Project dissertations

Information about planning and writing a dissertation including the assessment criteria, dissertation format and examples from previous years.

Dissertation

During the period from June to August, candidates for the MSc work on a project on an approved topic and write a dissertation based on this work.

Before the final assessment of the taught component of the MSc programme, all students are considered as MSc candidates. Following the Board of Examiners meeting in June, students who complete the taught component at MSc level proceed to the dissertation stage of the MSc programme. After this time the award of the MSc degree depends only on the achievement of a dissertation mark of at least 50%.

You can either define your own project, in agreement with a member of staff who is willing to act as an Academic Supervisor, or wait until you are being allocated to a project defined by the School. Dissertation topics will be agreed by the end of April. Detailed work will be carried out during the months of June, July, and August, with enough time being allocated to writing up the dissertation. In many cases, the research for the dissertation will involve working with an outside organisation for part of the summer months.

The dissertation will be submitted electronically.

Time management

University regulations require full-time postgraduate students to be in Edinburgh for the duration of the Programme unless specifically granted a leave of absence. This will not be given to enable you to submit a dissertation early in order to return home before the end of the programme. Completing a dissertation in less than the time available is also extremely unwise as early completion may lower the standard of work and presentation.

Backups of dissertations

You are strongly advised to keep a backup draft of your dissertation and not to use a USB flash drive for this purpose since they are easily lost or damaged. No compensation or extension will be given for work or data lost by students. 

Confidential projects

If commercial confidentiality requires that a dissertation be treated as confidential, this can be arranged by informing the office at the time of submission. Confidential dissertations will be read by the Academic Supervisor and examiners, and will not be available for reference. You can collect a copy of the dissertation after the final Board of Examiners meeting in September.  Dissertations are read by two internal examiners before being reviewed by the External Examiner.  

Assessment criteria

All dissertations are expected to conform to the following standards:

• The dissertation must add to the understanding of the dissertation subject.

• The dissertation must show awareness of the relevant literature.

• The dissertation must contain relevant analysis: an informed description of a problem is not sufficient.

• The dissertation must be presented using a satisfactory standard of English.

You should inform your Academic Supervisor and the Programme Director of any factors that will adversely affect your ability to work on your dissertation topic. Special circumstances will be taken into account by the Board of Examiners, but this information must be available before the meeting of the Board. Exceptionally, it is possible for extensions to be granted if justified by illness or other personal problems. This can be done if relevant information is given to the Academic Supervisor or the Programme Director.

Dissertation format

Dissertations are normally expected to be between 10,000 and 14,000 words in length. Reports for the SwDS programme have a limit of 5,000 words for each project.

All should consist of the following:

• Title page
• Own work declaration
• Abstract (around half a page)
• Main text

The main text should consist of the following:

• Introduction section
• Final section on conclusions and/or recommendations
• List of all bibliographic references
• Appendices (optional)

Reports should be typeset with single spacing and font size 11pt. The following minimum margins must be observed: 

The pages in the main text, bibliography, and appendices must be numbered consecutively.

We provide a LaTeX template for dissertations.

We have also additional and more detailed guidelines available as well as the examiner's form.

Good dissertations from previous years 

• Analysing spatiotemporal sensor data on respiration, activity, and air pollution, Meeke Roet (distinction)
• The Firefighter Game, Oleguer Simon Camps (distinction)
• Optimisation of the Outbound Baggage Process at Edinburgh Airport, James Marek (distinction, industry)
• Heuristics for the Multi-Period Sales Districting Problem, Josephine Li (merit)
• Learning the Heterogeneity in Large-Scale Service Systems, Morgan Gallagher (merit)
• A hydrogen refuelling network design - Metaheuristic solution approach, Anqi He (merit)