GENERAL GUIDELINES

The Final Master Thesis (9 ECTS)  is a compulsory course of the Master in Immigration Management. The main task of the students is to write a Research Paper, which may consist in two types:

  • Overview and State of the Arts of a topic/concept: main hypothesis, arguments and approaches
  • Research Design and Plan of a particular key-question, duly justified

The maximum length of for both types of Research Papers should be between 10.000 and 12.000 words (Times 12, 1.5 line spacing).

The Final Master Thesis must be presented both in hard copy and pdf format to the Administration and Director of the Master. The deadline for submission will be announced by the Administration at the beginning of the term.

The recommended structure of each type of Research Paper is as follows:

Overview and state of the arts of a topic/concept

  1. Introduction: student's interest in the topic/concept, identification of the problem or issue to be discussed.
  2. Conceptual development: discussion of the relevant academic literature: main hypothesis, arguments and approaches. What has been said on the subject? How (different methodologies) is has been said? What assumptions exist? What conclusions have been given?
  3. Identification of gaps in the literature and potential future research lines.
  4. Justify briefly how your research paper can contribute to political and/or social transformations?
  5. The research should include an exhaustive bibliography on the subject. Select the 10 most relevant references for you (given at the beginning), justify why, and provide a brief description of the contents.

Research Design and Plan

  1. A brief overview of the topic, a research question or questions, and the research objectives.
  2. How the research can contribute to a given debate
  3. The methodology
  4. An outline establishing the different sections of the research
  5. Justify briefly how your project can contribute to social and/or social transformations.
  6. A schedule or calendar in three years (by trimester).
GENERAL INFORMATION

Supervisor assignment:

  • The supervisor has to be a professor from the Master, and will be assigned during the second semester of the academic session in accordance with the student's preferences and the rules applicable to the master's degree. 
  • Students are required to inform the Administration Office of the type and subject matter of their thesis as well as the name of their supervisor (to be previously agreed between student and professor).
  • It is possible that the student may request support of an external tutor to the master's course (either from the UPF or from a different university) or a recognised immigration expert. If that is the case, the student will have to request it justifying through a formal letter addressed to the Academic Commission.

Composition of the tribunal and task to be performed in the oral defence:

  • The student will defend the Final Master Thesis in front of a tribunal composed by two members (one professor from the Master degree and another outsider). 
  • In the defence, students will have no more than 10 minutes to summarise their work and then they will have 5 minutes to respond to the panel's questions and comments. Students are allowed to use a powerpoint presentation and the presentation has to be in English.
  • The written final thesis will be used by the members of the tribunal as reference for their assessments, but the assessment will be done only on the oral defence. (the writing and oral defence are independents)

Date: The date of the defence will be determined at least six months before (around January), and will be held only in June or July.

Delivery of the Final Master Thesis: Students must deliver their written work to the board at least one week before assessment.

About the marking/grading process

70% of the mark given to the thesis will come from your supervisors' assessment, based on these assessment criteria. The remaining 30% of the final grade will come from the assessment of the two members of the Master Committee, which convenes at the end of June to hear students' defence of their theses and discuss the quality of the documents handed in by the student one week before the hearing.