The Research Project Proposal Form
Name: Programme:
BAAF Academic Year:
Project Title:
Overall Aim:
Specific Objectives. (Research objectives, tentative hypotheses/research questions.)
Client Organisation (where appropriate)
Significance of the issue to the client
Details of access to organisational data, personnel and resources obtained. YES/NO
Project design and methodology.
Literature/preliminary reading list:
Outline of contents:
Organisational issues, anticipated organisational problems to be taken into account:
Anticipated research problems:
Research plan:
Personal learning objectives:
Other comments:

Student Name:

Student Email address:
Signed:

dissertation要求研究領域
1). Financial Accounting
2). Management Accounting
3). Investment Management
4). Finance
5). Business

1. Introduction

As part of your BAAF course you may elect to submit a dissertation or project report on an agreed topic. You will be encouraged to undertake a project in the area of accounting/finance or in some other area of business.

Those who elect for the project will be expected to get the project under way during the second year and to complete it during the first two terms of your third year. It represents, in effect, one level three module, ie one-sixth of your final year's studies.

More details of the project, including a timetable of deadlines, are contained in the remainder of this note.

2. Aims of the project

These are:

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2.1 To involve you in an exercise of information search and presentation, and to introduce you to research methods and approaches to unstructured problems.

2.2 To encourage you to produce work of an individual and critical nature.

2.3 To provide opportunities for you to develop educationally and personally by working on a topic of your choice.#p#分頁標題#e#

Preparation of the project should be a pleasant, albeit demanding, experience for you. It enables you to look, in depth, at an area of accounting or business which particularly interests you. You should develop skills which will undoubtedly be of great value to you in future, even though you may not come across the particular project topic again during your lifetime.

3. The critical features of the project

Acceptable projects differ widely. Each project, however, must:

3.1 Be an attempt to answer a question or to resolve some problem or conflict.

3.2 Be a substantial piece of work.

3.3 Use and build on knowledge and skills gained in your other studies.

3.4 Use and build on knowledge already in the literature.

3.5 Be a piece of original work which does not already exist even in a slightly different form.

3.6 Be substantially based on analysis (though not necessarily mathematical)

Project proposals which do not meet all six of these criteria will not be acceptable.

There are basically two types of projects:

• A standard research project

• A non-standard project

These will be explained later in this note.

4. What is not acceptable as a project?

It is not acceptable to write a descriptive essay on a topic of your choice. The project must be original and it must be analytical.

5. Standard research projects

Since the BAAF course was established most students have undertaken a project of this type.Thesis is provided by UK thesis base http://www.400190.com/
These projects can involve seeking the answer to a question like:

"what is the effect on a company's share price of the company's accounts receiving a qualified auditors' report ?"

"which method of investment appraisal is most used by the widget manufacturers in the Plymouth area and why ?"

Such projects involve researching the issue by collecting and analysing relevant data and drawing conclusions from this analysis. This will involve you in:

5.1 Establishing the question to be addressed.

5.2 Researching the subject thoroughly to discover what knowledge currently exists in the topic area and in the area of data collection methods.

5.3 Deciding what data is necessary to be collected and how you will obtain it.

5.4 Collecting the data (remember that data is not necessarily figures).

5.4 Analysing the data.

5.5 Drawing and stating your conclusions and, making recommendations (where appropriate).

These tasks may not always be able to be carried out strictly in the order in which they appear here. For example it will always be necessary to have undertaken 5.2 to a great extent before you can do 5.1.

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You cannot approach your project area as if you are the first person in the world to have looked at the topic concerned, unless you have clearly established that this is true. Where, as will usually be the case, some other researcher has already undertaken and published a study in the same topic area as yours, you must take account of this person's findings and seek to build on them. This is not to say that you are necessarily expected to take the topic into greater depth than has previously been done. It may well be feasible to look at some fairly uncomplicated issue that has yet to be addressed.
Similarly with research methods if, for example, you- are considering collecting data by questionnaire survey, you must not approach this task as if no one in the past has ever conducted such a survey and learnt from the experience. There is a wealth of literature on questionnaire design and survey management. You must seek to benefit from the experiences of others.

