Introduction
The purpose of conducting dissertation and thesis programs in stages is to enable students to be assessed as passing each stage before they may progress to the next stage. (For purposes of brevity, the following text uses the term dissertation to include both dissertations and theses.)
This generally benefits both students and institutions. Students benefit by getting adequate supervision to maximize their chances of successful completion, and cannot be left for long on a path that would lead to failure. The benefit for institutions is that students are easier to supervise and have a higher pass rate while making more efficient use of staff, and using automated administrative systems.
However, the possibilities for stages are varied. The following three chapters contain different views of what those stages might be.
The challenge
Compare the three different views and decide on only one series of stages that offers optimum benefit to both students and their institutions.
Version 2
Depending on the field of study, all dissertations comprise five chapters:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Literature review
- Chapter 3: Methodology
- Chapter 4: Analysis
- Chapter 5: Conclusion
The stages of the research program are as follows:
- Prospectus
- The prospectus is typically a short version of a proposal, usually about ten pages. It contains a research problem, a specific, narrowed version of the problem to be researched, a brief literature review, and a proposed methodology. It norally goes through several revisions based on comments recieved.
- Two matters are critical. The first is the choice of a suitable topic. The second is construct validity, that is the consistency between the specific statement of the research problem, the specific research question, the purpose statement, the central hypothesis (if used), the proposed title, and the methodology.
- Proposal
- The full proposal is a more complete statement and is an early version of the first, second, and third chapters.
- University Research Review (URR)
- The institution's body for research oversight assesses the proposal against a rubric, and approves supervison and quality control.
- Oral proposal defense
- Students present their full proposal to the committee for approval.
- Institutional Review Board (IRB)
- Students submit their ethics proposal to the IRB, which reviews research methods to ensure that they are ethical. (This is mandatory in the US.)
- Research
- Student gathers data in the field.
- Data analysis
- Repeat with chapter 4 & 5.
- Approved by:
- The supervisory committee
- University Research Review (URR) committee
- Form & Style (Checks the document for layout, language, referencing style, etc.)
- Final oral defense Upon passing this stage, the doctoral candidate is often addressed as
Dr
even though the process in not completely finished.
- Signature of Chief Academic Officer (CAO) This is necessary, but is not part of the student's academic program. It initiates the graduation procedure.
Version 3
With thanks to Dr. B. Roberton
To complete a full research project, this schedule requires three semesters (Semester 1, Semester 2, and Semester 3). It's more creative because periods of individual study are interspersed with residential meetings attended by students and the cohort supervisor.
Residentials
- List of residentials: Semester 1
- Ethics submission completed Approval granted by end of residential 2
- Dissertation proposal workshop
- Preliminary research proposal and background literature
- Review and preliminary literature review
- Draft methodology (Plan)
- List of residentials: Semester 2
- Draft literature chapter
- Preliminary implementation review (Implementation)
- Independent work to complete the research
- Oral presentation: Progress report to peers
Assessments
- Semester 1
- Draft research proposal
- Final research proposal
- Draft literature review
- Preparatory chapters of Literature Review and Methodology. (End of semester
- Semester 2
- Draft methodology
- Preliminary chapters of Literature Review, Methodology (end of semester).
- End of Semester 3
- Final assessment
- Oral presentation
Version 4
This version is unashamedly a rationale based on the first three versions:
- Application
The student nominates a field of interest in his/her application to the dissertation program.
- Topic
Under the guidance of the supervisor, the student develops their ideas, and chooses, narrows, and defines their topic through focussed reading. The student can also be required to write an annotated bibliography.
- Prospectus
The prospectus is typically a short version of a proposal. It contains a research problem, a specific, narrowed version of the problem to be researched, a brief literature review, and a proposed methodology. It is a miniature version of the first three chapters. It might change as critique normally results in several revisions.
Two matters are critical. The first is the choice of a suitable topic. The second is construct validity, that is consistency between the specific statement of the research problem, the specific research question, the purpose statement, the central hypothesis (if used), the proposed title, and the methodology.
The committee assesses the prospectus.
- Write a full proposal
The full proposal is a more complete statement and is an early version of the first, second, and third chapters. It typically contains background to the research problem, a literature review, a theoretical framework, a statement of the significance of the research, a definition of the research population, a methodology, an ethics statement, and a schedule of activities.
Students present their full proposal to the committee in written form and an oral defense for approval.
- Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Students submit their ethics proposal to the IRB, which reviews research methods to ensure that they are ethical.
- Preparation for fieldwork
In the next stage, students prepare to gather data in the field. This normally involves creating data collection tools and establishing their validity, and perhaps doing a preliminary study to identify issues that have not elsewhere been identified.
Approval is necessary to progress past this stage, because invalid data-gathering tools would invalidate every subsequent stage of the research.
- Midway review
The committee conduct a formal review about halfway through the dissertation, to check that the student is making good progress and is on track to complete. The committee may also decide to set any conditions or corrective actions that it believes are necessary for the student to achieve satisfactory completion.
- Fieldwork and data analysis
Students gather data in the field and often start analyzing it almost as soon as they have any. However, they can only do the final analysis after the data is complete. They start developing rough drafts as they go.
- Write up
Students then edit their notes into a rough draft of the whole dissertation. The proposal typically is the basis for the introduction, the literature review is updated, based on anything relevant that might have been published since the first literature review, the methodology chapter is based on the methodology plan, and revised to include any on-field adjustments.
Students then need to edit the full draft into the final form.
- Supervisor assessment
The superviser assesses whether the document is ready for final assessment.
- Committee assessment
The committee reads the dissertation and draws its conclusion.
- Final oral defense
The committee conducts the final oral examination. Upon passing this stage, the doctoral candidate is often addressed as Dr
even though the process is not completely finished.
- Final approvals
Form & Style: Checks the document for layout, language, referencing style, etc.
Signature of Chief Academic Officer (CAO) This is necessary, but is not part of the student's academic program. It initiates the graduation procedure.
Chapters
Depending on the field of study, all dissertations comprise five chapters:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Literature review
- Chapter 3: Methodology
- Chapter 4: Analysis
- Chapter 5: Conclusion
Several advantages of of a uniform outline are that expectations are quite clear and could improve the pass rate. It also allows students to more easily progress in cohorts, and might also permit more students to take the program at once for the same amount of resource investment.
Supervisors and committees
The chairperson of the committee is the supervisor for one-to-one supervision. The whole committee is involved only at particular stages: the prospectus, the full proposal, the midway review, and the final assessment (reading the dissertation and oral defence).
Residentials and conferences
The notion that students can meet during the dissertation process depends on several factors. A residential requires a critical mass of students progressing together as a cohort on the same timeframe. A conference requires a critical mass of attenders and a suitable business model to cover costs.
In any case, the following concept of residentials has much to commend it.
- Residentials: Semester 1
- Ethics submission completed Approval granted by end of residential 2
- Dissertation proposal workshop
- Preliminary research proposal and background literature
- Review and preliminary literature review
- Draft methodology (Plan)
- Residentials: Semester 2
- Draft literature chapter
- Preliminary implementation review (Implementation)
- Independent work to complete the research
- Oral presentation: Progress report to peers