- •International School of Economics and Politics
- •Methodological Recommendations
- •In writing and defending the final qualification papers (master thesis)
- •Saint-Petersburg
- •The master thesis requirements
- •Scientific supervision and consulancy
- •Compiling the working plan
- •Literature selection and acquaintance
- •The master thesis fulfillment
- •The final qualification paper formatting rules
- •Abbreviation rules
- •Formulas and symbol writing rules
- •Tables and figures formatting rules
- •The list of references formatting rules
- •The list of references example
- •References for the used literature resources formatting rules
- •Appendixes formatting rules
- •The Final qualification paper defense procedure The final qualification paper defense preparation
- •The final qualification paper defense order
- •Application
- •Calendar plan
- •Master Thesis Assessment
FEDERAL AGENCY OF EDUCATION
State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education
“Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance”
International School of Economics and Politics
Methodological Recommendations
In writing and defending the final qualification papers (master thesis)
for the MiBA - Master of International Business Administration Programme
Saint-Petersburg
2010
According to the Statement of the final state attestation of the higher education institutions graduates in the Russian Federation, approved by the order of the Ministry of education of Russia on 25.03.2003 № 1155 and state educational standards of higher professional education the defense of the final qualification paper (master thesis) is the main obligatorily accepted type of the final attestation of the master programmes graduates.
The defense of the final qualification paper (master thesis) is held during the State attestation commission (SAC) session. The results of the final qualification paper (master thesis) defense are the base for the decision of the State attestation commission to award the graduate the corresponding qualification (master degree) and state diploma.
The master thesis requirements
The master thesis is the final qualification paper, written by the master student on his own under
the supervision of the 1st scientific supervisor at the end of the studies of the professional educational Master programme.
The master thesis should contain scientific results suggested for the defense, be characterized by the inner unity, prove the ability of the author to reveal and formulate the timely problems, to compose research program utilizing modern research methods and instruments, to search, critically assess and process scientific information and to use the result to solve the concrete problems. The final qualification paper (master thesis) should show the ability of the author to state the material briefly, logically and grounded. It should contain a clear problem statement, grounding for its importance, the research programme formulation, literature review on the topic, research hypothesis formulation, choice of the models and their analysis methods, description and interpretation of the gained results, as well as the outcomes and recommendations related to the practical using of the results.
The master thesis should be deeper in the sense of the theoretical examination of the topic compared to the Bachelor thesis and has to have the scientific orientation compared to the Specialist thesis. Together with that the Master thesis can’t be called the scientific work in the full meaning. Master is the academic degree – and not scientific one, which reflects first of all the educational level of the university graduate and proves his deeper fundamental training, which is necessary for the future professional activity, as well as for the scientific and pedagogical ones.
The topic of the MiBA programme master thesis should be connected to the international aspects of the business management functions.
The master thesis should be assessed according to the following principles:
- the level of theoretical and scientific problem examination;
- the quality of the analysis methods;
- completeness of the presented suggestions for the problem;
- independence of its development.
The MiBA master thesis is done in English, with the attached abstract summary (annotation) of 3 pages in Russian, reflecting the main ideas submitted for the defense.
The master thesis must to be reviewed by the 2nd supervisor – professor of the partner-university.
THE ORDER OF THE MASTER THESIS TOPIC ASSIGNMENT
All the activities connected to the final qualification papers’ topics choice is held by the administration of ISEP.
The topics of the master thesis have to be chosen by 1st of March of the 2nd year. The assignment of the topics is done according to the personal applications of the master students (see Appendix 1).
The students’ applications are reviewed during the working committee meeting. The decision is fixed by the minutes, which includes the following points: the master student’s topic of the final qualification paper corresponding to the application, assignment of the 1st and 2nd scientific supervisor of the master thesis. The applications are kept in the student’s file. The working committee decision on the topics and the supervisors assignments is forwarded to the ISEP administration and is announced to the master students.
SPbSUEF Vice-rector for the scientific work issues an order on assignment the final qualification papers topics on submission of the ISEP administration, the copy is forwarded to the HR department.