Not all standard research projects involve empirical research, as do the two examples given above. It is possible to undertake a 'library based' research project. This involves taking some issue/conflict and analytically reviewing the relevant published literature on it. This analytical review will lead on to the drawing of a conclusion and, where relevant, making a recommendation. Such a project must genuinely produce an analysis which is original, by bringing together the various evidence, thoughts and conclusions of others who have looked at some aspect of the issue.

The fact that library based projects (as with all other projects) must be original means that it is unlikely that a library based project will be acceptable unless it is concerned with some emerging issue. Generally issues which have been around for some time will have been reviewed in this way already.

It will not be particularly easy to find an issue on which a library based project will be acceptable, so it does not represent the easy option.

Research projects must seek to extend human knowledge and understanding. Your objective, therefore, is to discover something which was not previously known. Clearly the extent to which your project actually extends knowledge and understanding will be limited; you are undertaking the project as just a part of an undergraduate course. For example, a recent BAAF student undertook a study of the relative financial impact of the old property rates and the new unified business rate, on businesses of various sizes in one provincial town. The data was easy to gather, as it is public information. The conclusions of the project were not earth-shattering, but they were original and interesting.

You are encouraged to collect financial data and apply statistical methods used in other relevant modules.

6. Non-standard projects
Such projects could include an almost infinite number of possibilities. This could include such things as:

• Developing a computer model or system to solve a particular real-life problem.#p#分頁標題#e#

• Developing a learning package covering some area of accounting or business.

• Writing-up and analysing a case study, ie a real life example of some aspect of accounting and/or business.

• Producing a video film for use as a learning aid.

It must be emphasised that you are encouraged to propose ideas for non-standard projects. You will tend to find a general willingness among staff to approve such projects.

7. Assessment of the project
The project itself will score marks for such things as:

• Having clear and attained objectives.

• Clear exposition of the existing state of knowledge in the project area.

• Clear and logical explanation and justification 'of the research method used.

• Clear explanation of the analysis of the data.

• A conclusion which relates directly to its objectives.

• An informative and logical project document.

• Correctly referenced and acknowledged sources.

8. Reasons why the project is a good choice

• There is no exam, it is entirely 'coursework' assessed.

• You can pace the work to fit in with other activities and demands on your time.

• You can be pretty confident that the project will be accepted well before the date for Thesis is provided by UK thesis base http://www.400190.com/ because your project tutor will have given you substantial feedback on your progress.submission

• There is a tendency for students to score more highly on their project than they do on taught courses. This is particularly true of harder working students.

• You are likely to find undertaking a project a more satisfying and interesting process than following a taught module.

• Prospective employers and university admissions officers are likely to view a project as a more valuable option for you to have made.

• Past students have found their project a very useful conversation piece at a job interview.

9. Submission details:
Word limit: 8,000 to 10,000 words plus appendices.

Submission date (one copy): End of term 2

Front Sheet details: Topic title:……………
ABF 312 Project (2008/2009)
Name of candidate:…………….
Course: BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance
Name of supervisor………………………….

10. Recommended Reading:

There are a large number of research methodology books in the library, some specialist, some more general. I suggest that you use the specialist library resources as your project becomes more focused.#p#分頁標題#e#

The recommended text is:
Saunders,M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2007), ‘Research Methods for Business Students’, fourth edition, Prentice Hall, London.

Other alternatives are:

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Hussey,J. and Hussey, R. ‘Business Research’ A practical guide for undergraduates and postgraduate students, second edition (2003) London.

Saunders,M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2003), ‘Research Methods for Business Students’ , (3rd Edition), FT/Prentice Hall: London.

All the above mentioned books include a lot of ‘open learning’ style exercises that you can do in your own time.