Unit Guide

General Information

Unit convenor and teaching staff	Unit convenor and teaching staff Abhaya Nayak abhaya.nayak@mq.edu.au
Credit points	Credit points 80
Prerequisites	Prerequisites
Corequisites	Corequisites
Co-badged status	Co-badged status
Unit description	Unit description The 800-level components of the Master of Research are not designed around units. The thesis together with four core research activities form a single coherent research unit based on individual research plans and will consists of the following: 1. Research Frontiers 2: you will attend a number of department or faculty-run sessions and engage in a program of activities developing your knowledge of the sub-disciplinary field in which you want to situate your own research 2. Literature Review: you will attend sessions explaining how researchers in your field engage with previous research literature, and produce a draft of your own literature review for your thesis 3. Research Methods: with other students and led by academic staff, you will develop the research methods you will use in your research project 4. Research Planning: through a combination of group sessions and individual work with your supervision team, you will develop a plan for a large scale research project, part of which will be completed in the MRes 5. Thesis: you will complete a small research project, and write it up in a short thesis of about 20,000 words.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

ULO1: Formulate a research question that has the potential to make original contributions within their research field
ULO2: Research and compose a comprehensive and critical literature review in a specific research area centered around a research question.
ULO4: Use well-developed judgement to undertake research ethically and responsibly at the highest professional standards
ULO3: Conduct independent scholarly research in your field or discipline following well-established research methodology within their research field.
ULO5: Undertake a qualitative or quantitative analysis of the data collected, identify and apply appropriate research methods for the research question at hand, inclusive of critical reasoning, argumentation and justification.
ULO6: Write a significant research thesis of 20,000 words with a professional presentation

General Assessment Information

The three main assessment tasks -- Project Planning, Research Methods and Literature Review -- involve submission of reports via TurnItIn, will receive a 'Satisfactory' (50% mark) or 'Non-Satisfactory' (0% mark) -- grade. These are formative assessments, and intended to contribute to the thesis that the student will finally submit. Students receive verbal feedback on their work, and will need to obtain a satisfactory grade in each of these components. The Research Frontiers 2 and and Thesis are separately assessed.

Being cognizant of the different needs of research students, and of the different nature of this unit, student requests for late submission are decided on a case-by-case basis by the convenor. Students are encouraged to directly contact the convenor for this purpose.

Assessment Tasks

Name	Weighting	Hurdle	Due
Project planning	0%	No	Week 4
Research Methods	0%	No	Week 10
Literature Review	0%	No	Week 13
Research Frontiers 2	10%	No	Mid-November (TBC)
Thesis	90%	No	May 2024

Project planning

Assessment Type ¹: Plan
Indicative Time on Task ²: 10 hours
Due: Week 4
Weighting: 0%

The objective is to provide training in project management, and planning of a major research project. A brief project plan & budget will be developed.