Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Master Thesis
Teaching staff
Teaching staff are available by appointment through email.
Introduction
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr Carmen Mendoza Arroyo
Dr Apen Ruiz
Dr Kathrin Golda Pongratz
Dr Hug March
Arch. Mbongeni Ngulube
Dr Elia Apostolopolou
Dr Alejandro de Castro Mazarro
Meetings with supervisors will be continuous during the course and scheduled individually with each student.
Students are required to produce an academic Master Thesis in the field of international cooperation, emergency architecture or sustainable development. An academic thesis links, in a more or less formal way, theory with methodology and evidence which is a case study related to the topic. The thesis presents a question or problem theorized in such a way that it generates a claim or argument (a hypothesis) attached to which are evidentiary needs on the one side, and a series of means (methods) for generating, locating and assessing evidence on the other.
The final thesis will be an academic paper of maximum 11000 words in length, including the following sections:
Introduction
Theoretical Background/Conceptual Framework
Methodology and Case Study Presentation
Analysis of Results and Discussion
Conclusions/Recommendations
Bibliography (APA style)
Pre-course requirements
Students must have a research topic and assigned supervisor in order to develop their final thesis.
Objectives
Students are required to produce a Master Thesis in the field of international cooperation, emergency architecture and sustainable development that should reflect the multidisciplinary nature inherent in designing and managing urban and architectural projects. The thesis will be developed throughout the first two modules as specified in the thesis calendar and delivered before a final jury at the end of May.
Each student will have an assigned supervisor to guide their thesis development. All thesis supervisors are professors from the master’s program based in Barcelona in order to provide the students with continuous supervision, and are assigned according to the relevance of their background in relation to the different thesis topics.
Thesis development includes a Writing Workshop with Prof. Apen Ruiz geared to provide specific tools on how to write a master thesis. Attendance to the writing workshop is mandatory.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 01 - That students apply the knowledge acquired and the capacity to solve problems in underpriviledged places in multidisciplinary contexts related to the area of international cooperation.
- 02 - That students may be capble of integrating knowledge and face the complexity of formulating their opinion from information which may be incomplete or limited, and that include reflections on the ethic and social responsibilities related to the area of cooperation and arquitecture in post disaster situations.
- 03 - That students may capable of communicating the conslusions of their research as well as the knowledge and resasons that support it, to a specialized and non-specialized public, with clarity and security.
- 04 - That students may acquire the learning capacities in order to continue studying in an individual and selfmanaged way in the field of international cooperation.
- 07 - Be capable of aplying to a specific project the knowledge acquired.
- 08 - The capacity to develop planing tecniques of projects developed by interdisciplinary profesionals of cooperation organizations.
- 12 - Be capable of developing a theoretical framework regarding all the main points of a planning process, from the territorial to the intermediate scale.
- 14 - To know and apply the practical and theoretical principles for the conservation of sustainable resources in urban development.
- 16 - To know how to apply the knowledge acquired of international socio-economic analysis to systems of local economies.
- 20 - Acknowledge local resources related to energy systems and apply them to constructions.
- 22 - To know how to adapt construction materials in order to develop alternative, sustainable, and low-cost construction techniques
- 24 - To know how to manage projects of different scales with the objective of prioritizing individual interventions in multidisciplinary tasks
- 27 - To know how to apply the methodologies applied by the international cooperation agencies and local entities
- 28 - To learn how to develop research in the academic and profesional context of the Master and to be able to comunicate the results to a specialized jury
Learning outcomes of the subject
Students will acquire the necessary methodology and content in order to develop a thesis structure as:
THESIS STRUCTURE
-Thesis statement, hypothesis and objectives
-Background: Brief theoretical grounding of the thesis and main thesis question (derived from the literature and the gap found in the literature and from the research topic/problem)
-Literature review: the literature review should include the theoretical background needed in order to enhance the main argumentation of the thesis
-Methodology: How the research will be developed as well as the steps in order to accomplish the objectives
-Discussion and analysis of case study-results: you must develop the justification and points of analysis of the case study/ies related to the argumentation of the thesis. The thesis is NOT about the case study, but that the case study must be used in order to exemplify, and reinforce the argumentation of the thesis.
-Conclusions: You must go back and answer the thesis questions and hypothesis through the conclusion.
Syllabus
Students will have a course Writing Workshop which will teach them the research method as well as how to develop qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Students will have three group sessions with their supervisors and individual supervisions during the whole course.
Teaching and learning activities
In person
Students will all attend during the year the course 'Writing workshop' which has its own calendar and submissions in order for the student to develop their thesis proposal and thesis development.
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
The students final grade will be made up by:
-The writing workshop course grade: 10%
-The Supervisors grade based on submissions: 50%
-The Final Jury grade: 40%