Conference and seminar sessions in Student research and dissertations

Open versus structured research environment in undergraduate Economics: A case study from the University of Southampton

Undergraduate research provides opportunities to learn in depth about a particular topic. Nowadays, many undergraduate programmes in Economics make an extensive effort in offering the possibility to conduct research. In some programmes, the undergraduate dissertation is a core component, while in others it is an option chosen or offered to a selected group of students. Which kind of support is required to undertake an independent research project? In some cases, qualitative comments suggest that a dissertation may be a very demanding task to undertake at undergraduate level. In 2015/16, the Department of Economics at the University of Southampton introduced some important changes in the organization and assessment of the undergraduate dissertation. The changes have been implemented to facilitate an effective way to develop a research project in a short time frame. First, we introduced specific research topics and guidance on how to access the relevant data. Second, we anticipated the preparation of the research project by allowing an earlier on supervisee-supervisor allocation. Third, we changed and increased one of the summative components. All measures, aimed at improving the student experience, allowed for an increase in the structure of the undergraduate research project. In this paper, we investigate the impact of those changes on finalists’ performance. In particular, we compare an open topic versus a structured dissertation and we test the hypothesis that, at undergraduate level, a more structured approach to research improves students’ performance. Preliminary results confirm the hypothesis.

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