Information for the student – Sociology: Social Transformations and Innovation

According to the general regulations of the UB (in Catalan) and the specific regulations of the Faculty of Economics and Business (in Catalan), the purpose of university master’s degree courses is to ensure that students gain advanced, specialized or multidisciplinary training, aimed at academic or professional specialization or at preparation for research activities, and the course must end with the preparation and public presentation of a final project.

The syllabus for the master’s degree in Sociology: Social Transformations and Innovation includes a final project worth 20 credits.

The project consists of an individual research assignment that allows students to integrate and apply the knowledge and competences acquired over the course of the degree.

The assignment must meet the following conditions:

• It must be empirical and linked to a descriptive/explanatory theoretical question.
• It must be presented in the standard format of a scientific research article. The recommended formats are those of the American Sociological Review, the Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas or other similar publications.
• The complete assignment should not exceed 8,000 words (approximately 25 pages). This total does not include the abstract, figures, tables, appendices and bibliography. The recommended font type for the body of the text is 12-point Arial. The top, bottom and right margins should be 2.5 cm and the left margin should be 3 cm. The line spacing should be 1.5. Charts, tables, graphs and other types of figures should be inserted into the text.
• The project can be written in Catalan, Spanish or English. All projects must include an abstract of no more than three hundred words, in the three languages.
• Particular credit will be given for:

1. The theoretical relevance of the topic: the existence of a contemporary debate.
2. The fundamental relevance of the topic.The suitability of the research design.
3. Competence in the use of quantitative or qualitative techniques.
4. The quality and relevance of the references.
5. The quality of the argumentation in the project.

• The research project must be presented orally and defended in public. The presentation will last no longer than twenty minutes and will be evaluated by a panel appointed for this purpose by the Master's Degree Committee. The panel will be comprised of three members and a substitute and will include:

1. The tutor responsible for overseeing the research assignment;
2. Three lecturers or researchers (one acting as a substitute) who work on areas of research that are related to the student’s project from the two departments involved in teaching the master’s degree or from other departments at the University of Barcelona. One of these members may be from another university or external research centre.

•  Before the public presentation and defence, the tutor must send a report assessing the research project to the coordinator of the master’s degree. This report will expressly authorize the student to present their project. Each member of the examination panel must write an individual report on the research project and send it to the other members several days before the panel meets. Once the panel has met, it will issue a joint statement with the final grade.
• The student must submit his/her project in PDF format by email to the following address: mastersociologia@ub.edu  with the subject line “Final Project”. The body of the email should contain the name of the author and the title of the project. Three printed copies of the project should be handed in to the Postgraduate Office (Faculty of Economics and Business).  The project must be presented in January, at the end of the third semester of the master's degree programme.
•  Final projects will be included in the UB Digital Repository so that lecturers can consult them, except when the authors explicitly state that they are confidential or when they include personal data.