualifications

We welcome applications from graduates from all countries so if you can’t see your country in the list, please contact our admissions team for advice about your specific entry requirements.

Malaysian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least Second Class (Division 1).

Turkish qualifications

You should have a Lisans Diplomasi (Bachelor degree) or Mühendis Diplomasi with a final overall score of at least GPA 2.8-3.0 on a 4-point scale, depending on the institution you have attended.

Tanzanian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least Upper Second (Very Good, B+ or GPA 3.5 on a 5-point scale).

Thai qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least CGPA 3.0.

Portuguese qualifications

You should have a Licenciado with a final overall result of at least 15 out of 20.

Dutch qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree or Doctoraal with a final overall result of at least 7 out of 10.

Bolivian qualifications

You should have a Licenciado or Titulo de [subject area] with a final overall result of at least 75%.

Saudi Arabian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least 3.5 on a 5-point scale or 3.0 on a 4-point scale.

Kuwaiti qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (البكالوريوس) with a final overall result of 3.2 on a 4-point scale.

Greek qualifications

You should have a University Bachelor degree (Ptychio) or Diploma with a final overall score of at least 6.5 out of 10.

Egyptian qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree from a university with a final overall result of at least 75% (Very Good) or 3.0 on a 4-point scale.

Estonian qualifications

You should have a Bakalaurusekraad (Bachelor degree), Diplomeeritud spetsialisti ülikoolidiplom/Kraadita Diploma (University Specialist's Diploma) or Rakenduskõrgharidusõppe Diplom (Professional Higher Education Diploma) with a final overall result of at least 4 on a 5-point scale (B).

German qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree, Erste Staatsprüfung (Primarstufe / Sekundarstufe I), Fachhochschuldiplom / Diplom (FH) or Magister Artium with a final overall result of at least 2.5 (Gut).

Romanian qualifications

You should have a Diplomă de Licență (Bachelor degree), Diplomă de Inginer or Diplomă de Urbanist Diplomat with a final overall result of at least 8 out of 10.

Russian qualifications

You should have a Diplom Bakalavra (Bachelor degree) or Specialist Diploma with an overall final result of at least 4 out of 5 (khorosho/good).

South Korean qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Haksa) with a final overall result of at least 3.0 out of 4.3 or 3.5 out of 4.5.

New Zealander qualifications

You should have a Bachelor Honours degree or Bachelor degree with a final overall result of at least B+/B or 6 on a 9-point scale.

Vietnamese qualifications

You should have a Bachelor degree (Bằng Tốt Nghiệp Đại Học/Bằng Cử Nhân) of at least four years or a Master’s degree (Thạc sĩ) from a recognised degree-awarding institution with a final overall result of at least 7.0 on a 10-point scale.

Macedonian qualifications

You should have a Baccalaureus/Baccalaurea (Bachelor degree) with a final overall result of at least 9 out of 10.

Polish qualifications

You should have a Licencjat or Inżynier (Bachelor degree) with a final overall result of at least 4.5 on a 5-point scale.

• Fees and funding

Fees and funding information for Economics MSc full-time

Your tuition fees and how you pay them will depend on whether you are a Home or Overseas student.

Tuition fees

See the most recent fees for postgraduate courses .

Extra costs

There is a one off £60 application fee for this course, payable through the online store .

If you receive an offer, you will need to pay a non-refundable deposit of £1,000 when you accept to secure your place. This will be deducted from your tuition fee when you register.

If you choose the consultancy project option, you may need to budget for travel expenses and accommodation.

Tuition fee loans

If you are studying a postgraduate course, you may be able to take out a loan for your tuition fees and living costs.

Scholarships and bursaries

You could be considered for a bursary or scholarship to help you study at Bath. You do not have to pay it back.

Other payment options

You can pay your tuition fees by Direct Debit, debit card, credit card or bank transfer. You may also be eligible for a student loan to help you pay your fees.

You will need to budget at least £100 for the cost of photocopying, printing and binding. You will also need to budget for the cost of textbooks.

Some courses involve visits away from campus and you may be required to pay some or all of the costs of travel, accommodation and food and drink.

If you’re on a placement, you’re responsible for your own travel, accommodation and living costs. You should also consider the financial implications if you go on an unpaid or overseas placement.

• Application information
• Course title Economics
• Final award MSc
• Mode of study Full-time
• Course code TDUES-EC01
• Department Department of Economics
• Location University of Bath Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY

We recommend you apply early as we may close applications before the deadline if a course is full.

We recommend you apply early as we may close applications before the deadline if a course is full. We may consider late applications but if you need a Student Visa to study in the UK, you will need time to apply for and receive your visa to be in the UK by the start of the course.

