FINAL YEAR PROJECTS: MAKING IT MORE APPLIED.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53555/ephijer.v1i2.8Keywords:
Final year projects, Business Schools, Entrepreneurship, Higher EducationAbstract
Final-year projects and dissertations undertaken by students at the end of their Bachelor degree courses are a topic of interest in many countries. This paper reasserts the importance of Final Year Projects and rethinks their role in the business school curriculum to equip students for employability and for the business world.
While recognizing the strengths of the traditional research-based dissertation honors project, what are also needed are alternative types that provide students with a forward-looking experience and equip them to thrive in an uncertain, super-complex world (Barnett 2000; 2004).
The paper discusses alternative methods for the Final Year Projects in business schools and recommends that business schools have student-run businesses, a consultancy practice and an entrepreneurship incubator. Students would then be exposed to real world problems and learn to take decisions. Supervisors would act as advisors and offer business coaching. The benefits of such projects and issues involved are discussed.
References
. AAC&U (American Association of Colleges and Universities) Raising the bar: Employers’ views on college learning in the wake of economic downturn. Available from: http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/2009_EmployerSurvey.pdf.
. Barnett, R. (2000) Super-complexity and the curriculum. Studies in Higher Education. 25 (3), pp. 255-265.
. Barnett, R. (2004) Learning for an unknown future. Higher Education Research & Development. 23 (3), pp. 247-260.
. Bass, R. (2012, March/April). Disrupting ourselves: The problem of learning in higher education. EDUCAUSE Review, 47(2).
. Clouder, L. (2009) ‘Being responsible’: Students’ perspectives on trust, risk and work-based learning. Teaching in Higher Education. 14 (3), pp. 289-301.
. Healey M., Laura Lannin, Arran Stibbe and James Derounian (2013), “Developing and enhancing undergraduate final-year projects and dissertations”, A National Teaching Fellowship Scheme project publication July 2013
. Hill, J., Kneale, P., Nicholson, D., Waddington, S. and Ray, W. (2011) Reframing the geography dissertation: A consideration of alternative, innovative and creative approaches. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. 35 (3), pp. 331-349.
. Hodge, D.C., Nadler, M.K., Shore, C. and Taylor, B.A.P. (2011) Institutionalizing large-scale curricular change: The Top 25 project at Miami University. Change. 43 (5), pp. 28-35.
. Huber, M.T., Brown, C., Hutchings, P., Gale, R., Miller, R. and Breen, M. (2007) Integrative learning: opportunities to connect. Public Report of the Integrative Learning Project sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Stanford, CA. Available from: http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/elibrary/integrative-learning-opportunities-connect [14 September 2012].
. Mason O’Connor, K., McEwen, L., Owen, D., Lynch, K. and Hill, S. (2011) Literature review: Embedding community engagement in the curriculum: An example of university-public engagement. Bristol: National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement NCCPE. Available from: https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/CBL%20literature%20review.pdf [14 January 2013].
. Schermer, T. and Gray, S. (2012) the senior capstone: Transformative experiences in the liberal arts. Final report to Teagle Foundation. Available from:
. http://www.teaglefoundation.org/teagle/media/library/documents/resources/Augustana-FinalReport.pdf [24 January 2013].
. Sill, D., Harward, B.M. and Cooper, I. (2009) the disorienting dilemma: The senior capstone as a transformative experience. Liberal Education. 95 (3), pp. 50-55.
. Todd, M., Bannister, P. and Clegg S. (2004) Independent inquiry and the undergraduate dissertation: Perceptions and experiences of final-year social science students. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 29 (3), pp. 335-355.
. Wurdinger, D. D., & Carlson, J. A. (2010). Teaching for experiential learning: Five approaches that work. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 EPH - International Journal of Educational Research (ISSN: 2208-2204)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
