Postgraduate Course: Research Project Proposal (QGGA) (PGBI11106)

Course Outline
School	School of Biological Sciences	College	College of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	Preparation for the MSc Project is an important component of MSc Programmes. This course will focus on the development of a project outline, usually provided by the supervisor, into a full project proposal with evaluation of datasets, hypotheses and power calculations as appropriate. This course is a replacement for PGBI 11007 Mini Research Project
Course description	Teaching methods to be used: * Lecture (1) * Tutorials (2) (or as assessed as appropriate by the supervisor) * Self-learning Preparation for the MSc Project is an important component of MSc Programmes. However, the QGGA Exam Board found that in some cases MSc Projects recently taken by high-performing students have not offered sufficient scope to demonstrate excellence, either through limitations in the size or the quality of the data available, or because the time required for the student to become familiar with the specific methodology has put them under pressure. Earlier allocation of students to their main projects, followed up by the development of the student of this Project Proposal will allow the Exam Board to review the adequacy of MSc Projects at its May meeting. To date, the QGGA students have all undertaken a 10 credit Mini Research Project in Semester 2 to expose students to individual research, which has not been related to their main MSc Project. This will be replaced by the course proposed here.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 1, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 92 )
Additional Information (Learning and Teaching)	Most of the time committed will be in independent study
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 80 %, Practical Exam 20 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	The course will be assessed by a presentation (20%) and a scientific report taking the style of a research proposal (Ģ3500 words).
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
The students will be able to: * Critically evaluate the research literature * Develop a structured research proposal * Evaluate relevant methodologies * Assess datasets, perform power calculations * Write a detailed scientific report