• Application eligibility Home and Overseas students are eligible to apply
• Regulator The Office for Students (OfS)
• Course enquiries
• Related courses
• Applied Economics MSc – 1 years full-time
• Applied Economics with Banking and Financial Markets MSc – 1 years full-time
• Applied Economics (Banking and Financial Markets) MSc – 2 years online, minimum 2 years 6 months
• Economics MRes – 1 years full-time
• Economics and Finance MSc – 1 years full-time
• Accounting and Finance MSc – 1 years

On this page

• Course changes for 2025/26
• Recognition of Professional Qualifications

Enhance your ability to develop logical and rigorous economics arguments, and use mathematical techniques to construct and interpret economic models.

This unit is split into microeconomic and macroeconomic parts.

microeconomics will focus on the behaviour of economic agents

macroeconomics will focus on the analytical properties of modern dynamic macroeconomic models and their related policy applications.

Through both areas you will engage with key research articles.

Study how to develop models that are motivated by empirical evidence of individual behaviour rather than assumptions about rationality. 

You'll gain a critical appreciation of the theoretical tools used in these relatively new but increasingly important areas of economics. This unit will help you to develop skills that you can use in a variety of applied economic contexts.

The Consultancy Project will allow you to apply your skills to a project with one of our partner organisations.

Your project will focus on a theoretical or empirical topic within economics or finance. You'll do this under the guidance of academic and company supervisors.

Through your other units, you'll learn how to engage with academic literature in a systematic manner. This will give you the skills to plan, undertake, and evaluate your own project.

Work with real world economic data and learn about the various ways it can be used to explore relationships between economic variables.

You'll develop knowledge of methods that can be applied to data from experiments, as well as data drawn from the economy without the intervention of an experiment (observational data).

Learn about the economics of financial intermediation, with a focus on banking.

You'll explore market frictions and the fundamental roles of financial institutions and markets that address them. Throughout the unit, you'll give special attention to:

• banks and their special features (such as financial stability, risk shifting and competition, regulation)
• financing techniques (including securitisation)

You'll also study the changing roles of these topics in financial intermediation.

Study how to apply introductory microeconomic theory to the analysis of political behaviour.

You'll explore the extent to which a rational choice model can provide insights into political behaviour and political institutions. This will allow you to critically analyse the links between economic theory and political science.

Develop a good understanding of the main concepts utilised by economists to inform decisions around environmental management.

You'll gain an appreciation of the extent to which real-life environmental challenges can be better understood through the insights offered by economic analysis.

You'll also study a range of environmental issues across local, national and global scales, and explore how economics can support the management of these issues.

Learn how to use econometric methods for testing asset pricing theories and modelling a variety of features in financial markets.

You'll study the techniques needed for empirical investigation in financial economics. This will help you to gain a better understanding of crucial concepts like risk, return, and prediction.

Throughout this unit, you will focus on how to apply the models you'll learn about to real financial data and contemporary developments in applied financial research.

Study the principles of programming and methods of machine learning.

You'll gain practical skills in:

• reading and writing programmes
• producing programmes to solve real-world problems, primarily in the machine learning domain

You'll also explore the relevance of taught machine learning methods to economics and finance.

Enhance your understanding of investment banks and how they provide advice to their clients in capital market transactions.

You'll gain an understanding of how the interests of investment banks and their clients are not always aligned and how that impacts the advice given. You'll also learn about the consequences of these conflicts of interest and employment practices in investment banks.

Study how macroeconomic policy is designed and conducted in theory and in practice.

You'll learn about key areas of policy intervention and trade-offs, including short-run and long-run policy interventions. These will cover areas like:

• monetary policy
• fiscal policy
• policies promoting growth

This will enhance your knowledge of policy objectives and allow you to explore the tools and strategies used by actors and institutions in charge of achieving those objectives.

Explore macroeconomic theory and develop the skills required to be a professional economist.

You'll gain the knowledge needed to discuss policy implications affecting the level of, and fluctuations in, macroeconomic variables like:

• consumption
• interest rates

You'll also study how empirical observations have informed the design of macroeconomic models and examine how recent advances in macroeconomic theory are able to inform policymakers.

The dissertation option is your opportunity to apply and extend the skills developed during your taught units.

Your dissertation must focus on a theoretical or empirical topic. You'll complete it under the guidance of an academic supervisor.

You will learn to engage with academic literature in a systematic manner, which will advance your ability to plan, undertake, and evaluate a research project in economics or finance.

Develop advanced knowledge of the theory and techniques of microeconomic analysis, and prepare for specialised study of economics.

You'll learn how to present decision-making situations and strategic interactions as mathematical problems, and how to subsequently solve those problems. You'll also develop your understanding of theoretical benchmarks for comparative analysis and practical comparisons.

Learn about how to evaluate public policies. You'll explore policies in the context of initial aims and end results.

Throughout the unit, you'll study how applied economic tools can be used to evaluate public policies, using real-world case studies in the fields of:

• environment
• labour markets
• transport safety

You'll need a basic understanding of microeconomics and econometrics to complete this unit.